HOLY MEN OF GOD SPOKE
Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on May 22, 2019 under AM Bible Study |
AM Bible Study Group: May 22, 2019 from 2 Peter 1:20-21
Theme: We should trust the Scriptures as God’s infallible message through men to mankind.
(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).
There are a few places in the Bible where we’re told about how to think of … well … the Bible itself. 2 Timothy 3:16-17, for example, teaches us that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God—and that it is, therefore, “profitable”. 1 Corinthians 2:12-13 teaches us that the Scriptures are given to us “not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual”. And in 1 Peter 1:10-11, the apostle Peter even said that the prophets themselves searched the Scriptures—which God used them to write—in seeking to find out the things He was indicating to them about Jesus.
The Bible tells us much about itself. And this morning, we come to another very important passage about the nature of the Scriptures. In 2 Peter 1:20-21, the apostle Peter wrote;
… knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:19-21).
This is a very brief passage—only two verses. And yet, what it tells us about the nature of the Bible is astonishing and wonderful. It should encourage us to pick up our Bible with a sense of grateful awe and submissive trust.
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Peter wrote these words not just as a theological declaration, but also as a very practical exhortation. He had been writing to his beloved brothers and sisters about the full sufficiency of Jesus Christ for everything in their lives—that they have, as a present provision, “all things that pertain to life and godliness” through their faith in Him (1:3). Based on the wonderful promises of God, Peter then urged them to rise up in confident obedience, and build faithfully upon the foundation of that faith in Jesus. And to help them embrace the reliability of these things, he told them about how he had been an eyewitness to the glory of the Lord Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration. He told them, “And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts … (v. 19). In saying all this, he wanted to affirm to his readers why it is that the Scripture are a reliable guide to eternal life.
But there is another reason why Peter wanted to affirm the truthfulness and reliability of the Scriptures to his fellow believers. And that was because false teachers were threatening to arise and lead them astray. In chapter two of this little letter, Peter goes on to tell his readers;
But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed (2:1-2).
And so, that’s another reason why Peter spoke the words we find in this morning’s passage about the truthfulness and reliability of the Scriptures—that is, in order to protect his readers from ‘destructive’ falsehood. The Bible is nothing less than the revelation of truth from God to mankind. And we must pay diligent heed to it as that which will reliably guide us to salvation from sin and to eternal glory in Christ—and not be fooled by false teaching.
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So then; the first, the apostle Peter shows us is that …
1. THE SCRIPTURES –THOUGH VERY HUMAN—ARE NOT OF HUMAN ORIGIN.
It’s important to understand that when we speak of the Bible as coming from God, we don’t at all mean to say that it’s not a human book. In fact, quite the opposite; we affirm that it is a very human book. Each of the human writers that God used to give it to us wrote in his own style, and through his own personality, and within the context of his own set of experiences. All of these writers uphold the same story, and point together to the life of the Lord Jesus. Many report the same events but through distinctively different human viewpoints. All you have to do is read each different writer, compare the ways that they wrote, and see that the Bible is a very human book.
Consider that the Bible was written by over forty-five different human writers, writing from within a wide variety of different nations and cultures, in at least three different languages, over a time period of 1,500 years, through five successive world empires, and from almost every walk of human life imaginable. Some of its writers wrote while in the desert. Some wrote while in prison. Some wrote from king’s palaces. Some wrote from shepherd’s fields. Some wrote while in priestly robes. Some wrote while working on a farm. Some wrote while in a time of peace. Some wrote while in the midst of war. Some were rich. Some were poor. Some wrote while in exile while in a foreign land—far from home. One man even composed a portion of the Bible while in the belly of a fish! They wrote about the greatest human experiences that we could think of; and on the greatest subjects and themes we could imagine; and together tell the full the story of mankind from its beginning in the garden of Eden to the end of this present creation. And the book that preserves all of these various writings has been used by God as the single most transformational force in every human culture into which it has ever been introduced—anywhere and anytime on earth. There really isn’t a single object on earth that’s more ‘human’ in nature than the Bible. It is—without question—the most ‘human’ book ever written!
And by the way; have you ever wondered why God would communicate Himself through a book like that? If He had a message to give to mankind, why didn’t He simply utter it Himself from the sky? Why didn’t He simply send a hand-written manuscript from heaven? Why didn’t He simply send mighty angels to declare His message to us? Why did He choose instead to speak to mankind through weak and frail members of humanity? I suggest that it would be because that was the very best way—indeed the only way—for us to relate intelligently to what it was He wanted us to know. He spoke to humanity; but He also graciously spoke to humanity in the language of humanity through human instruments, so that poor, frail human beings could understand. Perhaps the best analogy of this is our Lord Jesus. Our Savior Himself existed as the eternal “Word”; but as John wrote, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).
