{"id":4563,"date":"2026-08-14T17:21:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T00:21:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/?p=4563"},"modified":"2026-08-14T17:21:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T00:21:16","slug":"scriptures-interpreted-correctly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/2026\/08\/14\/scriptures-interpreted-correctly\/","title":{"rendered":"Scriptures interpreted correctly"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Although I was away last weekend leading a training and preaching in southern Washington, in our home church our preaching pastor is nearing the end of his series in Luke. Last Sunday he came to a very important verse for Bible students. Luke 24:27 reads, \u201cAnd beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.\u201d<\/em> In the context, two of Jesus’ disciples are on the road to Emmaus and Jesus engages in conversation with them while hiding his true identity. Verse 27 is a central verse for the work I do and that all preachers do because in it Jesus reveals a healthy biblical hermeneutic (method for understanding Scripture.) What exactly did Jesus teach those disciples in that seven mile walk to Emmaus? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The challenge comes in understanding what Luke meant by “all the Scriptures.” Does every Old Testament passage, every story, every chapter, center on Christ? That would have been a very long walk if Jesus had opened every verse of the Old Testament. Is He the meaning behind every passage? Is Jesus on every page of the Bible? Some preach and teach this way. In John 13:35, Jesus says, \u201cThese are the Scriptures that testify about me,”<\/em> referring to the Old Testament. As a whole, the Old Testament testifies that Jesus is the Messiah. I fear our hermeneutic is off balance if we take a hard line that every passage is ultimately and specifically about Jesus, like He is the main point, that Jesus is in every chapter of the OT. I would agree that any passage in the Bible can lead to Jesus, although in many cases it will be a circuitous route. My hermeneutic, captured in our statement about the Whole Story of the Bible, is that \u201cthe whole story of the Bible is the story of God and His progressive plan to redeem\/reconcile a sinful people to Himself through Christ by the Spirit for His glory.\u201d The Bible is God’s story, not just Jesus’ story. As a whole, the corpus of the OT points toward Christ, but not every chapter, every verse, every page is about Him. If we force this, we mishandle God\u2019s Word and the author\u2019s intent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our goal in good Bible study is to understand the passage as the Holy Spirit intended for the original readers to understand it, as He led the author to write it, and then apply that message for us today in light of the Whole Story of Scripture. In many passages, there is a direct line to Jesus the Messiah from Old Testament prophetic passages like Gen. 3:15, Leviticus 16, Isaiah 7:14, Isaiah 53, Genesis 22, Psalm 22, and many others. But there are many (in fact most) of the Old Testament passages that as Paul said in 2 Timothy 3:15, “give wisdom that leads to salvation through faith in Christ.”<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I do believe that Jesus is a key to understanding and interpreting properly all the Scriptures. But so it the Holy Spirit. And so is the Father. And so is understanding what the author intended the original readers to understand. And so is seeing the flow of the whole story of the Bible. There does not need to be only one key – there can be many essential tools in our hermeneutical toolkit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The implication of this is that when I am studying and preaching an Old Testament passage, if I say that the ultimate meaning of the passage is Jesus, I have oftentimes just read something into the text that the author never intended. Perhaps the passage is emphasizing judgment, or the righteousness of God, or the sinfulness of Israel, or any number of points that are important for us to understand. We must understand and preach the passage with the emphasis the author intended in light of all of Scripture. That may point to Jesus, or it may point to some other aspect of “wisdom” which begins with the “fear of the Lord.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Truly Scripture is more precious than gold, sweeter than honey, and there is great reward in keeping His Word. I hope you delight in God’s Word every day, and your hearts burn within you as God makes clear Himself and His Son by His Spirit in properly handling His Word. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The law of the\u00a0Lord\u00a0is perfect,
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0reviving the soul;
the testimony of the\u00a0Lord\u00a0is\u00a0sure,
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0making wise\u00a0the simple;
8\u00a0<\/sup>the precepts of the\u00a0Lord\u00a0are right,
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0rejoicing the heart;
the commandment of the\u00a0Lord\u00a0is\u00a0pure,
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0enlightening the eyes;
9\u00a0<\/sup>the fear of the\u00a0Lord\u00a0is clean,
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0enduring forever;
the rules\u00a0of the\u00a0Lord\u00a0are\u00a0true,
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0and righteous altogether.
10\u00a0<\/sup>More to be desired are they than\u00a0gold,
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0even much\u00a0fine gold;
sweeter also than honey
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0and drippings of\u00a0the honeycomb.
11\u00a0<\/sup>Moreover, by them is your servant warned;
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0in keeping them there is great reward.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Psalm 19:7-11<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Although I was away last weekend leading a training and preaching in southern Washington, in our home church our preaching pastor is nearing the end of his series in Luke. Last Sunday he came to a very important verse for Bible students. Luke 24:27 reads, \u201cAnd beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted … Continue reading Scriptures interpreted correctly<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotional-thoughts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4563"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4563\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4564,"href":"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4563\/revisions\/4564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/belzglobal.com\/ministry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}