I’ve argued that you can get the main point; you’re not reduced to making a wild guess every time you study a passage. A few key skills will be most helpful:
- Observing the structure
- Asking and answering interpretive questions
- Tracking the flow of thought
Last week I gave some examples of how this works from narrative and discourse texts. Now let me show you some brief examples of poetic texts.
Proverbs 2
This chapter of Proverbs functions almost like a discourse, with tight logical reasoning.
- If you listen and search for God’s wisdom – Prov 2:1-4
- Then you will find it – Prov 2:5
- For God loves to give it out – Prov 2:6-10
- It will guard you – Prov 2:11
- From the way of evil men – Prov 2:12-15
- From the forbidden woman – Prov 2:16-19
- For the way of the good – Prov 2:20-22
The thesis clearly comes in the first five verses. The rest of the poem supports that thesis with a variety of reasons and consequences.
The main point: The Lord delights to grant a delivering wisdom to those who listen and search for it.
Proverbs 31:10-31
It’s easy to get lost in the details of this famous poem. However, my colleague Tom Hallman, who recently preached the most helpful sermon I’ve ever heard on this text, demonstrated beautifully how the structure and train of thought communicate the poem’s main point.
You can find Tom’s extended outline (color-coded!) in this Google Doc. The outer frame of the poem (Prov 31:10-12, 27-29) sets up a large chiasm—a structure where the second half mirrors the first half in reverse order. But instead of continuing a single, long chiasm, he embeds two shorter chiasms in the middle.
The main ideas of each of those embedded chiasms are brought together in the poem’s conclusion (Prov 31:30-31).
The repeated idea that keeps coming up is how this woman is to be praised. And the woman in view is not a young woman, a potential marriage partner. She is an older woman, having lived a life of wisdom. This poem is not a checklist for a potential spouse but a lifetime achievement award for a woman of wisdom.
Check out the linked doc for details. The structure and train of thought demonstrate that the poem’s main idea is to show what sort of woman is worthy of praise.
Try This at Home
I admit that the Prov 31 example gets a little complex. And Tom told me he didn’t see all this himself. He noticed a few things, and then tracked down and assimilated the helpful insights of others. It took him some time to sharpen his observation and interpretive questions and answers.
But I hope all of these examples give you some hope that this can be done. You don’t have to make a wild guess at the main point. Keep observing. Keep asking and answering questions. Nail down the structure as best you can, and figure out how the author moves from the beginning to the end. Where does he draw conclusions or highlight particular ideas?
Please know that I am not offering these main points as definitive or unquestionable. These main points are only the best I can do with my current understanding of those texts. But they are open to debate or sharpening.
Some of my favorite small group discussions take place when others challenge what I thought was the main point. When folks do that well, through careful observation and interpretation of the text, we all win.
As you improve in these skills, you’ll gain both facility and confidence at identifying the main points the Spirit of God wishes to communicate through the Scripture.