But just as we affirm that the Scriptures are human in nature, we also affirm that they are not of human origin. Look at how Peter expresses this in verse 21. After saying that we do well to pay heed to the prophetic utterances of Scripture—which have been made “more sure” to us—he then writes, “knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation …”
The word that Peter uses that is here translated “interpretation” comes from the joining together of two words in the Greek—the word epi, which means upon; and the word lusis, which means “a release” or “a loosening”. Thus, epilusis means to loose something or liberate it. Metaphorically, it means to give an explanation of something that is obscure or mysterious—to, as it were, ‘liberate’ it from its obscurity. Peter is saying that no prophecy of Scripture is the product of any private individual creative initiative—on their own power—to look over the events of life and give an “interpretation” of what will happen. This becomes even more clear when we read the first few words of verse 21. Verse 21 is meant to explain verse 20; and it says “for prophecy never came by the will of man …” “Prophecy” is the forth-speaking of a message from God; and the assertion that Peter is making is that there is not one authentic ‘forth-spoken’ message from God in the Scriptures that has its origin in the ingenuity or creative will of man.
The Scriptures, then, are not merely the writings of men who declare their own insights in accordance with their own will—as the Scriptures are sometimes thought to be. And praise God for that! There would be no hope for the needy people of this world in anything that has its source in man. It would be nothing more than one fallen human being telling his or her fallen thoughts to another fallen human being. Peter tells us clearly that “no prophecy of Scripture [that is, the 'forth-telling' of a true message from God that is written down for us and preserved in the pages of the Bible] is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man”.
So; that tells us what the Bible is not. Even though it is a very ‘human’ book from beginning to end, it is not of human origin. But, so that we can trust what it tells us, notice that Peter then went on in the latter half of verse 21 to say that …
2. THE SCRIPTURES ARE GIVEN BY GOD THROUGH MAN (v. 21b).
He wrote, “but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit”; or, as it’s more accurately translated in the New American Standard version, “but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God”. That’s what the Bible is—a word from God through men who were acted upon by the Holy Spirit.
Look at that word “moved” (or “carried along” as it’s translated in the New International Version). It’s the same word that is used in Acts 27:15 and 17 to describe the actions of a ship that the apostle Paul was traveling in. That ship had been caught in a terrible wind storm and had been blown far off course. The sailors struck sail and let the ship be “driven” by the wind. Peter is saying that, in a sense, that’s how God gave us the Scriptures. No word of prophecy was a matter of any man’s private interpretation or will. No human writer in the Bible got up out of bed one day and said, “Today, I shall write a portion of Scripture—and who knows? Perhaps God will like it and see fit to use it.” Instead, men—”holy men” as some texts have it—were acted upon by the Holy Spirit in such a way as to be “carried along” or “moved” or “born along”; so that what they wrote was “of God”.
And let’s understand this carefully! It wasn’t as if God had put any of His servants into a ‘trance’, and wrote what He wished to write through them—as if they were mere passive puppets or robots. Nor were they like ‘sacred secretaries’, simply taking “word-for-word-dictation” from God without any personal involvement. What Peter is telling us is that the human writers of Scripture wrote what they intentionally wrote as any writer would write; but they were ‘carried along’ or ‘borne along’ by the Holy Spirit in their writing—through their own unique personalities, and through their own styles, and through their own word choices; truly writing what they themselves intended to write; but in such a way as to be protected by God from error, and to communicate—even down to the very words (see 1 Corinthians 2:13—and even down to the very letter forms (see Matthew 5:18)—exactly what God Himself wanted them to say. Think of the men in the boat with Paul. As they were in the boat, they all went about their business—doing as they willed to do. But they did it all as they were being borne along and carried along by the wind. That’s a pretty good picture of what happened to the human writers of God’s holy Book. They wrote what they wanted to write; but they were borne along in their writing by the Holy Spirit so that what they wanted to write was exactly what God wanted written.
This is demonstrated in a remarkable way in what Peter wrote in 1 Peter 1:10-11. He was speaking of the great salvation that has been brought about for us in Jesus Christ; and then wrote,
Of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you, searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ who was in them was indicating when He testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow (1 Peter 1:10-11).
In other words, they wrote as they had been carried along by the Holy Spirit; and afterward, they themselves desired to understand the great things that were prophesied for us about Christ in their writings. That was because it was they themselves who truly wrote what was written; but it was God who bore them along in their writing so that they gave forth a message from God to humanity that was of a greater origin than of themselves.
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So then; what Peter tells us in verses 20-21 is that no prophecy of Scripture ever came about by the will and creativity of man; but instead, that the Bible is the product holy men being borne along by the Holy Spirit, so that they spoke from God. These Scriptures are what Peter says in verse 19 have now been “confirmed” to us through their fulfillment in Christ. And so; the Bible is a thoroughly human book; but one that is not of human origin; but rather is of God, through men, and to mankind. And note carefully what Peter says at the beginning of verse 20. He writes that we can be confident in the Scriptures “knowing this first” about them. What Peter means is that we are to continually know—as a present tense reality—these truths about the holy Scriptures as something “of first order” or “first in priority”
Praise God that we’re not left to wander around in the dark. We have a lamp in this world that illuminates the way for us. We may pick up the Bible, hold it in our hand, and read it confidently—knowing that God’s word is a sure and certain lamp for our way and light for our path! Until the day finally comes when we behold the Lord Jesus with our eyes, and hear Him say, “Well done!”—until the day when all His promises to us are fulfilled—let’s cling to God’s word faithfully.
EA
