Time and Place
A crucial principle of biblical interpretation is the principle of studying the times and circumstances during which a particular text was written and by whom.
What is Jeremiah describing in Jeremiah 4:23-26?
When most Adventists read these texts, they think of the millennium. However, when Jeremiah wrote this text, around 600 B.C., he was not thinking of the millennium. The context of this passage is the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C. In verse 1 God said to Israel, “Return to Me; and if you will put away your abominations out of My sight, then you shall not be moved” (NKJV). In other words, there was still time for them to repent. If they had returned to the Lord, they would not have been taken into captivity.
God, through Jeremiah, pleaded with His people to turn from their evil ways, but they would not listen. In verses 23-26 the prophet in vision sees what will happen if they disobey. In poetic language he describes the waste and desolation that will come upon the land of Judah because of their disobedience. The crucial point is that when a text was written and under what circumstances needs to be taken into account when we seek to interpret it.
What happened with Judah and Jerusalem in 586 B.C. is a type of what will happen to the world in the future. When Jesus comes and the earth is cleansed with fire, Jeremiah 4:23–26 will be an apt description of this earth during the millennium. Thus, exegetically, Jeremiah 4:23–26 refers to the destruction of Jerusalem. Symbolically, however, it also refers to the time of the millennium. Ellen G. White, therefore, quotes from Jeremiah 4 to describe the situation on earth during the millennium.—The Great Controversy, p. 659.
In reading Ellen White, we also need to take time and circumstances into account. For example, in 1897 Mrs. White wrote that “the money expended in bicycles and dress and other needless things must be accounted for.”—Testimonies to Ministers, p. 398.
At the end of the nineteenth century, the bicycle was not an economical means of transportation but was rather a rich person’s toy. The best early bicycle cost $150, an investment comparable to the cost of an expensive car today. People were mortgaging their income for months in advance to buy what was then an expensive luxury item. Within a few years’ time the bicycle became a useful and inexpensive means of transportation, and she never again spoke against it.
Her policy on bicycles was based on the biblical principle of good stewardship. If she were alive today, she probably would apply this principle to other things that people spend frivolously on.
| Time and circumstances are important not just in the interpretation of inspired writings, but in all aspects of life. How quick are you to judge the actions of others without getting more background information? How can you improve in this area? |
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