Threads from Henry's Web

Category: Bible Passages

  • Remembering – Lamentations 1:7

    Remembering – Lamentations 1:7

    7 Jerusalem remembers, in the days of her affliction and wandering, all the precious things that were hers in days of old. When her people fell into the hand of the foe, and there was no one to help her, the foe looked on mocking over her downfall.

    The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989), La 1:7.

    Memories are wonderful and dangerous.

    Recently a friend of mine told me something about a loved one dealing with cancer that brought back to mind a specific moment in the experience of our son James. Jody was overseas when he had some symptoms and I took him to the doctor. Tests and scans told us that cancer had recurred–for the fourth time. I had to let Jody know, and the only way to do this where she was located was through email. I had the duty of inflicting that pain on her at a time when I couldn’t do anything to support her. I had to tell James, who had sworn me to call him the instant I knew anything.

    It is not a pleasant memory. It happened in June, and pretty much every June I have a few days when that memory crowds me.

    But there’s something that happens when you have passed through a dark valley, and that’s the realization that life went on and that God was with you even when you were not with God. That realization of the Divine Presence is easy to lose in the valley.

    Psalm 23 is one of the best known passages of scripture. It has a key verse: “Even though I’m passing through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.” I like keeping the “valley of the shadow of death.” There is good reason to translate this as “deep darkness” or something similar, but I think the traditional wording from the KJV has the right feel to it.

    When Job has gone through trouble, God shows up and lectures him. Job’s response, “Now my eyes see you” (Job 42:3). After all the theological debate of the book, the landing place is that God really was there, really did hear, really did know.

    To bring this back to the actual historical background of our text, when Israel went into exile, the event that is being lamented here, the question was: “Is God actually with us? Does God care?” In the ancient near east it was generally thought that when one nation conquered another, the god of the winning side was also proven to be greater.

    God comes to the prophet in exile, Ezekiel, and there is a simple but profound statement that opens the book that bears Ezekiel’s name. “… I was among the exiles by the river Kebar, and I saw visions of God” (Ezekiel 1:1). The river (or canal) Kebar was in Babylon.

    Even on what seemed to them the other side of the world, well away from their land, which many saw as “God’s land,” God was there. Our verse talks about remembering former glory. But there’s a present glory, the glory of the God who is with us. Always. Especially when life’s hardships, even torments, overwhelm us.

    Let’s try to remember that Glory.

    (Featured image generated by Jetpack AI.)

    A concept of Ezekiel’s Vision, (Credit: Adobe Stock ZenArt)
    See my paper on the vision of Ezekiel 1
  • Pursued – Lamentations 1:6

    Pursued – Lamentations 1:6

    6 All splendour has vanished
    from the daughter of Zion.
    Her princes have become like deer
    that can find no pasture.
    They run on, their strength spent,
    pursued by the hunter.

    The Revised English Bible (Cambridge; New York; Melbourne; Madrid; Cape Town; Singapore; São Paulo; Delhi; Dubai; Tokyo: Cambridge University Press, 1996), La 1:6.

    Running can be a very good thing!

    For example, you can run for exercise. If you’re fast enough, you can run from a wild animal that might attack you.

    But then there is running when there’s nothing to accomplish by it. Some of us have been running from various things in our lives or in our pasts. We’re getting tired. The pursuer is after us. It’s going to get us, yet we just keep running.

    The Hebrew text here reads very abruptly. “Their strength spent” in the REB above is “with no strength.” The words are short. The ending to the verse is abrupt. Running continues even when there is no more hope.

    And right here is where lament starts to help. When we lament, we acknowledge that bad things have happened to us. We acknowledge that we have done things that are suboptimal. We can admit that running is of no more value. At that point, we can start to accept help. To find a solution.

    Recently someone pointed out to me–again!–that I don’t tend to ask for help when I need it. This is quite true. A friend called me and asked me if I needed help because he doubted I would call him. I did. He helped.

    This is where the good shepherd going out to find the lost comes in. The running is over. The shepherd is here. We’re going to be on our way home.

