UNDERSTANDING KINGDOM INTERPRETATION PART 1

Proverbs chapter 23




Today we are walking in: Understanding Kingdom Interpretation Part 1




Job 21:14


Therefore they say unto God, Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge H1847 of thy ways.




KNOWLEDGE



Today we look to the word-KNOWLEDGE- H847 da'ath--knowledge, perception, skill, discernment





The Torah testifies.....................


Genesis 2:9


And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.


Exodus 31:3


And I have filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom,and in understanding, and in knowledge, H1847 andin all manner of workmanship,


Leviticus 4:8


Or if his sin, which he hath sinned, come to his knowledge: then he shall bring his offering, a kid of the goats, a female without blemish, for his sin which he hath sinned.




The prophets proclaim..................


Nehemiah 10:28

And the rest of the people, the priests, the Levites, the porters, the singers, the Nethinims, and all they that had separated themselves from the people of the lands unto the law of God, their wives, their sons, and their daughters, every one having knowledge, and having understanding;





Isaiah 33:6


And wisdom and knowledge H1847 shall be the stability of thy times, and strength of salvation: the fear of the LORD is his treasure.





Jeremiah 3:15


And I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.






The writings bear witness.............



Job 34:2


Hear my words, O ye wise men; and give ear unto me, ye that have knowledge.



Psalm 119:66


Teach me good judgment and knowledge: H1847 for I have believed thy commandments.


Proverbs 1:7


The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.




