How To Derail a Bible Study
How To Derail a Bible Study
(Without Really Trying)
What do you do when a discussion of one of your favorite Bible passages skirts around the point that so enlivens the narrative for you? You try to move the discussion in your general direction. Am I right?
Our Men’s Bible Study is currently working through Second Samuel. Chapter six gives the account of King David wanting to bring the Ark of God to the City of David.
David arose and went with all the people who were with him from Baale-judah to bring up from there the ark of God, which is called by the name of the Lord of hosts who sits enthroned on the cherubim. And they carried the ark of God on a new cart and brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill. And Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, were driving the new cart, with the ark of God, and Ahio went before the ark.
And David and all the house of Israel were celebrating before the Lord, with songs and lyres and harps and tambourines and castanets and cymbals. And when they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah put out his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen stumbled. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah, and God struck him down there because of his error, and he died there beside the ark of God. And David was angry because the Lord had broken out against Uzzah. And that place is called Perez-uzzah to this day. And David was afraid of the Lord that day, and he said, “How can the ark of the Lord come to me?” So David was not willing to take the ark of the Lord into the city of David. But David took it aside to the house of Obed-edom the Gittite. And the ark of the Lord remained in the house of Obed-edom the Gittite three months, and the Lord blessed Obed-edom and all his household.
From <https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20Samuel%206&version=ESV>
There is so much going on, theologically, that makes for discussion and great debate. I really empathize with Uzzah. So much so, as I approach the altar at our church, I pray to God to remind him that my name is not Uzzah… and I am trying to obey all the rules that I am aware of, and not hold me accountable for the rules that are unknown or forgotten. In other words: God, I’m approaching close to you, don’t kill me! [I am not sure if Pastor Dan has written about it, but he has spoken about being at the altar under the Cross that is suspended by two thin cables. The news feed headlines would be epic, Pastor Killed by Falling Cross…]
This is what makes Uzzah’s story so captivating, not that we have an angry god (sic) waiting for the slightest offense to punish, but we have a merciful God that did not judge everyone. That’s why I love episode with Uzzah. I’m so excited, that I am getting ahead of myself. And that’s how you derail a Bible Study. You get excited!
You get excited to tell how it has affected you, changed you, brought you closer to Jesus. You want to tell your story. You have the plot outlined in your mind, you can imagine setting up the conflict and tension points. You know the ending is satisfying and clear, and you think you know which buttons to push to engage the audience. However, not even two minutes in, you get derailed when you suddenly realize the script you are writing on-the-fly is being taken over by others that think their script is superior, even though we are on the same page. And what should have been a monolog, appears to turn into a dialog, and maybe construed by some as conflict.
So here’s how you derail a bible study:
- Use hyperbole to pit God’s foreknowledge against our “free will” to trace the source of sin to God Himself. ( I will give you examples next time.)
- Intentionally use the devil’s trick of misquoting scripture to make a point.
- Pausing to allow someone to agree with your misquote and have them give you a misquote that confirms your misquote, only to look-up and prove their misquote is really a misquote. (And, they still don’t understand their misquote as a misquote…)
That’s all it took for me to get everyone running in circles. I did get to make a few minor theological points, but our fearless leader brought us back around to his agenda, to try to get us back on track. Next time we will dive deeper into Uzzah’s story and it’s deeper meaning.
Trust the Promises,
Steve Skiver