    The way home would come to Israel, but it was some time in the future. But God’s word doesn’t (and didn’t) return empty.

  • A Cause – Lamentations 1:5

    A Cause – Lamentations 1:5

    5 Her adversaries have become her masters,
    her enemies take their ease,
    for the LORD has made her suffer
    because of her countless sins.
    Her young children are gone,
    taken captive by an adversary.

    The Revised English Bible (Cambridge; New York; Melbourne; Madrid; Cape Town; Singapore; São Paulo; Delhi; Dubai; Tokyo: Cambridge University Press, 1996), La 1:5.

    One of the things my mother taught me was always to look for my contribution to creating a problem. The reason, she told me, was not that I was probably to blame, or was supposed to always load up on guilt, but that those were the only things I could actually fix.

    An underlying theme of Lamentations is that Judah bore responsibility for what had come upon her. That there were actions that had led to consequences. In our verse, it is the LORD who has brought these problems on Judah, yet that is because of their sins. Some people aren’t comfortable with this form of expression. It’s important, however, to remember that in the Bible stories God is seen as the cause of everything. There is little distinction made between things that result naturally and positive acts of God in specific circumstances. All of these result from God, God’s law, and God’s nature.

    Lamentation is a good thing. What is not a good thing is whining. Yes, I do my share of complaining, of blaming everyone else. And I am not responsible by my actions for everything that goes wrong. I’ve had circumstances where I can’t think of what I could have done. But many times there is some action possible.

    There are also those who look on any misfortune and blame the victim. Whatever the problem is, that person should have done something to prevent it. This too is destructive behavior.

    Lamentation recognizes the situation and the fact that it has brought problems, hardships, pain, suffering.

    Our verse today is solid with sorrow. Not a moment of joy. Not even the relief of finding someone else to blame.

    Even so, it’s a step toward a more healthy future.

  • Sacred Feasts – Lamentations 1:4

    Sacred Feasts – Lamentations 1:4

    The approaches to Zion mourn, for no pilgrims attend her sacred feasts; all her gates are desolate. Her priests groan, her maidens are made to suffer. How bitter is her fate!

    The Revised English Bible (Cambridge; New York; Melbourne; Madrid; Cape Town; Singapore; São Paulo; Delhi; Dubai; Tokyo: Cambridge University Press, 1996), La 1:4.

    I’m following my meditations in writing these posts, and the second line of this verse caught my attention. The main reason it did so is that it is one thing I hear commonly as a lament. I, and many people I know, frequently complain about low attendance. People aren’t in church. They aren’t in Sunday School. They don’t show up for church educational events or projects. Here we are making “stuff” available to them, and they don’t show up. The church is dying. Start preparing the funeral.

    The situation in Judah and Jerusalem was worse than anything I complain about. The people were in exile. They were gone. But what was happening before?

    I hate, I reject your feasts.
    I will not accept your assemblies.

    Amos 5:21 (my translation)

    When the assemblies were going strong, they weren’t actually going strong. Nobody was lamenting when people were all showing up. Well, God was lamenting and letting the prophets know that things weren’t going well.

    One of the most embarassing moments I’ve had in educational ministry was when, in response to questions around the church, I invited a friend who was a pastor in the Presbyterian Church in America. People in our Methodist/Wesleyan congregation were asking me about Calvinists,, and I thought providing them with a Calvinist speaker would meet the need.

    Nobody showed up. Nobody. I was the only one there to meet him.

    He was extremely gracious, and what was more we sat down to discuss ministry, theology, and education, and possibilities for doing more ministry. Here he was, with the person who had invited him to an empty room, and he took up the time to discuss how we, together, could serve the Church from our respective churches.

    We even joked that God must have ordained our meeting. Then we looked at each other and said, “All joking aside, that was true.” Without the numbers I desired, God was still working.

    Here’s a potential problem with lamenting. We can lament the wrong things. When your church or your meeting is empty, provided God has not ordained a one-on-one meeting as a surprise, there was probably something that needed to be lamented before.

