Biblical guidance

I think I have told you before about the man who was desperately seeking guidance from God.

He rightly knew he ought to look to the Bible.

But unfortunately he adopted the open the Bible at random and point at a verse method.

He prayed very hard, opened his Bible and pointed to Matthew 27:5:

“So Judas threw the money into the temple and left. Then he went away and hanged himself.”

Well, he thought, that’s not very promising so he tried again:

He read Luke 10:37: “Jesus told him, "Go and do likewise."

He thought, well, maybe one last go, and he found himself pointing at John 13:27: “Jesus told him, "What you are about to do, do quickly."

Obviously that’s ridiculous.

It ought to teach us to think about the context and purpose of what the Bible says.

It’s all the Word of God to us, but not always in a straightforward and direct way.

The Bible is all written for us, for our learning, but it doesn’t always apply to us exactly as it did to its original hearers.

We have to think about what it meant for them and what it means for us today.