Learnings

Let’s start with reading the Bible, since it is the basis of what is going to be presented. Several things need to be understood as you open it to read or study its passages. It was written over a period of many hundreds of years by numerous authors to whom God spoke. Even with that consistent supernatural inspiration, each of these writers was a unique individual with varied backgrounds and experiences, which come through in their writing. But make no mistake, while the authors style or character may come through in their writing, they wrote what the Holy Spirit had told and shown them, under His watchful eye! The result is God’s Word, not the authors. In addition, they were all Middle-Eastern people steeped in the culture of their time and place. A key difference between those writers and us as Western oriented readers is their approach to a topic. To them who and why was most important while to us where, what and how dominate our queries. Because of those different emphases the writer, at the Holy Spirit’s leading, either included or excluded various items of information. A Bible reader must take that into account and not try to force the writing into his or her mold or timeline. In addition, the Bible is a composite document made up of more than one subject: historical narration, the revelation of spiritual truth and principles, and prophetic statements. Together, they all serve to make God known and knowable to us. Each of these three writings has its own style and approach. The historical narration is generally straight forward laying out what happened to who and why, maybe not extensively discussing where and how types of details. The revelation of spiritual truth and principle is by its very nature going to be unusual to us. While we have a spiritual element within ourselves, we are dominated by our physical senses until we learn how to perceive and respond spiritually. The language used here is often more esoteric, filled with analogies or parables to help us relate the spiritual concepts to physical attributes, emotions and situations we know. It is not steeped in where, what or how since it is beyond our physical senses. The prophetic statements are going to be yet again different. These are fore-knowledge statements about what will happen often using symbols to explain. Many of those prophecies have already occurred and we can see those facts. The who and why language of the Bible doesn’t always give us nice clean details to measure against and requires some amount of faith to make the connection. For the prophetic events that have yet to occur there is the difficulty of an ancient people trying to described an event that is perhaps far-future, even to us. The symbols they use won’t match anything we would use and leave us grasping at meanings. Likewise, timelines are difficult to quantify with the prophetic event often tied to another future signpost event. The timelines are often presented in terms of earthly kingdoms’ durations, not years on a calendar. What we can do is be aware of the prophecy and watch for the signpost event, which itself could be symbolic. This is all to say that the Bible is a special and unique document that requires patience and insight to understand. That patience and insight is available from God and the more of the Bible you read, the better you will understand it. Lifting a verse or passage out of a limited portion of the text can be unhelpful and mis-leading. Many times, one passage will help explain another. There is a definite interconnectedness to the whole Bible which is, I believe, intended. To gain a better understanding of the Bible you will need to invest the time and effort to read it all. The reward, however, is worth it. A final word about the Bible. It is a message that is meant to be used not just read. Of course, as noted above it has to be read and even reread to be understood. But once that is underway the power of the Bible is set into motion by doing what God says, by living the way He has set forth. James, the brother of Jesus, tells us in James 1:22-24 that the power of the Bible comes not just by hearing, but by living it out. Reading the Bible without living out the truths of the Bible is not what God intended and gives but a small benefit well short of what’s offered!