    … Christianity was the revelation and the gift of joy, and thus, the gift of genuine feast. Every Saturday night at the resurrection vigil we sing, “for, through the Cross, joy came into the whole world.” This joy is pure joy because it does not depend on anything in this world, and is not the reward of anything in us. It is totally and absolutely a gift, the “charis,” the grace. And being pure gift, this joy has a transforming power, the only really transforming power in this world. It is the “seal” of the Holy Spirit on the life of the Church-on its faith, hope, and love.

    Alexander Schmemann, For the Life of the World, 45-46 (Schmemann was an Orthodox theologian)

    Maybe we’ve had a feast without the joy, the joy that only God can give. If we thought to lament this, perhaps we would have less physical emptiness to lament.

    (Featured image generated by Jetpack AI.)

  • No Resting Place – Lamentations 1:3

    No Resting Place – Lamentations 1:3

    3 Judah has wasted away through affliction
    and endless servitude.
    Living among the nations,
    she has found no resting-place;
    her persecutors all fell on her
    in her sore distress.

    Lamentations 1:3 (REB)

    Actual events can be both real and metaphorical. Behind this verse, we can hear the history of Judah, taken into exile by the Babylonians, and then finally returned to their homeland under the Persians. At least, that is to say, a portion returned.

    I’m looking at this history and the lament it produced in this Bible book for ideas as to how each of us can deal with life today. But we shouldn’t forget the horror of the history involved. The Bible records that sorrow in the form of a lament–five chapters’ worth. And we’re on the third verse.

    Many of the nations which were exiled by the Assyrians and the Babylonians lost their identity entirely. The fourth line of the verse tells this story of exile, of removal from your home, family, and everything familiar. It’s easy to lose identity in such a situation. Forgotten, it is easy to forget, to go along with the crowd. One way to get away from persecutors (5th line) is to lose that identity, to become indistinguishable from surrounding society.

    I’ve heard many discussions of why Jews have been persecuted through the centuries, and continue to face antisemitism. One reason is simply that they have maintained their identity. They haven’t faded into the background and become indistinguishable from the rest of society.

    In the New Testament, God’s people are referred to as strangers and exiles (Hebrews 11:13). This is a part of our identity, of who we are. If we want to find a resting place, we’re going to have to do so knowing who we are and whose we are. There’s a put-down in telling someone to know their place. This is used on someone the speaker presumes is getting above themselves, out of their lane, anywhere they don’t belong.

    But we, as Christians have an identity as those who belong to God. Wherever we are we are strangers, but we are also at home with God who has chose us. We are those God has chosen, and we are those who choose to find our identity in God.

    God is, in fact, our resting place.

    What we must fear, therefore, is that, while the promise of entering his rest remains open, any one of you should be found to have missed his opportunity.

    The Revised English Bible (Cambridge; New York; Melbourne; Madrid; Cape Town; Singapore; São Paulo; Delhi; Dubai; Tokyo: Cambridge University Press, 1996), Heb 4:1 (Emphasis mine)

    Even as exiles, we too can have that resting place. Can you feel that rest?

    (Featured image generated by Jetpack AI)

  • Alone – Lamentations 1:2

    Alone – Lamentations 1:2

    She weeps bitterly in the night; tears run down her cheeks. Among all who loved her she has no one to bring her comfort. Her friends have all betrayed her; they have become her enemies.

    The Revised English Bible (Cambridge; New York; Melbourne; Madrid; Cape Town; Singapore; São Paulo; Delhi; Dubai; Tokyo: Cambridge University Press, 1996), La 1:2.

    I want to be clear about something as I go through these passages. Too often Christians read the Hebrew scriptures from a platform of judgment. We are looking to see all the mistakes those Israelites made, and that we, being more advanced, have overcome.

