1 For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea; 2 and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea; 3 and all ate the same spiritual food; 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ. 5 Nevertheless, with most of them God was not well-pleased; for they were laid low in the wilderness.
6 Now these things happened as examples for us, so that we would not crave evil things as they also craved. 7 Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink, and stood up to play.” 8 Nor let us act immorally, as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in one day. 9 Nor let us try the Lord, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the serpents. 10 Nor grumble, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer.11 Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.
Message: Explicit and Implicit Teaching
Time: This epistle was written to the church that resided in Corinth of Achaia. First Corinthians is a response to a letter that Paul received from the Corinthian church, and that letter was probably a response to another of Paul's letters. This letter was composed in Ephesus around AD 54-55, and such topics as division, sexual immorality, lawsuits, marriage, Christian liberty, order of worship, and the resurrection are covered in this epistle.
What the Lord is Saying:
I continue to examine the different forms of literature that we have in our Bible. The Bible is the Word of God. It is God's special revelation to His people and it is the final revelation. The books that we have of the Canon are complete. This Word equips us to do every good work and apply every good thing in our lives. We can trust it. It is to be interpreted literally, but we also realize that there are different language types it has. There are non-literal ways lie phenomenological which describes things the way they appear, like the sun stood still and anthropomorphic language which describes God as having human attributes, like fingers and hands, though he is a spirit. Personification gives personal characteristics to impersonal entities like trees clapping their hands and mountains singing. Hyperbole exaggerates to make a point as the story of the mustard seed begins with this tiny seed and then grows so people can sit in it. Metaphor is a very common one to use a word for one thing that is meant for something else, like Jesus saying I am the door or the light.
All of this forms helps us to better understand what we are reading. The goal is to interpret texts correctly as religions have been started based upon interpretation and many of the different belief systems focus on different ways to interpret. Thus, as we study each passage it is the explicit, direct teaching of the passage that must control our interpretation of that passage.
By explicit instruction, we mean teaching where the instructor clearly outlines what the learning goals are for the reader, and offers clear, unambiguous explanations of the skills and information structures they are presenting. The text referenced here, I Corinthians 10 is an example of explicit teaching as Paul describes things in order that we would not crave evil things. He says Do not be idolaters...Nor let us act immorally...Nor let us try the Lord...nor grumble. These commandments are clear do's and don't in our Bible, and thus the teaching is explicit.
By implicit instruction, we refer to teaching where the instructor does not outline such goals or make such explanations overtly, but rather simply presents the information or problem to the student and allows the student to make their own conclusions and create their own conceptual structures and assimilate the information in the way that makes the most sense to them. An example of this from Scripture would be the telling of the resurrection of Jesus in the Gospels. All four gospels mentions this miracle that occurred - the presence of angels, a heavy stoned rolled away, the appearance of Jesus. None of the Gospels state that God raised Jesus from the dead but this is a natural conclusion. The doctrine of the Trinity would be another example of implicit instruction. Nowhere is that term used in scripture, but we have the Father, Jesus, and the Spirit all with the same God-like attributes. Thus, the instruction provides to us the conclusion of the three persons of God.
Exodus 32:14 says that the Lord changed His mind about the harm which He said He would do to His people. Now did the Lord really change His mind? Numbers 23:19 says - “God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent; Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good? So here Numbers says that God does not lie, so how could he change his mind? Numbers 23:19 is explicit teaching. Thus, the description in Exodus 32:14 of God changing his mind is anthropomorphic or giving us human attributes. God knew the plan and to us the appearance was that he changed his mind, but He knew what He would do all along. He does not change His mind like we change ours.
Thus it is important to allow the explicit passages to help define the meaning of the implicit ones. Thus, the explicit teaching of Numbers 23:19 helps guide our learning of other scriptures. This is an important distinction where we need to understand the way the Bible is being written.
Promise: It is common for belief systems to take implicit teachings and make them explicit but these explicit teachings contradict other teachings. If there are contradictions in scripture then our beliefs are shallow and we cannot believe anything it says.
Prayer: Lord, again, thank you for this understanding. You are illuminating my understanding of Scripture. You are providing me the different language types in scripture that help shed light on the reading and understand of Your word. You are a great God. You never change. Help others to understand this teaching so that it can illuminate our understanding of You.
Note: I follow the readings from the Tabletalk Magazine devotional, though I am a little behind and working through 2017 devotionals. 2017 is a study of key biblical doctrines with February being about the doctrine of revelation and the various aspects of the doctrine of Scripture that sola Scriptura seeks to preserve.
