Is the Bible about you?
When asked if the Bible is written about them, most people would answer no. Most people understand that they, personally, are not the subjects of the texts of Scripture.
But when people go to apply Scripture, they usually act like it is all about them.
Numbers 12, Take One: “Don’t be proud”
A look at Numbers 12 will illustrate my point. In this chapter, Miriam and Aaron oppose Moses. Israel has been making its way toward the Promised Land after the exodus from Egypt. Moses is in leadership over Israel and Miriam and Aaron are tired of this. So, they complain, noting that God has worked through them as well, and not just through Moses (v. 2). Why should he get all the glory?
Then comes an infamous verse: “Now the man Moses was very meek, more than all people who were on the face of the earth,” (Num 12:3).
After this, the Lord meets with Moses, Aaron and Miriam. He rebukes Aaron and Miriam for speaking against Moses, His servant, with whom He speaks mouth to mouth (Num 12:8). The Lord’s anger rests upon Aaron and Miriam and Miriam is struck with leprosy.
Miriam is saved from her disease, but only after Aaron repents and Moses intercedes for her, crying out to the Lord for mercy. Miriam is then shut outside the camp for seven days and Israel does not continue its trek until she returns (Num 12:15).
A Christian reads this account in his personal devotion time. He puts down his Bible, considers the text and his thoughts go something like this: “Moses was the meekest man on the face of the earth…Aaron and Miriam acted in pride when they opposed Moses…and the Lord then opposed them.”
His application:
“Lord, help me to be humble like Moses, and not proud like those other two. You are truly an amazing and all-powerful God and you can choose who you want to use to accomplish your purposes. Help me to humbly submit to your will today. Amen.”
Numbers 12, Take Two: Don’t rebel against God’s anointed mediator
While this man would not say Numbers 12 was all about him, he applied it — and then taught it — as if it was.
Let’s give the application another shot. This time I will come from the perspective of Scripture being God’s revelation of Himself, given through Christ (Cf. John 1). And I will seek to apply the text in light of Christ, in light of all of Scripture and as if Scripture was written for me, but not about me.
On God and how He relates to people:
God makes it clear that when Aaron and Miriam opposed Moses, they were actually opposing Him, for Moses was God’s servant (Num 12:6-8). We also see that when Moses interceded for Miriam, and the Lord heard his prayer and healed her (Num 12:13-15). So Moses served as Miriam’s mediator, a role God chose him to fill for the whole nation of Israel.
In light of Christ and all of Scripture:
Hebrews 3 tells us that Jesus is greater than Moses. While Moses was faithful over God’s house as a servant, Jesus was faithful over His house as a Son (Heb 3:5-6). 1 Timothy 2:5 tells us that there is one mediator between God and men: the man, Christ Jesus.
My application:
If opposing Moses was to oppose God, how much greater is this the case with Jesus Christ? Miriam had to remain outside the camp for seven days for opposing Moses. Those who oppose and reject Christ will have to remain outside the camp forever, undergoing God’s just punishment in hell.
But those who submit to Christ and respond to Him with repentance and faith become recipients of His mediation on their behalf, even unto eternal life. And those who are saved by faith, should continue in this same faith in which God saved them (Gal 2:20-21).
Thus, the application here is far greater than the moral command: don’t be proud. It includes this application, but far exceeds it.
The application includes a picture of God as the Provider of our Redeemer and celebration of this reality. The application includes, indeed centers on, submission to this Redeemer, Jesus Christ our Mediator. This application thus centers on, and flows from, the gospel, which all of our application should do (Gal 2:20-21, 1 Cor 3:11-15).
With this approach the exhortation to avoid pride — a valid application from this text — is grounded in submission to Christ as the Mediator and Savior of all who believe in Him. The exhortation to humility is grounded in the fact that believers are saved by Christ’s work alone and nothing they have done (Eph 2:8-10). Instead of being an isolated moral command, the exhortation to avoid pride is rooted in the gospel, the work of Christ and God’s redemptive work throughout history.
Is this a valid way to read Scripture?
So is what I just did a valid way to interpret Scripture? Can we bring Christ into the picture in Numbers, thousands of years before He walked the earth?
I’ll address these questions, and others related to them, over the next few weeks.