    But one of my purposes here is to talk about honesty, particularly honesty with ourselves. When we look at the Israelites with judgment, we are not honest. In their situation, with their knowledge, I doubt we would have done any better. I get this doubt from watching us today. We have the weaknesses of the Israelites, because we both have the weaknesses of humans. As we begin looking at the verses that talk about the reasons why the city, Jerusalem, is desolate, I will bring this topic up more and more.

    So let’s read this book, not as people who are doing well, but as people who have things to regret and to correct.

    This verse brings into focus one of the great problems of lament in the church. The person who is lamenting is very frequently alone. My own experience has been that I have found those who sympathize, those who encourage, and who help in my most difficult moments. I don’t have a personal complaint here. But I have seen many people who were in difficulty, grieving, or suffering who have been left alone.

    The person who weeps is often a very lonely person. As a church, we should be companions to those who mourn, to those in trouble. Those who weep bitterly in the night need our companionship.

    But I need to turn and point to myself again. One of the reasons I have always found people so helpful is that I am so rarely willing to tell them what my difficulties are. My natural reaction to being in trouble is to isolate myself.

    This is a problem with at least two facets: 1) We don’t want to spend time with the troubled person. It’s a great deal of work. It tends to be a downer. 2) We don’t want to be the troubled person, because we know, deep inside, how we might react.

    These things involved an inappropriate judgment. Just as we tend to read Hebrew scriptures from a seat of superiority, one to which we are not entitled, so we tend to see people in trouble from the position of one who’s life is so much better.

    We’ll have more time to discuss this as we read. But there’s one key lesson: God is there, waiting for the person who knows how bad their condition and their situation is, ready to act. In the honesty of lament lies a path to healing.

    (Featured Image Credit: RBompiani Photo on iStockPhoto.com)

  • Deserted – Lamentations 1:1

    Deserted – Lamentations 1:1

    The book of Lamentations sounds pretty dismal. It’s right there in the name. Read a few verses. It’s still dismal. We usually quote Lamentations 3:22-23, “The LORD’s love is surely not exhausted, nor has is compassion failed; they are new every morning, so great is his constancy” (REB). If one hasn’t read Lamentations, one might conclude it is a book of encouraging sayings.

    But it is not. Oh, there is encouragement there, but that is not the starting point. The starting point is devastation, and a lament regarding that devastations.

    Walter Brueggemann laments the loss of lament in Christian circles. You can find some discussion of his words on Alistair Adversaria.

    I would choose a slightly different emphasis. I think the loss of lament has a great deal to do with a loss of self-honesty. You can’t be honest with God if you’re not honest with yourself. And a lack of honesty is going to hinder you both in your relationship with God and in your daily activities.

    Job says, “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21b). Good for Job! I’m talking here about those who can’t yet get to that “Blessed be the name of the Lord!” part. Often when we encounter someone in that kind of hardship, we say, “Trust in God!” and then moments later, “Are you trusting in God yet?”

    In Lamentations, there are a lot of sad verses between “deserted” and the unfailing compassion.

    In those verses, we see the struggle of Israel. One view of Jesus as the Messiah sees him recapitulating key moments in the history of Israel, and getting it right. We can also see in the struggle of Israel an example of what individual life is often like. I don’t mean getting stuck in the mud. I mean recognizing the mud and recognizing who we all actually are. You will not seek the good unless you recognize the difficulty, even the evil.

    I’m planning to blog through Lamentations. Right now this task seems daunting. It troubles me to spend this much negative time. But I am thinking there may be value in the experience. So tomorrow we’ll get to weeping in Lamentations 1:2. Won’t that be fun!

    And that’s the starting place: Deserted!

    Note: This series will differ from my earlier verse-by-verse series on Psalm 119 in that I won’t always try to keep the message contained in the one verse. I’ll be spending more time connecting the dots with the rest of the book and related history and personal experience.

    Featured Image Credit: Maria de Fatima Seehagen (iStockPhoto.com)

  • Wisdom – You’ve Got to Want It!

    Wisdom – You’ve Got to Want It!

