On Sunday night we looked at Psalm 1 (149 to go) and I mentioned that it is not correct to think of the Bible as God’s ‘workshop manual’ for humans.
Rather it is the revelation of Himself, His love for us, and our response.
In Psalm 1 that which is being meditated upon is the person, character and will of God revealed in the Scriptures.
The blessing which the person who meditates on this knows is a relationship with God.
Matt Chandler makes a similar point in this video using another familiar, but mistaken analogy, that of the Bible as ‘roadmap’.
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On a similar theme, at Engaging Church, Andrew Rogers ponders the problems with preaching a good idea which is not the point of the particular Bible text which is before the Congregation.
I recently heard a sermon on parenting. The text for the sermon was Luke 13:20-21, “Again he asked, ‘What shall I compare the kingdom of God to? It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough.’”
The central point of the sermon was that if parents instill good morals and biblical wisdom into their kids at an early age, the kids will likely grow into God-fearing adults. The morality and wisdom are like the yeast in the dough, working their way into the child’s life.
This is not a bad idea. It may even be a true idea. But it has absolutely nothing to do with Luke 13:20-21, a text clearly about the Kingdom of God – not parenting.
Read all of Preach The Text Not Your Ideas at Engaging Church.
mgpcpastor's blog 
Hi Gary – Thanks for linking to the post. 🙂
I hadn’t seen this Chandler video. It’s good, and he’s right. I’ve heard the David & Goliath story used as a metaphor for overcoming problems in our lives multiple times – in the pulpit, in Sunday school, in small group, every where. Using Old Testament characters as morality plays for today’s church seems to be common place, and an easy way to misunderstand the Bible as being God’s revelation of himself. I think John Walton has done some writing on this in his recent book with Crossway (I’ve not read it yet, but I heard it’s good from a friend).
If you’ll allow a shameless plug for another Z book, I’d like to recommend that you check out “How to Read the Bible Through the Jesus Lens” by Michael Williams. It’s brand new. In it he unpacks the same idea that Chandler discusses in this video for every book of the Bible. You may like it.
Best to you!
AR