How We Read Scripture

The Bible is clear about how to treat a woman who commits adultery:  

she shall be brought to the door of her father’s house and there the men of her town shall stone her to death. She has done an outrageous thing in Israel by being promiscuous while still in her father’s house. You must purge the evil from among you.

If a man is found sleeping with another man’s wife, both the man who slept with her and the woman must die. You must purge the evil from Israel. - Deuteronomy 22:21-22

The clear reading of the text is not in question. it never was. So when Joseph found his betrothed (which was a legal equivalent in the first century to marriage) was pregnant, it was clear what he should do. But he didn’t do it.

Instead, he ignored the obvious reading of the text in favor of a more holistic approach- one that said something to the effect of, “I don’t think God is like that. I don’t think God wants us to kill our enemies. I think God is kinder than we are.” Joseph took the risk of living into that hope. And, as it turns out, he became father to the one who would be gentle and kind. Jesus would show us all what God is really like - and how God’s more interested in forgiving enemies and blessing them and in judging and condemning them.

When has ‘the clear reading of the text’ led you wrong? When has it been used against you? When have you used it against yourself?

As you enter into a more gentle Advent, what might it look like to take Joseph’s approach this year?