Genesis 40:8
"We both had dreams," they answered, "but there is no one to interpret them."
Then Joseph said to them, "Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell me your dreams."
This question that Joseph asked Pharaoh's baker and cupbearer after they had their dreams while in prison is an important question for us still today. The dreams these two men had came from God for a specific purpose: to reveal his power and sovereignty through Joseph. Look at how Joseph approaches interpreting God's Word (the dreams). He recognizes that only God is capable of interpreting his own Word, so Joseph lets him. Joseph doesn't rely on his own feelings or ideas about what each dream might mean, or could possibly mean. He looks to God for the interpretation. The proof of Joseph's faithful submission to God in interpreting these dreams is seen in the fact that they came true, exactly as Joseph said.
This lesson is still relevant and important for us today. As Christians, we don't have the freedom to interpret God's Word however we want. The only right way to interpret Scripture is to let Scripture interpret Scripture; or said another way, to let God tell us what he means when he says what he says in his Word. The mistake too many people make is to think they have the freedom, or the right, to impose their own thoughts, ideas, and feelings onto what God says in his Word. The Bible is God's Word. He takes it very seriously and so should we. He gives multiple warnings about adding to it or subtracting from it (Deuteronomy 4:2; Revelation 22:18-20). This is why matters of doctrine in churches is so important. What a church teaches must be supported by Scripture. It can't simply be the pastor's own ideas or feelings about what society says Scripture should say. No one has the freedom to impose their own thoughts and feelings onto God's Word--not pastors, not the media, and certainly not the selfish masses. Biblical interpretation is not open to a democratic vote. There is only one vote that counts: God's.
I will finish with a couple of quotes from David Kuske's book Biblical Interpretation: The Only Right Way:
In interpreting written symbols of any kind, the interpreter's purpose must always be to determine the meaning that the original writer intended for the original reader--nothing more, nothing less.
SAYS=MEANS
This equation is a basic rule that must govern all communication; otherwise, what people said or wrote to one another would obviously be confusing at best.
What is true for everyday interpretation is doubly true in Bible interpretation because we are interpreting what God says. In the process of determining what the Bible says and means, the interpreter must be careful no to inject anything subjective into his interpretation.
--Biblical Interpretation, Kuske, p.13
God bless
Jason Fredrick
