“No prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.” (KJV 2 Peter 1:20)
God is a God of truth and cannot lie. This limits what God can do because He cannot lie. There is nothing that God says that is not meaningful. There is nothing that God takes into His heart to do, but what He will do it. God cannot be bound by anything other than His own word. Not I, nor anyone else can control the meaning of His word. It simply means what He meant it to mean when He said it. The only interpretation that God is bound to honor is His own.
I suppose that every other parent has some personal experience with interpreting what they say. I know what it’s like to tell a child that we can do something if something else happens or gets done only to have the conditions unmet but still have the child proclaim with loud protest, “but you promised!” It can be a valient attempt to get the desired outcome. But listening only for what they want to hear (usually the promise of something good to come) while paying much less attention, or not taking it nearly as seriously, to the condition for it to happen, inevitably leads to disappointment and frustration. I don’t doubt that sometimes my children really are repeating what they thought I said, or at least their interpretation of it. But as sorry as I am for the misunderstanding, I don’t feel obligated by their expectations. I want them to be happy and can sometimes try my best to make it happen anyway, but it’s not because I feel obligated to “keep my promise” because it isn’t what I promised.
This is certainly antedotal, but I wonder if a part if it doesn’t apply to how I treat God sometimes. How often do I want to hold God to fulfill my own expectations because it is what I want and is aligned with my own interpretation, of what I think He said. But if my interpretation is not really what God meant when He spoke the words that I am using to get what I want, is God bound to honor my interpretation, even if it isn’t what He had in mind when He said it? I fear that relying on any interpretation that is not God’s own interpretation, may leave me disappointed. How important then is it to get the interpretation from Him?
The word of God means only what God meant when He said it. That seems simple enough and perhaps is self explanatory. It can also be important to note that I believe God can have more than one thing in mind when He speaks. There may be more than one way He intends to fulfill His word.
To uncover the meaning of scripture and verify a correct understanding requires an interactive process with God. If God isn’t involved, how can anyone verify that any interpretation is what God meant? Perhaps the challenge of understanding scripture is intentional and meant to drive any sincere inquirer toward interacting with God personally. Does the teaching to “ask and you shall receive” apply to the process of seeking for a correct understanding of the word of God? How willing is God to engage with anyone who sincerely wants to understand His word? How willing is the inquirer to truly understand His word, even if the meaning does not reflect well upon the one seeking to understand what He meant?