Rightly Divided s01e01 Inductive

This is a podcast series called "Truth Rightly Divided" that explores different methods of Bible study. The guest for this eight-week series is Dr. Steve Posey, who teaches Bible study methods and conducts training for Campus Crusade staff in Africa. The first episode focuses on the basics of inductive Bible study. Inductive Bible study involves three steps: observation, interpretation, and application. Observation involves asking what you see in the text, interpretation focuses on understanding the meaning, and application explores how to apply the teachings. It is important to separate observation from interpretation to avoid bias. Different genres of literature in the Bible require different approaches to interpretation and application. Understanding the historical and cultural context is essential for accurate interpretation. For those without formal training, using a study Bible with study notes and cross-referencing can be helpful in discovering the context. The goal is to unders This is Truth Rightly Divided, a podcast of PreachItTeachIt.org. I'm your host, Tom Terry, and in this podcast, we'll be exploring the various ways of doing Bible study so that you can get the most out of your time when studying God's Word. Our guest for this eight-week series on basic Bible study is Dr. Steve Posey, an instructor with International Leadership University. Dr. Posey teaches Bible study methods and conducts other training for crew staff all across Africa. He'll be with us for the next eight episodes of Rightly Divided to help you get a firm grasp on how to study the Bible and its various types of genre. So let's get right into it with this first episode on the basics of inductive Bible study. Okay, Steve, thanks for joining us today for this podcast. Let's talk about Bible study. My pleasure. Let's talk. All right, so when I was being trained with Campus Crusade for Christ in how to study the Bible, we went through something called inductive Bible study. And what I've noticed over the years in looking at different websites and listening to different teachers is that while the basics seem to be the same for most everybody, there are little differences here and there in terms of how we observe the text and how we apply and things of that nature. So let's talk about what you do when you are training other Campus Crusade staff and how to do Bible study. What are the main things that you focus on? Oh, excellent question. I was trained very much like you, Tom, with Campus Crusade for Christ, but then some other training along the way, too. I think, well, first to make sure that our hearers understand what we're talking about when we talk about inductive Bible study. What is inductive Bible study? Inductive Bible study is a method that we can use to go into God's Word and to find out what it's saying. And it involves three steps. The first step is observation. And when we talk about observation, we're asking the following question. It answers this question, what do I see? That's observation. After we've made an observation of a passage or the text that we're looking at, we move into a phase called interpretation. And interpretation answers the question, what does it mean? And we try to determine what this passage not only is talking about, but what does it mean by what it's talking about? A very important concept within interpretation is context. And that's historical context and in the context of the situation, but also very important in terms of interpretation is cultural. Now, wait a minute. Let's stop you there for a second when you talk about context, because sometimes I've noticed when I do inductive Bible study, I sometimes apply what I'm learning in the interpretation stage actually in the observation stage. I try to attach meaning to something because I'm observing the text, I'm observing what it means, but then meaning and interpretation is a little bit different. They are different, and it's very interesting you bring that up. I just recently taught a course on applied biblical interpretation about inductive Bible study. And the number one error, if we can use that word, that I had 25 students, the number one error of almost every one of those students was as they were observing, they were interpreting before they knew what they were observing. And so I would get statements in the observation phase. I had them phase it out into three areas. I would get statements in the observation phase that were clearly interpretation. And the horrible thing about that, Tom, is I do that too. We all have that tendency. So it's something we have to, it's great you raise that up. It's something we have to tell ourselves, you're observing now, what do I see? Not what does it mean? I'm going to get to what does it mean, that's in the interpretation phase. So I separate those two for the purpose of clarity. Because if I observe it and interpret it at the same time, and then you say, well, what did you see? And I tell you my interpretation, I've already decided what it means. And interpretation is the phase where I take the time, I might be reading commentaries or concordance to find other passages that relate. I take the time to try and find out what it means. And usually I can find out what it means, and that leads to the third stage called application, as you well know. And application is how does it work? What do you mean by