Find the plain meaning in Scripture

What happens when we read one of the many portions of the Old Testament that seem so distant? In Exodus 17, for example, Israel goes to war against Amalek. As Joshua lead the army in battle, Moses sat on top of a hill and kept his hands raised in the air. The Bible says, “Whenever Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed, and whenever he lowered his hand, Amalek prevailed” (Ex. 17:11). This is a fascinating account, but how do we interpret it? We will probably all agree that the verse isn’t telling us to go sit on a hilltop and hold our hands in the air. Should we be seeking a spiritual meaning that lies beneath the surface, then? Maybe the verse means that we must keep our hands and our hearts pointed toward heaven if we are going to defeat our spiritual enemies. While that may be true,there is no indication that this is what God is telling us through this passage.
- Francis Chan, Multiply P3-S3

This...is a new twist to how to read Scripture, aka to not try to look too deep into each passage and draw out messages that may be there, but may be not. I think we all tend to do this a lot. Yes, from Colossians 3 we do know we should point our hearts to heaven, so let us use that passage for that teaching, and not the story from Exodus 17:11. That goes for a lot of passages.

Scripture -> observations -> interpretation -> extrapolation to the modern context -> (personal) application

That is how it should go, and yes for truth to become interpretation requires discernment, wisdom, and Holy Spirit juice. Extrapolation is even harder, because we just don't know what should we continue doing and what we shouldn't. Things like tithing and slavery are examples that we have or may have gotten wrong. Jesus said to give EVERYTHING not just 10% (too many passages to list), so tithing almost seems like a cop-out to not give all of our bank account to God and to the poor and needy. Slavery...context...

We always try to dig deeper, but sometimes the plain text is golden enough. We got enough commands in the OT and NT (and again discernment to see which ones still need to be followed from OT, see Romans 7).

If we are going to take this verse at face value, we will read it as a description of the unusual way in which God used Moses to lead Israel to victory in a historical battle over the Amalekites. Through that story we can gain insight into the power of God and His ability to save His people, but those insights do not change the clear meaning of what God recorded in Exodus 17. It might seem more “spiritual” to try to find some deeper meaning behind the text, but what could be more spiritual than simply taking God at His word?
-Francis Chan, Multiply P3-S3