foolish fleece (pt 1)
Did you know that the phrase “great minds think alike” is really only half of the saying? The other half of the saying is “though fools seldom differ.” When both phrases are taken together, the meaning is: when you think like someone, it may be that you are both smart or both fools. I don’t know about you, but until my kids told me the ENTIRE saying, I’ve always used this phrase incorrectly!
Another saying that Christians often use incorrectly is when we say “lay a fleece,” a phrase that comes from the Biblical story of Gideon (see Judges chs 6-8). Gideon’s story is a great example of how important it is to know the full story when applying scripture.
A small primer on Gideon: As the curtain opens, we find him visited by an angel and given some enormous promises. Gideon is asked to tear down altars to false gods, which he does, and is met with the anger of his entire community. A little freaked out, Gideon seeks insurance to make sure God would do the impossible things He promised. The plan was for Gideon to place a woolen fleece on the ground and then for God to perform a miraculous sign. God performed the miracle.
The man did that twice. For real.
The phrase “lay a fleece” comes directly from Gideon laying a fleece outside in his yard thousands of years ago. So how can we know when we are correctly using the phrase from this story? When looking at scripture, best practice is to start with its initial meaning before moving into it’s application to our life. Gordon Fee, Ph.D. and professor of New Testament Studies at Regent College, says, “a text cannot mean what it never could have meant.”[i] If you start with the correct understanding of the verse within its original context, you’ll be less likely to misapply it.
Most people start with what the Bible means to them and end up with a scenario like this:
What it means
It’s ok, even appropriate, to ask God for signs
What it meant
Faithful Bible characters use “fleece” methods, asking God for signs.
Moving past our inclination to instantly apply every verse of the Bible to our lives is tough. We’ve been trained to read the Bible as if it’s addressed to us and designed to apply directly to our life straight out of the text. Developing the habit of first thinking about the original audience {see post holy eavesdrop} and the original context is imperative to read the Bible correctly. To first approach a verse and try to learn its meaning takes some humility and some time, two ingredients that aren’t attractive in our drive-thru, 120character, scroll happy environment.
So what does the verse *really* mean? Stay tuned next week for part two as we dive into the context of the WHOLE story!
Notes:
[i] Gordon D. Fee, How to Read the Bible for All It's Worth: a Guide to Understanding the Bible, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1993), pg 26.