    Wisdom cries out in the street.
    In open spaces she raises her voice. …

    My son, if you take my word,
    and store my commands within you,
    Bringing your ears close to wisdom,
    and stretching your heart to understanding.
    If you call for understanding,
    and use your voice for discernment,
    If you seek her as silver,
    And dig for her as buried treasure,
    Then you will understand the fear of the LORD,
    and find the knowledge of God.

    Proverbs 1:20 & 2:1-5, my translation

    In James 1:5, readers are told that if anyone lacks wisdom (and if you don’t think you lack wisdom, you probably do!) that person should ask God, and they will receive wisdom.

    It’s as simple as that.

    Well, maybe not quite that simple.

    There’s a military aphorism that states: “In war, everything is simple, but nothing is easy.” The two halves of that saying illustrate the change from chapter 1 to chapter 2 of Proverbs. We have wisdom calling out, seeking people, being as obvious as possible. Then suddenly we turn around, and we are being told to listen carefully, seek diligently, even dig for it.

    What’s going on?

    Wisdom is, in fact, simple. Yes, simple. It’s out there everywhere you look. Right and wrong actions have consequences. Success or failure can be found in recognizing and acting on these things.

    And wisdom is, in fact, available. You can discover wise ways of doing things. There are many places where wisdom is calling out, calling to you.

    It might be

    • An older person in your family who has a wealth of experience
    • An expert in their field who can pass on good information and outline courses of action and results
    • The physical world, where you can quickly learn about falling, living, starving, and even dying, and if you are observant, living!
    • Somebody from another culture who may have a different perspective than you do.
    • Somebody whose mind works differently than yours does.
    • The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, working in and through people and creation.
    • A younger person, viewing a situation with more innocent eyes.
    • A good book, written by someone with experience and knowledge you lack.

    Wisdom is everywhere.

    Wise people are much rarer. Why is that?

    You have to want it. Like the military aphorism, wisdom is simple. It’s out there. It’s available.

    But wisdom isn’t easy. It calls out to you, but it doesn’t force you to listen or to act on what it says. You have to be willing to make changes, to act in ways that may be unfamiliar to you. You have to be able to recognize where you’re wrong. Or more importantly where you may be wrong, so that you can correct your actions–or not.

    The problem is that wisdom is often uncomfortable. The wise thing to do is not what you perceive to be the fun thing to do. Following wisdom may hurt your pride. None of that is easy.

    Over the years I have frequently been called on to pray with people about decisions they are trying to make. I’ve found that most of the time, the person I’m praying with actually knows what they ought to do, but they really don’t want to do it. What they’re praying for is an excuse to take a different road, one that is easier, or more satisfying to their pride.

    When I reflect on those prayer times, I’m immediately reminded that I spend much time in prayer hoping that God will provide me with a different path, an easier path.

    Proverbs 2 gives us the unpalatable answer. Yes, you can have wisdom. No doubt about it.

    But you have to really want it.

    (Featured image generated by Jetpack AI.)

  • Wisdom Has Questions

    Wisdom Has Questions

    Wisdom cries aloud in the open air,
    and raises her voice in public places.
    21 She calls at the top of the bustling streets;
    at the approaches to the city gates she says:
    22 ‘How long will you simple fools be content with your simplicity?

    The Revised English Bible (Cambridge; New York; Melbourne; Madrid; Cape Town; Singapore; São Paulo; Delhi; Dubai; Tokyo: Cambridge University Press, 1996), Pr 1:20–22.

    Last week I discussed starting a study of Proverbs and noted a different way of receiving the text. This does not result from a prophetic vision, or from a prophet hearing a voice, but rather from collective (and collected) wisdom from a culture. This is life-time learning, rather than special, instant revelation.

    We like instant revelation. We like answers. We especially like answers that come quickly and fit in with our existing lifestyle and our prejudices.

    The “wisdom” we can gain in this way has another advantage. It can be formed into “ammunition sentences,” sentences that we can fling at other people to shut them up. Often such sentences begin with “the Bible clearly teaches.” We fill in with things we clearly see, largely because we failed to see the whole of scripture.

