2 Timothy 3:16-17: "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, [literally God-breathed] and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works."
The other weekend, our annual guest speaker was at church, Shane Willard. He travels the globe teaching and has trained for 7 years under a Rabbi. If you've never heard him speak, you should look him up. He's an amazing Bible teacher. I have never heard any other teacher open up the Bible like he does.
I wanted to share some things he said about the Bible, and something I found online as well.
Here is the online part I wanted to share: "This is the main biblical passage which refers to the Bible as being inspired by God. "All" would seem to imply that the inspiration applies to every word and phrase. It is important to realize that the only Scripture available at the time that 1 and 2 Timothy were written was the Old Testament. Thus, the author of 2 Timothy would have been referring only to the Hebrew Scriptures. Most likely, it was a reference to the Septuagint, a Greek translation which included the Apocrypha. However, many Bible literalists believe that this passage refers to all 66 books of the Bible even though the New Testament did not exist when 2 Timothy was written."
Shane said, "Western people read the Bible for doctrine."
"The Bible skips things sometimes." (This statement is referring to Ruth 1: 3 & 4, it doesn't give us a time line at all between Naomi's husband and sons dying.)
"Sometimes the Bible is telling you what God said. Sometimes it's telling you what happened."
That statement right there is what I think we need to meditate on. Shane's message on Ruth came to life for me when he went back and showed us in the book of Numbers Chapters 22 and 23 why Moabite women were not supposed to marry Israelite men.
The king of the Moabite people wanted to defeat the Israelites, but he know he was out numbered. So, he tried to have a curse placed on them. God used that man to bless them instead.
Since that didn't work, he convinced the Moabite women to seduce the Israelie men. He figured he could get them to sin sexually, and this would turn God away from them.
It did cause a ton of problems. Moses got upset about what happened...and rightly so, then he penned this:
Deuteronomy 23:3-4 (NIV)
3 No Ammonite or Moabite or any of their descendants may enter the assembly of the Lord, not even in the tenth generation. 4 For they did not come to meet you with bread and water on your way when you came out of Egypt, and they hired Balaam son of Beor from Pethor in Aram Naharaim[a] to pronounce a curse on you."
Now, what we know about God... He loves everyone. Right? He accepts everyone, right?
So does God not want them to turn to Him and be His children? YEP!
Let me tell you why this was Moses' words, and not God's.
When Ruth went back to Judah with Naomi, if people there really followed what was written in Deuteronomy, they would have killed her right away. Just because of where she was from.
God used Ruth to be a part of Jesus' blood line. She's the great grandmother of King David.
Ruth 4: 16-17
16 Then Naomi took the child in her arms and cared for him. 17 The women living there said, “Naomi has a son!” And they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David."
My points here are this: we should pray before we read the Bible and ask God what He wants to reveal to us, and ask if it's something He said, or if we are reading something that happened.
We also should learn through this story in particular that God has a plan for everyone's lives. Even the person that society thinks shouldn't be here. You should be here, because God put you here for a reason.
God bless you today and always!
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