Reading the Bible

 

By Pastor Tim Hitchcock

 

Introduction

            New Christians and sometimes newly awakened ones frequently have questions about reading the Bible.  One may ask, "Where should I begin?"  Another may ask, "Why should I read it when I do not get anything out of it?"  Still another may wonder, "What is a good translation that will make it easy for me to understand?"  These are all good interrogatives that deserve an answer.

 

The Beginning

            "Where should I begin?"  The Christian life is predicated upon faith.  We put our faith and trust in Christ to begin this life (Acts 16: 31) and God expects us to live by faith afterward (Habakkuk 2: 4; Romans 1: 17; Galatians 3: 11; and Hebrews 10: 38).  One aspect of faith believes that what God says is true.  II Timothy 3: 16 says, "All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable..."

 

            This is the answer to our question.  The Bible is not a herky-jerky book of hodgepodge ideas.  It is one continuous whole.  It consists of 66 books written by various men, but all spoke as the Holy Ghost moved upon them (II Peter 1: 21).  In actuality He is the true author.  The Bible is literally God breathed (theopneustos- inspiration).  It is so much a part of God that it is as His very breath.  That means that there is continuity.

 

            Someone has said that there is a scarlet thread woven through the fabric of the Book.  That is the blood of Jesus Christ.  From the first mention of the Word spoken in Genesis chapter one to the first prophecy of the coming Messiah in Genesis 3: 15 to the very end of the Master’s manuscript in Revelation 22: 21, it is all about "the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ". 

 

            With that in mind, where should we begin?  Would you begin a novel in the middle or at the end?  Would you skip over the introduction?  Would you omit the character development?  In fact, we start at the beginning.  Why do we do that?  Speaking for myself, I do that so that I can understand the plot.  It is like watching a television series than has an ongoing story line.  If you jump in late, you have a very difficult time figuring out what is going on.  The Bible is the same.

 

            We should read from the very first word.  When we finish, we should return to the initial verse and read on.  Once we have done this several times, we will have a broad general overview of Scripture that will help us to put the pieces in place.  We can certainly glean some basic doctrine by warping from one spot to another, but we also run the risk of taking words out of context.  The danger in this is our deceitful heart (Jeremiah 17: 9) that will twist and distort the message to our own end.  Our desire should be as the Psalmist, "Grant thee according to thine own heart, and fulfill all thy counsel (Psalm 20: 4)."

 

The Discipline

            "Why should I read it when I do not get anything out of it?"  This question sounds so unspiritual to those caught up in the clouds, but it is of real concern to the practical.  We must remember that the disciples wrestled with similar issues. "Then Peter began to say unto him, Lo, we have left all, and have followed thee (Mark 10: 28)."  God's answer is that without faith it is impossible to please Him.  We must believe that God is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him (Hebrews 11: 6).

 

            Revelation 1: 3 says, "Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand."  The blessing that comes from reading is conditioned upon two thoughts.  The first is hearing.  We must hear the words.

 

            If we do not get anything out of our Bible reading, we need to examine our hearing.  Do we have ears to hear?  I Corinthians 2: 14 says, "But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."  Dead people do not hear, and the Bible says that apart from Christ we are dead in our trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2: 1-3).  To be able to get something out of the Scriptures we must first be born again.  Jesus said, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.  Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again (John 3: 5-6)."  He went on to say that if we believe in Christ, we will "not perish, but have everlasting life (John 3: 16)."

 

            When we receive Christ, we receive the Holy Spirit who comes to indwell us and baptize us into the body of Christ at the very moment of salvation (I Corinthians 12: 13).  At that instant, our body becomes His temple (I Corinthians 6: 19), and He becomes our teacher (I John 2: 27).  Then we can begin to understand. 

 

            That brings us to the second thought.  We must “keep those things”.  It is possible that the only thing wrong with our hearing is a rebellious spirit that refuses to do what God says.  We are like the elderly husband who simply turned off his aid when he did not want to hear.  We quench the working of the Holy Spirit by our insubordination.

