a text taken out of context is a pretext*

The translation team is currently working through Amos. I work ahead of the team, firstly re-formating the Monkolé text where the prophecies need to be in poetic form, and then reading and analysing the text and the translation.

So my first stage is just re-jigging the text, before having really read it through. As I was doing this, I noticed a few key words in a verse, and thought that it sounded like a good quote for a verse for our ministry. In English it reads,

“'The days are coming,' declares the Sovereign Lord,

'when I will send a famine through the land –

not a famine of food or a thirst for water,

but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord.'” (Amos 8:11)

Well, this is what we want among the Monkolé people, isn't it? Er, except that if you read the following verse it says,

“Men will stagger from sea to sea

and wander from north to east,

searching for the word of the Lord,

but they will not find it.” (Amos 8:12)

Ah. Because in fact in this context the “famine” is a punishment. God's people have rejected Him and so He has finally lost patience with them and given them what they wanted. These verses come in a sequence of verses about the judgement of God. There is also the question of whether God's word in this case was the Scriptures existing at that time or, more probably, the prophetic word Amos and others were bringing. So not really all that relevant to our ministry here at all.

In any case, it was a good reminder of the dangers of pulling a verse out of context. Let's be responsible in the way we treat God's Word, especially if we are teaching others! And we can still be praying that there will be a hunger and a thirst for the Bible among the Monkolé people, even if we can't use this verse to encourage you to!

* This is a quote from one of our lecturers at Bible College who himself was quoting someone else ... my point is that I can't take credit for this catchy expression!