    I saw a sign in front of a church the other day. The first line read: “God has the answers!” And the second read “Are you listening?”

    That’s good. God does have answers. But sometimes God’s answers don’t match our questions, and the reason is that we’re not asking the right questions, or more specifically, we’re asking questions that limit the range of God’s answers. Sometimes we’re even asking questions in order to avoid God’s answers.

    Over the years I’ve prayed with many people who were seeking God’s guidance. Many of these people were genuinely uncertain, and were trying to seek God’s will. But more of them already knew what God wanted them to do, often because it was clear in terms of ethics, simple right and wrong, but who were hoping they could get a word from the Lord that would set them on a different path, one they preferred to what they already knew. Maybe God’s voice will allow me to take a different turn.

    When you approach things that way, it’s easy to end up believing you’re following God’s path, or the path of wisdom, just because you want so vigorously for that to be the right answer.

    I remember once having a conversation with a couple of friends about a business decision. Business decisions are hard for me. In this case I was discussing two options and trying to decide which was the next step. I had struggled with the decision for days. I don’t even recall now what the issue was, but suddenly in the midst of the conversation I held up my hand and said, “I’ve just realized I’m doing this wrong. Option A would result in behaving unethically.” My advisors hadn’t seen that, because they didn’t understand all the processes involved. As soon as I explained what would happen, they recognized what would likely happen, and so the decision was made.

    What slowed me down? I knew the process and should have recognized the problem immediately. But I didn’t. I wasn’t responding to the right questions. I was missing them because I wanted something to be true, but it wasn’t. No amount of wanting would make it true.

    “Wisdom is calling out in the street.”

    Cover image of The Questioning God book

    And wisdom is often providing questions. Ant Greenham, in his book The Questioning God, says:

    Our foundational identity as human beings, female and male, is inextricably linked to questioning, to inquiry. The fall of humanity notwithstanding, people are repeatedly called to respond to God in the context of mental and spiritual engagement. And the centrality of a questioning approach is reflected throughout the Bible.

    Ant Greenham, The Questioning God, (Pensacola, Florida: Energion Publications, 2012), 4.

    Greenham goes on to point out the numerous ways in which God’s interactions with us consist of God questioning us. We may have questions of God, but God has even more questions to ask us. I’d suggest as a quick example that you check Job 38. After much discussion and complaint, God becomes active and what does God start with? Lots of questions!

    This approach suggests that God wants us to use our mental capacity. Here’s a famous verse, but let’s think about it again:

    The fear of the LORD is the foundation* of knowledge; it is fools who scorn wisdom and instruction

    The Revised English Bible (Cambridge; New York; Melbourne; Madrid; Cape Town; Singapore; São Paulo; Delhi; Dubai; Tokyo: Cambridge University Press, 1996), Pr 1:7.

    Too often this verse is used to contrast the supposed wisdom of the speaker, which the speaker supposes came from God, verses the use of human intellect. “Don’t trust in your education, your degrees, or your own experience. Do what God says instead!” That’s the common advice.

    I’ve received this advice from some as an admonition not to trust my study of Greek and Hebrew in interpreting the Bible, but just to let the Holy Spirit tell me what the text means. But the second half of the verse challenges that. “It is fools who scorn wisdom and instruction.” I can be listening for God’s voice in so many ways, while ignoring what I have already learned. Often when I’m searching for an answer, I’m directed (in various ways) to look at the scriptures and the wisdom of the community of faith over the centuries for an answer. I’m directed to, not away from, the sources involving intellect.

    I’ve written a few times before on the Wesleyan Quadrilateral. There’s lots of history and debate around that. But I like it a great deal. Today, I’m focused on one element: Reason. We like to put reason down in favor of more spiritual sounding approaches. But in the end, it is with your reason that you will comprehend the messages sent to you by God. That’s why God so frequently asks questions. God wants to awaken your reason.

