For this Bible lesson, instead of a discrete study of specific Bible passages, I’m going to ask you to think broadly about the Bible as a whole. We are supposed to embody the Word of God, to be the Bible others read. Let your heart recognize the message here.
While I cannot cite specifically which of my professors said it, by the time I left Oklahoma Baptist University in 1978, I was convinced by my studies there that the common use of parable/symbolism across the Ancient Near East was due to a basic shared worldview. They were not obsessed with data; this was backed up by our examination of Boman’s book. The Hebrew mind did not think in terms of precision and did not attempt to envision (form a precise picture or image of) things that were not present, things that were speculative. Logic was a tool, not a rule.
Instead, the ANE mind was more concerned with moral obligations and burden of duty. A Hebrew man had zero interest in what was beyond the horizon because he didn’t have to deal with it. God did not hold him accountable for what was outside his reach. He had enough on his plate for things at hand that he could touch. It never occurred to him that he should be curious or interested in things he had not experienced.
Solomon was an exception, a rare of example of a Hebrew who wanted to learn things others could not tell him. After decades of effort, he wrote about it. Eventually he came to the place where he dismissed a lot of that in his Book of Ecclesiastes and told people to stick with what God places in their hands. And in his Proverbs, he warned against excessive intellectual curiosity. It can take you only so far before it gets you into trouble. It became a Hebrew discipline to be wary of speculation.
The Hebrew scholar had no need for direct knowledge of things in Heaven. It was beyond human ken. Rather, it was more than enough to take what God chose to reveal and make the most of that. Think for a moment about some of the book studies we’ve done in our community. Think about some of the things I’ve been saying for decades. Very early I knew that the whole point of parables was not to talk about Heavenly things, but to discuss our duties as humans in a fallen world.
So, Heiser’s thesis of the Unseen Realm drops neatly into place as a parable of how we should address our situation. It grants us a big picture we can use as a reference to explain things like Divine Election. It’s not a question of how logical it is to us, nor do we need to embellish it by dragging out all the speculative details. It is enough to recognize what it tells us of our duty to God.
We have been warned to avoid trying to extract from the biblical narrative data that satisfies human curiosity. Rather, seek to know the Scripture for what it was intended to do: to make us familiar with what Christ our Lord demands of us. We must embrace His Covenant of faith.
We are under no obligation to make this faith sensible to people outside the Covenant. The obsession of Big Eva in particular for compelling the world at large to take them seriously, to build up a professional corps of leaders that would carry secular authority, has done serious damage to the gospel message. Churches are chasing something that matters only to those going to Hell. Meanwhile, there is an awful lot of work we should be doing that is neglected.
What are God’s priorities for us? It’s very easy to misread the answer to that question if you approach it bearing a heavy load of secular assumptions. The world at large is going to Hell. There is really nothing we can do for the world. Most of humanity are born incapable of receiving the gospel message. Spiritual birth is a miracle of grace, not something that happens by human choices. You cannot submit to Christ as your Lord unless He calls you first.
Just so, taking the biblical message seriously is a miracle, not something that will ever arise from human scholarship. A significant portion of academic biblical scholars do not believe in Christ. Their opinions don’t count for much. It’s bad enough these non-believers have so much influence on those who do believe. But it’s a complete failure when you imagine that your witness for Christ depends on holding a position that non-believers take seriously.
The world hated our Savior first; we should hardly be surprised when they don’t like us who follow Him. We should expect them to reject our testimony. The Book is a means to an end. It gives shape and substance to our Lord, the living Word of God. If you don’t have Him, all the biblical scholarship in the world does you no good at all.
