There are No Discrepancies!!

From time to time when one fervently studies the Word of God, one comes across a verse or passage of Scripture that seems to be completely out of place with the remainder of Scripture, and at face value contradicts it. This is often times where an unregenerate person and perhaps a young believer may throw his or her hands in the air and count it all has hypocritical rubbish. As mature believers we know that the word of God is both infallible and inerrant. That is it is always true and contains no errors. Since we believe that the Scripture is true and without error, then any contradiction has to be an error of our own understanding. A flaw in our own perception. In my study of the Scriptures, or what those who wear coats inside would call “Hermeneutics”, there are 6 primary rules I use to govern my understanding of God's Word. The greatest of these rules is the rule of Synergy. (We will cover all 6 rules in the next issue) This rule states that the whole of Scripture, is greater than the sum of its individual passages. You cannot understand the whole of Scripture without understanding its individual parts. Also, you cannot understand the individual parts of Scripture without understanding the Scripture as a whole. It is important for me to note here, that one does not need to understand all of Scripture to understand how to be regenerated. The Gospel message is simple enough for a child to understand, with the Spirit's leading. As it says in Romans 10, faith comes by hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

In the principal of synergy we are never to interpret a Scripture that defies the teaching of the Bible as a whole. This is what the Reformers called the “analogy of faith”. It is without exception the primary and most important rule in the art of biblical interpretation. Simply put, if you read a verse and it is contrary to the rest of Scripture, study harder to gain the proper perspective.

This lesson comes to mind because I encountered it just recently while studying Ezekiel. The passage in question was in the 33^rd chapter of Ezekiel in verses 21-27. As we see this prophecy was dated as either the day before or the day of the 12^th year of exile, 10^th month, and 5^th day of the month. The part of the prophecy in question is found in verse 24 “ Son of man, the inhabitants of these waste places in the land of Israel keep saying, Abraham was only one man, yet he got possession of the land; but we are many; the land is surely given us to possess.” (ESV) Here in this passage the city of Jerusalem had just been destroyed by the Babylonians a few months earlier. This escapee from the destruction comes to tell Ezekiel that those that survived the destruction have still not turned to God. Even after the judgment of God on themselves and their fellow Israelites for idolatry, the people are rejoicing that the land is now theirs to do with as they please. Here it seems that the people wish to take back the land for themselves but not in repentance to God.

Now lets turn to the 41^st and 42^nd Chapters of Jeremiah. The passage we just looked at in Ezekiel is taken from the perspective of the Israelite captives that were taken to Babylon. These captives had been in Babylon for 12 years prior to Jerusalem's final demise. Here we have Jeremiah's perspective from inside the walls of Jerusalem as it fell. He of course survived the ordeal and records what takes place to follow. The chief captain of the Babylonian Army placed a man named Gedaliah as governor over the survivors or “remnant” that survived the destruction. The King of Babylon wished for them to cultivate the land and pay tribute to Babylon from their crops and income.

In a long string of treachery that you can read about in ch. 41 Gedaliah is murdered. Those that remained came to Jeremiah to ask God for counsel. The question was, should they stay in the land of Israel or go to Egypt. After 10 days the Word of the Lord comes to Jeremiah and tells the remnant to stay in the Land and he will deliver them, and restore them. But the remnant refused God's counsel through Jeremiah. They said Jeremiah was being coerced by his scribe Baruch. The remnant people took Jeremiah and Baruch captive and ran to Egypt.

Here is where the discrepancy lies. In one passage we see the people wanting to stay in the land of Israel and use it for their own personal gain. In Jeremiah's account the remnant people wished to flee to Egypt and wanted nothing of Israel. Indeed this is the same group of people in view in both passages. So how do we explain this?

Let's dig a little deeper in the Word, and make sense of all this. We find in the book of Ezra, chapter 7, verse 9, that as he (Ezra), commuted from Babylon to Jerusalem, it took a time of about 4 months. Let's indeed add this time table into what we already know and see what we come up with. We know that the fugitive left the remnant of Jerusalem or its waste lands to see Ezekiel. He probably knew of Ezekiel mostly through copies of the prophecies Ezekiel had sent to Jerusalem. And we have no reason not to believe the fugitive, and his account that things were as he explained to Ezekiel.

In all probability, under the rule of Gedaliah, it is likely that the people did have the attitude described by the fugitive. After all they had been through, they were sure that God had certainly delivered them, and given the land of Israel into their hand. In fact God would have restored them to the land in return for obedience. It seems that while the said fugitive was in his 4 month commute, that this is the timing of Gedaliah's murder, and the events to follow of Jeremiah's account.

The people that once felt the land had been delivered to them, now ran in disobedience and fear. For they wished to escape the expected retaliation on them by the Babylonians, for the death of Gedaliah. In desperation and disobedience they forsake the land and run for Egypt. After we widen our scope and perspective, behold the Scriptures are now harmonized.

It is of upmost importance to have a concrete set of rules or guidelines for studying Scripture. But the most important of all is Synergy. I pray that when you have a run in with your next seemed Scriptural contradiction, that you will not stop digging until you have reconciled it, for it is always reconcilable.