Reading the Bible can be challenging. It is full of oddly named characters doing sketchy things (like Ham seeing “the nakedness of his father”, cf. Gen. 9:22). With the odd laws (don’t “boil a young goat in its mother’s milk”, Ex. 23:19) and lengthy census lists (one of its books is literally titled Numbers), you might question how it ever became the best-selling book of all time. Yet don’t give up: the Bible itself will teach you how to read it.
Meditate on it. The Bible isn’t a book you read once and put back on the shelf. “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success” (Josh. 1:8). The Bible takes real, lifelong effort to learn. There is always something new to see in it, and the blessings flow when we do what it says, an experience which helps us understand it even more (cf. Matt. 7:24-27, Jam. 1:22-25).
Read it together. In Nehemiah 8, returned Jewish exiles came ready to listen attentively to the reading of God’s word all morning long, and Ezra the scribe came ready with Levites to help explain it. “They read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading”, leading to “great rejoicing” (Neh. 8:7-12). Sound, clear biblical teaching is a gift from God (cf. Eph. 4:11-16, Rom. 12:3-8, 1 Pet. 4:10-11). When we assemble as a church, listen attentively, and explain clearly, we can understand and rejoice, too.
Bring it home. In giving Judaism’s central command to love God with your all, Moses said, “And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise” (Deut. 6:6-7). They were even to wear God’s word on their clothes and decorate their homes with it! In ways large and small, God’s word is meant to fully permeate our daily lives. The more it does, the more we understand what it is all about.
Read the spoilers. The Bible is one book where it is okay to skip to the end: it will help make sense of the rest (cf. Gen. 1-3, Rev. 20-22)! And spoiler alert: it’s all about Jesus. “These are My words that I have spoken to you while I was still with you, that everything written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled,” the resurrected Jesus told His disciples (Lk. 24:44). In Christ, the Law achieves it goal, God’s promises are kept, and we can truly know the Father (cf. Rom. 10:4, 2 Cor. 1:20, Jn. 14:8-9).
Discover God's Word for your life in our series Confirmed!