This series is designed to help people better understand the Bible and how it speaks to us. Read the series Introduction post to learn how this series is designed to help you.

This is the final post in the second segment of this series which has focused on how the Bible communicates to us and how we are able to determine what it means. The final segment (posts 15-18) will explain how we actually sit down and engage with the Bible.

When Things Get Weird

Have you ever read one of those ‘weird’ passages in The Bible, like Lot’s daughters in Genesis 19, Simeon and Levi’s revenge in Genesis 34 or Israel’s war against the tribe of Benjamin in Judges 19-21? The characters in those stories do very unexpected things, and we are left asking ourselves, “What the heck was that?”

How do we even begin working through such passages? How are we supposed to understand them?

An Important Distinction

A helpful place to start is to ask “Is the passage prescriptive or descriptive?” Is the passage prescribing the reader to do something, or is it simply describing what happened?

Does Genesis 34 indicate brothers should respond like Simeon and Levi, or does it just describe what they did? I believe it is clearly the latter, but how did I arrive at this conclusion?

Navigating Narratives

Ultimately, I answer this question by first getting a feel for the narrative. What is the overall trajectory of the big picture narrative that Genesis 34 falls into? What has been going on so far, and are those plot developments descriptive in general?¹

I then ask questions about the text that will help me reach some conclusions. Does Genesis 34 use language that indicates that I as the reader should admire or emulate the actions of Simeon and Levi? Does it align with the ethical and moral teachings in Scripture that we know are prescriptive (the Sermon on the Mount, for example)? Asking these kinds of questions and weighing the answers help me work through these difficult passages.

An Additional Note

One piece of advice that may prove to be very helpful is this: Don’t be afraid to “suspend judgment” on an issue or question you have. This means you don’t have to reach a conclusion right now on every question you have. In our Genesis 34 example, you may not be able to answer all the questions you have right now. That’s perfectly okay. Don’t let that dishearten you. I suspended judgment on what was going on with Judges 19-21 for several years before I was able to answer questions I had that led me to a faithful conclusion. God plays the Long Game, and so should you.

Happy Bibleing!

Footnotes

1. Example:
   The text describes the circumstances of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob from Genesis 12-33. Some of these circumstances include instructions from God for those individual. These instructions pertained to those individuals and the circumstances of their lives; they are not instructions for everyone throughout history. ↩︎