 

            I was at Paris Island at the height of the Viet Nam war.  Each day, we marched around in the hot tropical sun in seeming mindless, boring exercise while our drill instructor called out the cadence.  "Left, right, left."  It went on forever.  What does this have to do with combat?  Where is the target practice?  Where are the tactics?  Why do we have to do this?

 

            At the beginning, our heads bobbed around in great disarray.  One was up, and another down.  The sound was a dull murmuring undercurrent.  We moved about as a disorganized mob of undisciplined civilians in military garb.  In time though, things began to change.  By graduation, we marched as one cohesive unit.  Our step was together.  Our heads were ever even.  Our sound was as one.  The drill made us a disciplined fighting machine.

 

            Paul said to Timothy and God says to us, "Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ (II Timothy 2: 3)."  Part of faith believes that God is operating even if we cannot figure out how.  We did not see how marching could help us to be soldiers, but it did.  God has given us His Word to teach us and to discipline us.   Reading is part of that discipline.  Genesis is fun.  Part of Exodus is fun.  Then we hit all of the endless details of the tabernacle-this knob fitting into this socket.  In Leviticus we become disgusted with minutest of trifles about the sacrifices and the garments of the priests.  Soon we quit with a disgusted shrug, "I'm not getting anything out of this."

 

            God says, "Press on."  If we do we will eventually come to realize that God has a blessing for us.   My wife and I went through this very scene many years ago.   Then in Numbers, God spoke.   If we had ceased, we would have missed an incredible blessing. 

 

            God wants us to develop the discipline of reading His Book even when we do not see the benefit.  He wants us to accept by faith that internal changes are taking place as we read that will develop us into the elite army of the King.  He wants us to be ready to ride the white horses, be dressed in the white robes, and march to the cadence of the cross.  He wants us to as one unit put down the rebellion and set Christ on the throne (Revelation 19: 11-16)!

 

The Work

            "What is a good translation that will make it easy for me to understand?"  The problem in this question is the word "easy".  God says, "Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth (II Timothy 2: 15)."  The emphasis here is on study and work.  These are two terms that do not go with easy.

 

 In college, I spent perhaps seventy hours per week studying physics to gain a mastery of my chosen field.  In the summer I changed tires in a B. F. Goodrich store and prided myself on being a hard worker for praise of men.   None of this was easy.  After several years of this ordeal, I woke up one day to find that the lunar landing of Neil Armstrong may have been one small step for man, but it was a giant disaster for anyone wanting a career in physics.  Men with advanced degrees joined the unemployment line and did the most menial of tasks to make a living as the space program wound down.

 

Suddenly, I had no future and scrambled to find another career.  Over the next couple of years the Lord brought me to the brink so that I might be yielded to Him.  When I finally tossed my life into His lap, He began to work on me.  I soon realized that I needed to study the Bible and not merely read it.  Not long after, an evangelist introduced me to Joshua 1: 8 which says, "This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success."

 

This is the only place in the Bible where the word success appears.  I thought to myself that if this is the true key to success in life then what do I have to lose.  What is the worst that could happen?  I thought perhaps bankruptcy, but I was young and had plenty of time to recuperate.  I am now much older.  I have experienced the Midas touch, as well as famine in the land.  I have had wilderness wanderings, where I have not known where the next meal might come from; and I have had a Job experience, where, in a brief period of time, I lost everything including the voice of God.  Yet I have never been bankrupt.  My God has always been there and I have grown to appreciate more and more that He is the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

 

Conclusion

            If it is easy that you are looking for, then you have come to the wrong place.  But if it is an exciting, never dull moment, sometimes lose your breath, thrill of a journey through space and time then learning to live the Bible in your day to day life is the place to be and will continue to be so for all of eternity.  To participate in this real world of faith living, we must begin our relationship with Christ in the book of Books, finding the secrets that God has hidden in His treasure chest for life (Proverbs 25:2), and trusting in His precious promises that get us over the hurdles in the race to be all that God would have us to be.

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