how does it work? Well, what needs to happen to apply this is what I mean by that. And it's not, it's how does it work, not does it work. When we get to application, God's Word and God's principles, they do work. So we want to make sure that we understand it's how does it work, not does it work. And so often, I think in my own life, and I've seen this in other people's lives too, we get to the application of what we see God is teaching us, and we've observed it, and we've interpreted it, and probably came up with a fairly clear and good answer. And then we look at application and we say, oh, that can't work for me. That only works for holy people, or that only works for these types of people. But God's Word and His principles, they work. So how do they work is application. Okay, so when I read the Scripture, there are many genres of literature throughout Scripture, and obviously you don't interpret or apply certain things the same way across the board because those different genres, as I've learned about it, require a little bit of a different approach for the type of text that there is. So how would you apply the inductive Bible study method, let's say, to a narrative? Oh, well, with a narrative, which would be the way I would apply that is I would see what is the narrative saying? Let's say it's a historical narrative. Okay, let's say Ezra. Yeah, Ezra. Oh, yes, I have to think a minute. I always confuse Ezra and... There's a section of Ezra, I don't have the exact chapter verse here, but there's a section of Ezra where the people had married non-Israelite women, and then they were commanded to basically leave them, including the children. And it's funny because I read that passage, and if I try to study that passage, I'm asking myself, well, how in the world am I going to apply that one? Very well said, because how in the world are we going to apply that one? Yeah, what should we not apply that one? Yes. Ezra and Nehemiah are contemporaries, as you well know, and when I'm reading, for example, the narrative in Ezra, I have to understand, one, Ezra's trying to reestablish, if I can use this word, the Jewish faith in his own native culture. And that's why these people have married these women that aren't Jews. That's why they have children, and they're not observing the Jewish faith, both the men and the women. And so when I read that narrative, I need to understand that context. And secondly, I need to understand the cultural context in the sense of what does the Jewish faith require of people? And one of the things is that they raise their children within God's regulations, if you will, within God's information, and they weren't doing that. So that's the first thing I see when I'm reading, well, Ezra and Nehemiah. Nehemiah had to do the same thing, by the way, as Ezra. He had to tell them, you've got to stop marrying these men and women who are outside of the Jewish faith, because they were taking them aside. Interestingly enough, here's another little sidelight in the area of interpretation. That historically was a problem that Judaism had from almost day one. And so we have to bring that context in, too. So when I'm looking at that narrative, those contexts, I bring those in, and I bring in the culture. And as I'm interpreting that, I ask the question, what does that mean? And it doesn't mean that they... It doesn't mean you're supposed to leave your wife, so let's leave that out. That's right. That's point one. Some people would take it that way, too. Sure, sure. But it doesn't mean, when they set those wives and children apart, it doesn't mean that they abandoned them. You do more historical, cultural study, and you find that they had to quit living with them as their wife, and at the same time, they had to support them, the wife and the children, until the children are adults, and support the wife throughout the rest of her life, because they were married to them. So God's Word isn't counseling divorce. Yeah, right. Okay. All right, let's talk about the interpretive process for a moment, because you've already mentioned that you have to bring in culture and the historical context and all that. People who visit the PreachItTeachIt.org website, many of them are from countries or places where they have no formal training in theology or Bible study or preaching or anything of that nature. Many of them are people who are doing Bible studies for home groups, and they're using our tools on Preach It, Teach It to help augment what they're learning and what they're delivering to people. Okay. So there are about 3.2 million pastors in the world today who have no formal training whatsoever. So we're really trying to help that group of people. So if you're counseling somebody like that, and they don't have a lot of resources, how then do they discover the cultural or historical context in which to help them frame the interpretive process? Well, excellent question. Possibly—and I'm not sure worldwide—possibly the first step would be to make sure that you buy the best Bible for Bible study that you can buy. That would be a Bible that would have— Study notes, things like that. Study notes, yes. And I was thinking it would have a minimized concordance within it so that you could cross-reference. Often by cross-referencing within the Bible, you'll see the culture from one verse to another. And so you would want to make sure you've got a good study