THE APPLICATION OF SCRIPTURE James L. Melton
Kent Settlemyer shared a post. 03/29/21 · James L. Melton
THE APPLICATION OF SCRIPTURE James L. Melton
Almost every passage in the Bible has at least three applications, and some have more. The three basic applications are historical, doctrinal, and spiritual. In a sense, this means that everything in the Bible has more than one meaning, or at least more than one purpose. For instance, Paul stated that “whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.” (Rom. 15:4) The “things” that were written were the things of the Old Testament. He was saying that the Old Testament was written for our learning, even though it was written thousands of years before we were born. The information found in the Old Testament is obviously historical because the people and places were real and the events did happen. But the information also offers a spiritual benefit. By reading the Old Testament, we can learn about God’s holy character and how that He hates sin, thus finding instruction for our own spiritual walk. Good doctrinal applications can also be made, applications that can also be prophetic in nature. For instance, Aaron’s rod that budded (Num. 17) speaks of God’s doctrine of resurrection, both the resurrection of Christ and of all those who believe on Him.All three basic applications of Scripture must be made regularly, if one is to be a mature and balanced student of Scripture. However, the temptation of many is to make only a spiritual or devotional application and ignore the historical and doctrinal intent. This produces spiritual babies who are often weak and very selfish in their spiritual walk because all they look for in the Bible or in church services is something for themselves, or, better yet, something to make them FEEL better about themselves. To them, the whole Bible is a devotional feel-good book. It exists only for the purpose of helping them to feel good about themselves, so any preacher or teacher that uses it otherwise is viewed by them as an unfit preacher.Let’s consider a few examples of how all three applications of Scripture are essential. First, we’ll use the case of Moses being banned from the land of promise due to his hitting the rock in the wilderness. Numbers 20:7-12 says, “And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Take the rod, and gather thou the assembly together, thou, and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes; and it shall give forth his water, and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock: so thou shalt give the congregation and their beasts drink. And Moses took the rod from before the LORD, as he commanded him. And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock, and he said unto them, Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out of this rock? And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice: and the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts also. And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them.”Immediately after Israel left Egypt and crossed the Red Sea, they murmured to Moses for not having water to drink. God met this need by miraculously giving them water from a rock after having Moses hit the rock with his rod (Exo. 17:1-7). Several years later the water issue arose again, the people murmured against Moses again, and God chose to give them water from the rock again. However, as our above text states, God wanted Moses to speak to the rock this time rather than hit it with the rod. In the heat of anger, Moses ignored God’s specific words and hit the rock twice. They got their water, since God is a merciful God, but Moses was banned from the land of promise for doing this.Now, let’s apply all of this. Historically, this event did happen the way God said it happened. Anyone writing a history of Israel would have to include this event.Spiritually, numerous lessons can be learned from this. Don’t take action in the heat of anger is a good lesson. Another one is that you can always count on people to have doubts and voice their complaints when they ought to have faith and voice their praises. Also, one should be encouraged by the fact that when God does something He does it “abundantly” (vs. 11). But the greatest spiritual truth in the story is the fact that Paul said, “that Rock was Christ” in I Corinthians 10:4. The whole verse says, “And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.” Now, that Rock (notice the capital “R”) was not literally Christ; it was just a rock. But, in type, it was Christ. That is, it was a picture or an illustration of Christ. The water from the Rock pictured life coming from Christ. Smiting the Rock the first time (Exo. 17:6) was appropriate because this pictured Christ being smitten at Calvary, but God specified that the Rock was not to be smitten again. This is because Christ died for sins once in a cruel event that was to never be repeated. Hebrews 9:28 says, “So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.” We read in Hebrews 10:12, “But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God.” Today, sinners are to be saved by speaking to the Rock, by calling on the name of the Lord. Romans 10:13 says, “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” By hitting the Rock in Numbers 20:11, Moses broke the type, thus marring God’s beautiful painting, so he was banned from the promised land.Yet, there is also a very strong doctrinal application in this story. Moses had to be banned from the promised land because Moses was the law-giver and “by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.” (Gal. 2:16). Had Moses gone into the promised land after giving the law to Israel, that would picture a man being saved by the works of the law. So, it was necessary that someone else lead the Israelites into the land. That someone was Joshua, a type of Christ, and a man whose name means “Jehovah saves,” as does the name “Jesus.”So, what appears to be an insignificant story from the book of Numbers turns out to be a story loaded with valuable information for believers today, and this information is discovered by making various applications of Scripture.Another good example of how Scripture can have more than one application is Isaiah 7:14: “Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” Historically, the prophecy refers to Mahershalalhashbaz, the child that is born in Isaiah 8:3, but the doctrinal reference is to the Virgin Birth of Jesus Christ. We know this from Matthew’s comments in Matthew 1:22-23: “Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” Various spiritual applications could also be made, such as the virgin church bearing fruit for Christ or God equipping any individual believer to do seemingly impossible things. Prophetically, the verse could even have some reference to Israel bringing forth the 144,000 in the Tribulation Period (Isa. 66:7-8; Rev. 12:1-2; 14:1-5). However, the primary reference is the doctrinal reference to the Virgin Birth of Jesus.A third example of Scripture application, and a very good one, is Hosea 11:1: “When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt.” It would seem that this verse has only one application: God leading the Israelites out of Egypt in the book of Exodus. Historically, that is the proper application, but Matthew tells us that the verse also has a doctrinal/prophetic application to Jesus: “When he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night, and departed into Egypt: And was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son.” (Mat. 2:14-15) This means that when God led Israel out of Egypt He had in His mind the fact that He would one day do the same thing for the child Jesus. That’s the doctrinal application. But there’s also a spiritual application in that Christians are also called “sons” of God in the Bible (John 1:12; I John 3:2; Rom. 8:14, 19), and we have been called out of this world system to live a consecrated life unto the Lord: “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you.” (II Cor. 6:17) Israel was called out, Jesus was called out, and so are we.Application of Scripture is what makes the Bible so interesting because it also means more than we see at first. By slowing down and meditating on the Scripture, and checking a few cross references, we can see the Bible open up like a gate to a land of treasure, revealing an abundance of precious truths to be discovered. David said, “I rejoice at thy word, as one that findeth great spoil.” (Psa. 119:162) Refusing to go through this gate cripples the believer and hinders him from advancing in his journey.JAMES L. MELTONBible Baptist Church, Sharon, TNwww.biblebaptistpublications.orgwww.facebook.com/james.melton.3194P.O. BOX 383, Martin, TN 38237
Recent Comments