Hermeneutics

Scripture Reading: Proverbs 29:18

Where there is no vision, the people perish but blessed is he who keeps the law.

I am overseas teaching (assuming that everything has gone according to plan – this was prewritten several weeks in advance of my planned trip). One of the subjects I teach a lot, and find to be vital for pastors and church leaders to grasp, is hermeneutics. Hermeneutics is the study of how to interpret Scripture. There is a lot to say about that, and much that needs to be said, but today I will just point you to one key principle that will save you a lot of trouble…Context.

Interpreting scripture in its context is crucial to arriving at the right interpretation of a text. The text I have chosen for today is a classic example of a Scripture that is consistently taken out of context and made to say what it doesn’t say.

The first half of this proverb is typically twisted to insist on how important it is for a pastor or church leader to come up with a “vision” for the church. It is almost as if someone wanted a proof text to promote their vision and used a concordance to search for verses containing the word “vision” and ran with this one. It sounded so good that it became viral. Now, to even question that common misreading of this text sounds heretical.

This verse is not about having a “vision-casting leader” in the church. There may be validity to the concept of having a plan and mapping out a direction for any given church. No doubt, that is important. It is better than drifting along without any clear objectives or goals. But this verse shouldn’t be misappropriated for that end.

The twisting of this text could easily be avoided by reading it in its context. Finding the context for this verse doesn’t require much effort. All you need to do is keep reading after it says, “the people perish.” The second part of the verse provides context and explains the first part of the verse. “Blessed is he who keeps the law.” In other words, the vision the writer has in mind is the mental machinations of a skinny-jeans-wearing, tatted-up, muscle-bound, t-shirted vision-casting leader (the person who, in the olden days, was called pastor). The vision the writer has in mind is the revealed word of God, handed down to God’s people through chosen men who wrote the inspired text of Scripture.

When understood in its context, the verse says something quite different than is commonly assumed. It says that what creates havoc among the people (different translations say it differently: “cast off restraint” or “perish”) is not hearing and receiving the revealed word of God. That’s what the second line explains: “blessed [as opposed to perishing] is he who keeps the law [as opposed to no prophetic vision].”

Context – context - context