Reading the Bible is hard, C

3.  One of the most important ideas to grasp when it comes to reading the Bible is that the Bible is a cohesive story from beginning to end.  It is not merely a collection of wise sayings and moral codes.  It INCLUDES both of these things but they are included within the context of a story.  Often, we can read the Bible as if it were a fortune cookie (as Ray Ortland Jr. has said), looking for a wise, helpful saying for the day.  While this approach may yield some fruit at times, it greatly diminishes what the Bible really is, a cohesive unit.

This means that the Bible is not a bunch of isolated texts with no bearing on each other.  Everything is connected somehow to the larger framework, the story.   There is a purpose for the Old Testament.  There is a purpose for the genealogies.  There is a purpose for everything.

The cohesive story of the Bible can be summed up in this way: God is on a mission to rescue rebellious sinners by his grace for his glory and our joy.  This overarching plan of God culminates in Jesus.  Thus, in a sense, Jesus is the glue that ties the whole Bible together.  Everything either prepares for, narrates about, or discusses the implications of, Jesus.  This fact is confirmed in several significant New Testament texts.  Jesus says that the Old Testament testifies about him (John 5:39).  Jesus' method of reading the Old Testament was to show how it spoke about, and prepared the world for, Him.  "And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself" (Luke 24:27, also vs. 44).  The unity of the Bible is centered around Jesus. 

So what implications does this have for our Bible reading?  It means that instead of reading the Bible to find an inspirational verse for the day, we can read the Bible to grow in our understanding of this grand story that God has been working out from the beginning of time.  It means that instead of pressuring ourselves to "get something" out of it each time we read so that we feel like we accomplished something, we can read it with a long-term goal of seeing the big picture that all the parts fit into. 

While individual verses or passages certainly have the ability to comfort and encourage us, and there is nothing wrong with finding comfort and encouragement in such verses, we are missing out on the greatest thing the Bible offers us if we limit our focus to isolated verses here or there.  The Bible offers us, from cover to cover, an account of God's mission to engage a sinful, rebellious world and reconcile it with himself, that he may be glorified and we may rejoice.  This is the story we are invited to take part in.

One last thing: Reading the Bible with the intention of gaining an understanding of the big picture is greatly aided by the act of journaling.  For one, journaling forces us to think about things and ask questions that we normally wouldn't.  Secondly, journaling allows us to look back over what we've learned and see how it all ties together.  I haven't always journaled with my Bible reading but have found it extremely helpful recently.  I use Google Drive (formerly Google Documents) so that I can access it wherever I am.  I usually try to journal for a specific amount of time, rather than a specific amount of verses or a specific amount of insights. This gives me the freedom to take my time on more complicated passages and move quicker over simpler passages.  While individual days here and there may bring few insights, over time I find I learn a lot with this method.