Series: Context Context Context Lesson 2: When I Am Afflicted Psalms 34:19 NKJV 19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all. Been feeling down and so you turned to the word of God for a scriptural pick-me-up? Maybe you are listening to one of your favorite gospel/Christian songs during a moment when you could distinctly here the lyrics…did you hear some form of the verse referenced above? I know, you were in church one Sunday morning and at some point throughout the service you heard some manner of notation or quotation of this verse as someone talked about the healing of the body. Regardless to when you read or heard this verse it is almost exclusively mentioned in connection to divine healing of the human body. What a wonderful promise indeed, no matter what your sickness is, this verse seems to suggest that the LORD (Jehovah) will deliver you out of every single one. Who would question such a promise when certainly our God is able to fulfill that promise, including the healing of a body ravaged by AGING; look, He made us and He can certainly heal us! On top of our strong stance on the promises of God we also have an unshakable faith in God’s power seeing what He has done for others throughout the scriptures: miracles, signs, and wonders undeniably inform our faith that the words of this verse and seemingly many others is true, so true, in fact, that our stance on passages like this one and Isaiah 53:5 borders on the ridiculous and has made many arrogant. Before I deal with the passage as it is presented IN CONTEXT what do I mean by bordering on the ridiculous and making many arrogant? Go back to those songs, replay the sermonettes heard throughout church services, even recall your own time of reading and praying when this verse came rushing forth…be honest it wasn’t being stated as a mere scriptural reference or point of biblical fact, no, it was more likely being DECLARED as done, right? It was surrounded by statements that flat out said that God HAS TO fulfill it because He said it in His word! Many men and women across several different religious lines have moved away from faithful humble ceaseless prayer into a robust DECLARE-IT manner of communicating with God. More will be said about this in an article soon to come, but regardless to what this verse and many like it is talking about make no mistake God is not a human and we dare not approach the throne of GRACE like spiritual bullies in demand! This series of lessons, however, sets its focus on what the verse or verses actually mean by way of their context, or a better way of saying it, we have got to learn how to interpret scripture in light of other scripture and not in light of our feelings, wants, and dogmatic assertions. In this particular verse one word and one word only is thoroughly misunderstood in terms of its original meaning, and because of it hundreds even thousands of people over many years have assumed and accepted the assumption of what this verse is talking about never questioning its actual intent. That word is AFFLICTIONS. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, or as we have been led to believe it to mean; many are the sicknesses and/or illnesses of the righteous. Of course, as aforementioned, you only have to take this verse out of its context away from the surrounding verses and it would seem that such a definition of afflictions would be just fine. Yet, this is not proper bible study or biblical interpretation for the word of God says: 2 Peter 1:19-21 NKJV 19 And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts; 20 knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, 21 for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.
Posted on: Sat, 07 Sep 2013 20:51:22 +0000
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