The Key to Reading the Bible
I'm often surprised by Jesus' straightforwardness. Jesus frequently confronted religious leaders and ordinary believers of his time for their misunderstanding of Scripture and lack of faith in its message.
Jesus said to the Sadducees, "Is this not the reason you are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God?" (Mark 12:24)
“O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?" (Luke 24:25-27)
Jesus, speaking to Nicodemus, asked, "Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?" (John 3:10)
“Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, and those who were with him... Or have you not read in the Law how on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless?" (Matthew 12:3-5)
Jesus emphasizes that religious leaders and those knowledgeable about the Scriptures should understand them deeply, not just superficially.
Sometimes in the New Testament, key theological ideas come from small grammatical details. In Galatians 3:16, Paul makes an argument based on a grammatical point in the Hebrew Scriptures. Jesus reveals himself as Messiah by drawing attention to the proper interpretation of Psalm 110 in Matthew 22:24. Jesus wanted them to understand the Scriptures deeply and draw important conclusions, not just read them.
I’m currently preaching through the book of Revelation. Revelation has confused a lot of people, and many have spent a lot of effort trying to understand its message. But the key to understanding Revelation is right in front of us. Revelation doesn't directly quote the Hebrew Scriptures, but it has 404 verses and makes about 500 allusions to the Old Testament. That’s an average of 1.25 per verse. To understand Revelation, we need to understand the Hebrew Scriptures. (Fortunately, we have tools to help us.)
It turns out that the key to reading the Bible well is reading the Bible. Repeatedly, deeply making connections and piecing things together. We read with the intent of deeply understanding its details, not just casually or devotionally.
We can’t get there overnight, but we can get there slowly as we keep reading, re-reading, and meditating on Scripture.
Read the Bible once, and you'll probably feel confused. Read it ten times, and you'll start to get a feel of the terrain. Read it fifty times, and you'll begin to see connections you'd never noticed before. Read the Bible over a lifetime and Scripture will start to shape your mind. There will always be more to learn, and it will be a joy.
I have friends who’ve just moved back to Toronto. They’ve moved to the wife’s childhood home. One day, the husband corrected the wife on her planned route to where she wanted to go.
She looked at him. “I grew up here. I know this area like the back of my hand.” She had knowledge of the place that he didn’t, and she was right.
That should be our goal with Scripture. Slowly over time, we can get to know it like we know the things that are most familiar to us. The only way to get there is to read and slowly build up a deep knowledge of God’s word.
The key to reading the Bible is to keep reading the Bible. The more we do, the more we’ll be able to read it with the understanding that we need.