Bible. And as you said, the study notes are there to help you, usually put in there by someone who understood the culture and who also understands the situation. So that's the first thing. I think the second thing that I would counsel, let's say—I don't know, Tom—would many of these individuals be out of the range, if I can use the word, of the Internet? Some would be. But I think most people in the world have some level of access, whether it's a cafe or in their own home or job. Right. They have access to the Internet. Excellent resources. Well, you guys— Preach it, teach it. Yeah. Preach it, teach it. Right there's an excellent resource. And very often there are biblical teachers that you can send them a message, an email message or even a phone contact. They offer that. Or you can go to their website. All of these are resources that are put there to help these individuals move forward. I think what I've noticed and what I would suggest is that we choose carefully who teaches us, so to speak. There are, unfortunately, some out there who are teaching things about things for which they're not prepared. And we've all seen that, and so we just need to be careful. Okay. Let's go back to the process of observation and interpretation. Outline for us a little bit, for the guy who's just learning how to do this type of study, what is he looking for in the observation stage? Okay. Well, he's looking for many things, let's just say it that way. First thing, he'd be looking at what are the words that are used in—let's say it's a narrative passage. What are the words that are used? If you notice—and I'm not talking about the or and or something like that at this stage anyhow—but whatever words are used and repeated, often that might be telling you something about what the writer wants you to see or to notice, to observe. So you're looking for the words. And secondly, you are looking in observation for specific aspects that would be giving a hint to culture. You're not to interpret that yet, but you put it down. And you made a good observation—I mean, you brought up a good one that we would observe in Ezra. You would put it down something like this, I note that the men who had married foreign women were told to put their wives away. And so if I'm observing that, I would observe that, and then I would say, what does that mean? And that's as far as I go, because then when I get into the interpretation phase, I'm going to seek to answer, what does that mean? Okay. All right. So I've been doing a study recently in the book of Matthew, I'm focusing on the Gospels, and for the observation stage of what I'm doing, I'm noticing that there are two phrases that are strewn throughout the book that are not as present in the other Gospels, but are very present in Matthew. And that's the phrase, kingdom of heaven, and the second one is son of man, which both have to do with the kingdom, when I say I want to be careful because I don't want to interpret, but I have to understand by observation what they mean. And so I look at that and say, okay, well, he's talking about his kingdom, the kingdom of heaven, and son of man is not just a term that references his deity, as some say, but it also references the kingdom that he's going to be, or is going to administer. Right. Well, Tom, you've stepped into interpretation, but that's okay. There you go. But... It's very easy to do that, isn't it? Yes, it really is. In fact, to fall into it. But in this sense, it's good, because what you want to notice in the book of Matthew is the kingdom of heaven, because the book of Matthew is about God's kingdom. And now I'm interpreting, but that's an overview statement, it would be the narrative, the overall narrative, excuse me, not overall, overarching narrative in the book of Matthew, the gospel of Matthew is the kingdom of God. Now I come and I don't know that, if I'm doing my observation work correctly, I do know this. Why do they keep bringing up the kingdom of God, or the kingdom of heaven? I note in observation, the writer returns to the kingdom of heaven, and returns and returns and returns. And he also calls Jesus the Son of Man, and he talks about the Son of Man. Quite a lot. Very much. And so, are those two connected, as an observation question, that I move down into interpretation? And what is the kingdom of heaven, is a question that I move down into interpretation, because I've noted, I've observed these things. So when you get into interpretation, what's the structure or points that you use to help you grab the meaning of the text? Okay. Excellent question. Well, one of the things, and we've already, you've already mentioned it, and we've talked a bit about it, what genre, type of literature are you reading? If you're going to interpret the Psalms, it's a great deal different than interpreting the book of Nehemiah. Nehemiah is basically historical narrative. The Psalms are the Psalms. And they have, they have a format, they have a structure, Hebrew Psalms have a format and a structure, and so we need to be careful that we don't take things that fit in Hebrew poetry, as you say, in Hebrew structure of their poetry, as a literal statement, like we would in a narrative. Sometimes that repetition that we see is for emphasis, so that we will note what we're seeing. Is it fair to say that, as using the poetry example in Psalms, that still, even though it says something artistically, it