Cheryl Schatz

Paula,

You are exactly right.  Familiarity of the text is very important.  What I also ask myself is why did God do or say it a particular way.  For example we know that God is omniscient so if he waits until after the wise men show up before he sends Joseph and Mary and the baby Jesus to Egypt, we can know he did this for a purpose.  It wasn’t a mistake or a haphazard event.

Don,

I have never done a research project to see how many wise men there were, but I think that tradition says three because there were three gifts.  Each gift, I believe, had a particular meaning and it was God who moved these men to bring what they brought before the Lord Jesus.  If you know the answer to how many men there were from the text, you certainly can educate me.

When I look at the text I have a particular world view.

1.  I believe that God wants us to know and understand the message he has given in the text.

2.  I believe that each piece of grammar is there for a reason.

3.  I believe that the answer to important spiritual questions are in God’s word and so I always try to remain sensitive to the text.

4.  I believe that God says what he meant and meant what he said.  Yet this meaning will never contradict the context, other passages of scripture, or the big picture of the entire bible.

Often it is hard work to mine all that God has in his word, but I believe that it is worth it for us and it pleases God.