UNDERSTANDING KINGDOM INTERPRETATION PART 1



Write this topic in your notes. This afternoon we are continuing our studying of the kingdom. I want to get right into this because we don't have a lot of time but I want to cover as much material as possible. I want to speak on interpretation of the Kingdom. We've been dealing with this issue of the kingdom for the last few months now and the more I study this the more I begin to realize how much I don't know. We must be very careful!! We need to come to the Bible with an open heart. Say Most High Yah, let the spirit of truth teach me!! We need to come with an open heart. We have our own assumptions and we have to fight with them!! They are a part of our life. History is a good example of that. Everybody has their own interpretation of what happened. We interpret scripture differently and we interpret history differently.
What are your perceptions that you bring to the Bible? You have to check your way of thinking because that affects the way you read the scriptures. You must try to minimize as much as possible what you think and just come and say Yah give me Your mind. And that is how you begin to bring balance to your interpretation so that you can live out a correct kingdom lifestyle. When you start to talk about interpreting the Kingdom from the Bible, principles are drawn from four basic areas. The first one is language. Language is one of the most important areas from which principles are drawn. The Bible is written in three languages. Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. Three languages that this book is written in. It is important to know that because the Bible was not written in English. It was not written in French, German, Spanish or Italian. The Bible was written in these old languages. Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek. When you are going to interpret a document, you must return as close as possible, if not directly to the original language. Because the meaning is captured in the concept of the language of that period. This is so important when getting an understanding of the Kingdom. Interpretation as a discipline is important because meaning has to do with the core of man's thinking. Interpretation is necessary, because meaning is what we're after. The meaning affects our thinking. And thinking is the foundation for your life. Which means if your meaning is wrong, then your thinking will be wrong. Therefore your life will be wrong. Proverbs 23:7(KJV) For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee. So Fiveamprayer, you have to get your thinking right! And thinking comes from what? Meaning, whatever you consider something to mean, that determines your thoughts about it. And whatever you think about it, determines your life. Meaning is not in words, but in people.That is a tough reality. I am going to say that again, meaning is not in words, but in people. Now if you don't understand the rules of interpretation, the rules of hermeneutics, then you begin to run off into your own interpretation. And what they've done is developed laws and principles that protect you from applying your own ideas and your own approach to interpreting documents. Timothy was commanded by the Most High Yah, through Paul to exercise great care in handling His authoritative message. Paul said Study to shew thyself approved unto Yah, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. (2 Timothy 2:15)
In other words, Paul is telling Timothy the message that what you and I have is so important, we can't afford misinterpretation! Much of what we call Kingdom lifestyle, much of it is misinterpretation and is bondage because people have misunderstood what was meant. The Bible is the greatest book that has ever been written, and in the Bible the Most High Yah Himself speaks to man. It offers comfort, in sorrow; guidance, in perplexity; advice and counsel for our problems. Thank the Most High Yah for the Bible! It offers rebuke for our sins and our wrongdoings and also inspiration for our daily living. Thank Yah for the Bible!! But I dare say that the Bible can be so misinterpreted to become a burden and actually a curse in some ways if it's wrongly interpreted. Now biblical interpretation has two dimensions to interpret, the first is concerned with discovering the original meaning of a statement and the second, takes account of changes in meaning. Which contemporary readers may attach to the same words, so we have two dimension interpretation. You are interpreting the meaning of the original text and you also have to understand the changes of the meanings in the modern context of the reader. This is probably the most intricate part of interpreting the Bible. So many words have changed over the years. That becomes a problem with interpretation, because the meanings of words change over a period of time. That is what Yahusha ran into when He came to earth Yahusha, who is the author of the Bible, He's the Spirit of Truth. His number one problem was, He didn't understand what they were talking about! That's why He kept on saying it is written:
John 6:45 It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of Yah. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me.
Or ye have heard it said:
Matthew 5:21 Ye have heard that it was said of them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment:
Matthew 5:27 Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: Matthew 5:33 Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths:
What did Moses say? His words were--you have heard it said….
Thou shalt not murder. He said that's what you all come to your conclusion is, don't kill people.He said that's not what I meant. He went back to what? Meaning. He said, what I meant when I spoke those words to Moses on the mountain, I AM the Word! What I meant was if you wish they were dead, you killed them. That's a whole new meaning for murder!! He's saying you, concluded all kinds of things. You all have come down to the point now, where you don't kill a person until you actually stab them with a knife or shoot them with a gun. He said that's not what I meant, He said by that time it's too late! The minute you listen to that, then you begin to think what else have I gotten wrong? I mean if I thought killing was killing a person and He thinks killing is thinking they were dead, then that means that all of us are murderers. The next one is even worse. He said you have been saying thou shalt not commit adultery. What you mean is don't get caught in bed. Don't get caught, He said that's not what I meant. What I meant was if you wish that you were in that bed. By His definition of adultery, many of us are adulterers! There were so many books that the Pharisees and scribes were using that were written and translated and interpreted by the scribes before them, that when Yahusha came, He didn't even bother with the books. He says you're missing the meaning completely, so He had to begin his ministry with a disclaimer. Who remembers the disclaimer? He began the ministry in Matthew chapter 5:17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. Look at that, He says first of all before I start let me say, I did not come to destroy the laws and the prophets. Now it's gonna sound like I am because you guys are so off course. But He says I didn't come to destroy the law. So that is all the writings and the prophecies of the prophets, right? But I came to what? Fulfill them! In other words, I came to fill them, full of the meaning that was intended originally! English is a very dangerous language, especially when you use it for Kingdom understanding. English is a modern language. It is a late language, so don’t think that you have the best language. We probably have the worst language of all the people in the world. For example in English we have one word for love. What is the word? Love. That is a problem. So we say I love you, I love this glass, I love this coat, I love ice cream, I love dogs. So you have to interpret the word love for all of these things. That’s why English is a terrible language. Now in the Greek language they have four words for love and each one means something completely different. So when someone in the Greek language tells you they love you, they don’t use just any word. They use a specific word for their husband or their wife. When they talk to their child they use a different word. When they talk to the dog they use a different word. When they pick up a glass they use a different word. When they talk to their colleagues they use another different word. So there is no confusion in that language about what you mean. Now when you read the New Testament, it simply says love. Love thy neighbor as thyself. Which word is there? Is it agape? Is it philio? Is it eros? What is it? Which one is responding to your neighbor? Do you love your neighbor like you love your wife? We have to be careful. So these three languages are important. These languages are critical for you getting the correct meaning so that you do not live in error. Like when Paul says, cover your head. Guess what that means? In Greek it means authority. Not wearing head wraps. Paul did not talk about hats. They did not wear head wraps! But you see if the word is wrong then the meaning comes out twisted and then the application becomes a problem! There is nothing wrong with a hat and head wraps. They are fashionable. Matter of fact, the Bible says that a woman’s head is already covered. It is their hair. He was talking about being submitted to an authority. And he even tells men to cover their heads. Yes he did. He says the head of every man is HaMashiach. That means you have to be covered. And a woman has to be covered by the male because, that is the first creation of The Most High. There is nothing wrong with that. Can we stop making that word a doctrine? Because you twisted the word “covering” you have people walking around making a headwrap a doctrine. Where does that come from? It comes from misinterpreting a word. Just one word. Covering. We have to be careful of these languages. It is very critical that we understand the Bible is not written in our language and it lost some things when it was translated. It loses a lot of stuff because the language we have doesn’t deal with it. For example the word praise. In our language it is just one word but there are actually seven different words for the word praise, but when you read the English it simply says praise Yah. And then another verse says praise Yah and then another verse says praise Yah and those three words can mean three totally different things. One means hala. One means zama. One means toda and they are different phrases. But in English, it just says praise Yah. The Most High Yah says, what are you doing? That is not what I mean. There is a praise that means to be quiet and here you are screaming and yelling. No, that one means shut up! The English language is so bad it doesn’t have more than one word for praise. The more you learn, the more stupid you feel. Another word is bless the Most High, O my soul. Psalm 103:2 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:
That’s a word for praise and it is the word yada. Yada means to extend the hand intentionally and praise the lord. It means to express thanksgiving. The word soul means mental activity. So when you read that verse carefully and you understand what David spoke when he wrote that Hebrew word then you understand that verse has nothing to do with how you feel. So it says bless the Most High, O my soul. With my mind, my will and my emotions. The language is a very important part of Kingdom understanding. All of the old testament was written in Hebrew. Surprisingly, except for just a few short statements. Some of them were written in Aramaic because of the carrying over into Babylon. When they went into Babylon and the Most High Yah sent them, as punishment they took the books with them. They took the testaments with them that Moses had. And they learned the language of the oppressor. Aramaic. So some of the interpretation was written in the language that they learned in Babylon as you know for a long time. So they learned the language of the people that were oppressing them and therefore they taught and they wrote in that language. So there are short passages in the Bible that are written in Aramaic and most of them are written during the period of the exile to Babylon. Do you know that the people in the African countries have probably in many cases a better interpretation of the Bible than we do here in the United States?? Because in those countries, those people still have the cultural concepts that are closer to the Bible than we do, because we have been moved and transported. People in the countries of Africa and their rituals are so close to the rituals of the Bible. Like washing your hands and not using two hands to do the same thing. They still do the same thing even today, if you go to Nigeria you can’t eat with any hand that you want. The customs are still there and there are a lot of things that they still do that are so close to the biblical experience, than us who have been contaminated by the western experience.