    I want to note one final thing. Intellectual activity and engagement is not exclusively the product of academic instruction. In fact, a great deal of foolishness takes place in academic settings. Any group of people can become so inward looking that they lose site of the whole of creation. They can no longer hear wisdom calling in the street because they are in a room with the windows closed and their select set of sources.

    Intellectual activity is also the farmer learning to manage crops, run farm equipment, and take care of animals. God can and will speak wisdom in that setting. The Greek classroom is not more about wisdom and instruction than is the farm, or the corner grocery store. Wisdom is calling out in all these places and through all these processes.

    God is asking you questions about everything. Are you listening?

  • Starting a Study of Proverbs

    Starting a Study of Proverbs

    The Sunday School class I co-teach is beginning a study of Proverbs. I’m not leading this one. I’m relaxing a bit, I hope. But I have indicated I’ll do a bit of blogging on the material.

    The assignment before the beginning of the study tomorrow was to read introductions to the book, both from the resource text we’re using (The Daily Study Bible volume on Proverbs) and from various Bible editions. I’m not going to try to provide my own introduction, except to note that I read multiple introductions that seemed to me to provide an excellent launching point for a new reader.

    My interest is the place of Proverbs in the biblical canon. Why is it that we have a collection of proverbs in the canon of scripture?

    While we work with the canon of scripture all the time, we don’t often think about it as much. The “canon” refers to those books which are canonical, which means they’ve been accepted by church law as authoritative in the church. This is a fairly strict legal definition in the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox traditions. In Protestantism, it’s a bit less fixed. The general concept remains.

    People often start talking about scripture with the concepts of inspiration and truth, and if a book is determined to be “inspired,” it is then scripture. That’s not precisely how this happened. There was a long process of history, tradition, discussion, and finally definitive determination. The determination can be better termed a determination that a particular set of books was and is authoritative rather than that these books were inspired.

    Now that may catch you a bit off-guard. Surely these books are inspired! In fact, I believe just that. But being inspired is not sufficient to make them scripture. I personally hold that God has inspired other writings which are not scripture, but I do not advocate that such writings become part of scripture. The key difference is that the selected writings were seen as authoritative.

    “Authoritative” involves the value of the material over time and space. For example, an ancient prophet might have sent a message to a particular individual that was specific to that individual. That message might have been from God, inspired by God, and sent by God’s authority, but if we discovered it today, as interesting as it might be, it would not be authoritative.

    In my view, accepting the value and authority of scripture today involves accepting the validity of the choices made over time, and the belief that we have the inspired scriptures that God intended as authoritative scripture. God can and does act through the events of history and the actions of groups in order to bring the message.

    So in Scripture we have the central authority. The question then becomes why does this particular passage, or in this case this particular book belong in the canon, and as part of the canon what is it supposed to accomplish.

    It’s almost cliché to talk about different types of literature and how we interpret those. But it is almost equally cliché that we expect the end point of this interpretation to be some specific doctrinal conclusion. In other words, we expect all of scripture to end up providing us with data.

    I would suggest (and have suggested) that while scripture is valuable for forming doctrine and guiding practice, this isn’t the main thing. In my book When People Speak for God, I suggest that we come to the Bible for information, but God comes to us in scripture for conversation. And eventually this conversation is to result in transformation.

    Wisdom literature as a whole, and Proverbs in particular challenges a couple of assumptions often held about how we get scripture, and I think in turn about what scripture is to do for us. Wisdom literature comes from living. It’s collected wisdom of a culture. It leads us to ways of thinking, rather than to provide set conclusions. It’s not just about the wisdom it passes on, but it’s about how that wisdom is collected. It doesn’t come in visions, dreams, or direct divine speech. It comes through the process of living.

    As an example, take Proverbs 26:4 & 5.

    Don’t answer a fool according to his folly,
    lest you become like him.
    Answer a fool according to his folly,
    or he’ll become wise in his own eyes.

    Proverbs 26:4-5, my translation

    So which verse do I follow?

    (Hint: James 1:5)

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