Articles
Circumstances or Scripture?
People sometimes have something happen to them whether for good or bad and begin to allow that event to influence how they understand what the Bible teaches on a particular topic. Recently, I had a conversation with a man who was telling me about how he had been ill, went to a religious service, and had a man supposedly miraculously heal him. The same man told me about someone else who had been ill and he supposedly miraculously healed that individual. In the past, I have tried to reason with this particular individual from the Bible about whether miraculous healings still take place today and he has not been very interested. After this most recent conversation, I began thinking about how it is possible to find oneself in a certain situation and then begin interpreting various passages to support our view of our circumstance rather than allowing the Bible to help us accurately understand our circumstances.
King Saul in the Old Testament came to my mind as an individual who allowed the situation around him to lead him to come up with a course of action he thought was proper but was disobedient to God. In 1 Samuel 13 Saul was supposed to be waiting for Samuel to come and offer a sacrifice. As Saul is waiting for Samuel to arrive people are deserting him and hiding because of the threat of the Philistines. 1 Samuel 13:6-7 says, “When the men of Israel saw that they were in danger (for the people were distressed), then the people hid in caves, in thickets, in rock, in holes, and in pits. And some of the Hebrews crossed over the Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead. As for Saul, he was still in Gilgal, and all the people followed him trembling” (NKJV). Saul views himself as in a desperate situation. 1 Samuel 13:8 tells us Saul waited for Samuel seven days and the people were scattered from him. As a result of the circumstances Saul finds himself in, he decides to go ahead and offer the burnt offering himself (1 Samuel 13:9). Samuel came as soon as Saul finished offering the burnt offering (1 Samuel 13:10). Samuel asks Saul what he did and Saul begins to give his explanation for his actions. He says, “When I saw that the people were scattered from me, and that you did not come within the days appointed, and that the Philistines gathered together at Michmash, then I said, ‘The Philistines will now come down on me at Gilgal, and I have not made supplication to the Lord.’ Therefore I felt compelled, and offered a burnt offering” (1 Samuel 13:11-12, NKJV). Saul looks at the situation as he saw it and comes to the conclusion the best answer is to go ahead and offer the sacrifice God had not authorized him to offer. How did God feel about this? Samuel tells Saul, “You have done foolishly. You have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God, which He commanded you. For now the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. But now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought for Himself a man after His own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be commander over His people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you” (1 Samuel 13:13-14, NKJV). Saul’s decision was not a wise one and yet from his perspective at the moment seemed to be the best thing for him to do.
Are we at times tempted to look at a situation from our perspective and think our explanation is better than accepting what the commandment of God teaches? Let’s not allow our view of a situation to override what God’s word says about a topic. God did not allow Saul to offer a sacrifice and Saul’s view of the situation did not change what God’s word taught. Going back to the example at the beginning of the article. God's word teaches miraculous powers were limited to the time before God's completed revelation was given (1 Corinthians 13:8-13). God’s word teaches miraculous powers were imparted only by the laying on of the apostles’ hands (Acts 8:14-19). When we see things which might seem from our perspective at the moment to have no better explanation than to say a miracle was performed by someone, let’s be careful not to allow our view of the situation to override what God's word has clearly taught on the topic.