still eventually points back to something literal? That's a good way to say that, yes. It is, it is pointing back to something that is truth, and it's pointing back in most instances to who God is and how He operates in this world and universe, so it is literal. We want to be careful how we interpret that. I think that's what I was trying to say in the sense that you may have this repetition, one phrase following another, and I interpret each of those phrases rather than understanding in my interpretation that all of them serve as a unit, together, to say one thing. I've been dividing them up, and yet they serve as a unit, two or three of the same phrases that serve as a unit. My mind fails me right at this moment to pull one out. I was just studying one about a month ago, and it was just so obvious that the writer of that psalm wanted you to keep coming back to this one thought, by the way he structured it, but the poetry aspect. I would suggest, in that sense, it's very good to find, once again, a website or a book, if you have access to them, in a language that you can understand and read, to explain Hebrew poetry. It's like prophecy. We might be observing and interpreting and trying to apply prophecies from the Old Testament or from the New Testament. We have to understand that 99% of all prophecy in the Old Testament is foretelling, not foretelling. What do I mean? Foretelling is standing now and talking about something in the future. Foretelling is standing here and talking about what's going on right now and what God thinks about it. Most prophecy that we encounter, for example, in the book of Isaiah, and I was just in Micah two days ago, that prophecy was foretelling about God's view of what the Jewish people were doing. Okay, now let's go back to interpretation again. What's probably the biggest warning that you would give to people about the interpretive process in terms of making a mistake? Well, and I think this is one that I encounter with me and with most people, I come with, let's use the word, preconceived ideas about what that passage is going to mean, what it has to mean, and we all come with that. It's like, I remember this experience, I used the New International Version in English, and I bumped into a group of guys who were having a Bible study one day, and they only used the King James Version. And they told me very clearly, you can't use the New International Version because God only spoke in the King James Version. And so, that was their preconceived idea about the Scripture, and whether that's right or not, they already had that idea, and so no matter what, you couldn't use anything of that version. So everything for them came through that lens. It all came through that lens. We have various other things we could talk about, and even as you and I sit here and talk, we could talk about this thing or that thing through our preconceived lens, and that inhibits us, it prohibits us from seeing what God might really be saying. I'm not saying that it's wrong to have ideas and to have commitments. We need to have that when we approach God's Word, but we need to be careful that those commitments are truly Scriptural, they're truly Biblical, rather than, well, I have this type of theology, and so therefore I have to filter it through that. We all do it. We all do it. Yeah, we all have preconceived notions that we have to work through. So we just have to, in interpretation, we have to be careful to tell ourselves, don't do that, and to tell ourselves, let God's Word speak, rather than me deciding what God's Word just said based upon what I came here with. Okay. Okay. As we get ready to wrap up, let's talk about application a little bit. Okay. What exactly is, you know, when I do my studies, I actually have this four-part process that I work through. Okay. I do observation. I do interpretation. Yes. I do application, but then I add a fourth one that I came up with some time ago, and that's transformation. Because, and I'm really, I guess transformation would be part of application, because to me, a Bible study isn't completely, fully realized until it's transformed some part of your life from the truth that you have learned. And what I've noticed as I hear others apply application, I often feel like that's missing, because something in our lives should change as a result of reading and studying a passage, because God wants us to know something, you know, from that passage that we need to apply into our lives. So what happens in application as you put forward, as you're trying to develop a message or a teaching for somebody? Okay. Well, first let me say, excellent statement and excellent example of what happens for so many of us, unfortunately. One of the things, how does it work, isn't a question that is simply an intellectual question. It's a practical question. What steps need to happen in my life or in the life of this, people in this group, let's say we're in a Bible study, what steps do we need to take to apply what we just learned? Interestingly that you use the word transformation because Dr. Howard Hendricks, one of the key proponents of the inductive Bible study method, in fact a very key proponent, wrote not too long ago in one of his later books in his later life, he wrote that transformation or application without transformation is not truly application. And I think he wrote that, he didn't say it this way, but he wrote that because that's a common difficulty that we have. We'll try it for two or three days, so to speak, and well, you know, that's great, and then we go back to the way we were living life before. And so he notes that it takes discipline and it takes ongoing discipline to allow God's Holy Spirit to transform us in the ways that we see that we should be applying that scripture. Okay, so give me an example of an application point. Okay, oh boy, I should have known you were going to ask me for that. Yeah, well, okay, let's talk about Ezra, just like we were earlier. How am I going to apply that passage in Ezra about putting away your wives? Oh, and that's a hard one. Or how do I not apply it? Yeah, I'm probably better on that than not. Well, I think one of the things that I would say right off the top is because, as we talked before in the interpretive process, I realize that this has to do with the Jewish faith, but I also realize that he doesn't take that wife and throw her away, so to speak, divorce her and never see her again. Here's an application that we saw, or we have seen in Africa. Often in some, well, in many of the countries in Africa, there will be a man who will have three, four, five wives, and he has children by all of those wives, and then he turns from his traditional religious faith, his tribal religion or whatever, and he comes to Christianity. Well, in the past, they were, the missionaries especially, applying something like Ezra would say, you have to put away your wife. But they didn't understand the cultural context of that. They weren't informed of that. So the new believer would ask, well, what does that mean? Well, the practical answer was, you get rid of her, you never see her again, those aren't your children because you have one wife and that. As the church has grown in Africa, I was in Zimbabwe just about three years ago, and I met a couple of men, and as we talked, I found out that each one of them had come to Christ in the last four or five years. And one of them had three wives, and the other one had four before they came to Jesus. The church had counseled them to do what you and I were talking about earlier with Ezra. They had moved back to their original wife, so to speak. She was the only one they lived with, and they had provided homes and living situations for their other wives and their children, and they were supporting them until the children were raised and out of the home. And they kept supporting the wife even after that. And so they were not married to them anymore. They did that. They didn't throw them away. So that's an example of a practical application. Yes. Now, here in the U.S., as we are, Westerners, white Westerners, hearing what you described is so completely outside of my normal everyday experience in my life that I have trouble wrapping my head around it, you know what I mean? I understand, and I know that that's not something that's common for, say, you or me. However, there are pockets, let's just say, in this culture of people who have immigrated to the United States as nonbelievers, they've practiced their traditional religions, and they might have more than one wife, and they bring that wife and their children along. If they become believers, then we would want to apply that to them here. But in terms of practical application of the principle of Ezra to you and me, I would say that it's fair to say that God can use that principle, because we don't have the cultural practice, but He can use that principle at this level. What are the other wives you have other than Christ, if I can use that word, that you worship and that you invest your life in? You're only to have one, and that's Jesus. And we have that within Christianity in the United States. So that would be the principle I would apply. Okay. Well, I purposely chose a very hard passage for us to think through with Ezra and Nehemiah. But to me, what I want to illustrate through that is that this whole process of inductive Bible study, including the application part, if we can apply it to difficult passages like that, then we can apply it to the passages which are a lot easier to understand. And so we should always be looking for some type of application to be able to share from the things that we're studying. Well, I think that's a fair application. Once again, saying that it's not a literal application, recognizing that it's a principle. All right. Well, over the next few episodes, we're going to talk more about inductive Bible study, but how to apply that study to different genres of literature. And so you'll be back to help us do that and understand those things. Oh, I love this. I really do, because the different genres, they are really, really exciting because of the way God uses them. Steve, thanks for coming. Appreciate it. Oh, thanks for having me. You've been listening to Truth Rightly Divided, a podcast of PreachItTeachIt.org. Today we've been looking at the basics of inductive Bible study. This is the first in an eight-part series on how to study the Bible. Our next episode will focus on how to study the narratives of the Bible. I'm your host, Tom Terry, with PreachItTeachIt.org. Be sure to visit our website for tools and resources to help you craft your sermon or Bible study that you may lead. Thanks for listening, and we'll see you again next time on Truth Rightly Divided, a podcast of PreachItTeachIt.org. 1