This week’s E100 readings look at the life of Abraham. By any standard, Abraham is a person of incredible influence. Honoured by Jews, Muslims, and Christians alike, he is an important individual. But why is he so important? What’s the significance of his life? Consider how the clues in the context of his story make the significance of his life clear.
As you read through the Bible, there are extremes to which people can turn. Sometimes, we can’t see the forest for the trees. We get so caught up in the details that we miss the sweep of Scripture and the broad teachings that God is trying to express. Other times, we skip over details that can add colour and depth to God’s message. One of the details I’ve not thought deeply about until recently is the location of the garden of Eden. In one sense, it doesn’t matter. The garden was ruined through Adam’s sin. Paradise is no longer paradise and so there’s no sense in looking for it. But reading a commentary by John Sailhamer last month showed me that, in another sense, an awareness of the geography of Eden can help in shedding light on some of the symbolism of the Bible. Let me explain how.
On Sunday, Lawson Murray cited research from a study of over 7,000 churches that compared the impact of fifty different spiritual disciplines and activities. The assumption was that lots of church programs and activities were what was most needed to help people grow. But what the survey showed was that Bible reading and reflection is hands down the single greatest determining factor in spiritual growth. If you read the Bible and reflect on it, you will grow in your Christian life. If you don’t, you can do all kinds of other good Christian things, but your faith will languish. And yet a majority of Canadian Christians seldom read the Bible. This week I read about some of the findings of The Canadian Bible Engagement Study. It was interesting to see what factors determine whether people will read the Bible or not.
I love to listen to the stories that capture people’s imagination, because they often give insights into how people think and what they believe. Popular stories command an audience because they express things that resonate with how people see the world. So when the latest Star Wars installment came out, I was interested to see what its message might be. If you can handle a minor spoiler, I’d like to share what I learned from Yoda about the Bible.
Last Thursday I went to Cambridge for a daylong seminar on Preaching the Book of Deuteronomy with Old Testament scholar, Dr. Daniel Block. For many people, Deuteronomy is a dull book to be avoided. But the 74-year-old Dr. Block was neither dull nor tentative in his treatment of the book. Full of passion and love for its teachings, he sometimes shouted, sometimes laughed, and at one point even broke into song as he was preaching. He shared how he had begun teaching through Deuteronomy in an adult Sunday School class at his church. Initially 60 people signed up to join him, but how many would continue, particularly given how slowly he was working through the chapters? Well, he still has a couple of chapters to complete, but he’s been teaching that class for seven years now and he averages 180 to 200 people each week. Obviously, there’s more to be learned from this book than most people think! There were many lessons I took away from the series of lectures, but perhaps most helpful was his perspective on how Christians can enjoy reading the Old Testament.
One of the biggest challenges of the Christian life is the struggle to believe. If we really believed that God answers prayer, then we'd pray more. If we really believed that God wants what's best for us, then we'd be more obedient. And if we really believed that God's Word changes us, then we'd be more faithful in reading it. One of the ways that God seems to grow our faith is through amazing demonstrations of His power. By showing us that cataclysmic change is possible, He encourages us to keep pursuing incremental change in our lives. This week God encouraged me through the incredible transformation of a Japanese murderer, named Tokichi Ishii.
When I lived in Japan, one afternoon, without warning, I got a hurried call from a church member. She was in the area with her daughter and wondered if they could stop by. I sensed that there was some urgency to the visit, but neither of them was giving me any clues as to what it might be. I didn’t know what to say, but it was one of those times where you take a chance, not knowing how the person will respond or what God might do.
Followers of Christ are marked by their love for God’s Word. We’ve experienced the power of the Bible in our lives. And so we can relate when we hear the psalmist refer to the Word as a lamp to his feet and a light to his path (Psalm 119:105). God’s Word guides us more clearly than anything else we know of. And we’ve all felt its purifying power in our lives. We know what the psalmist is saying when he testifies, “I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you” (Psalm 119:11). Where verses of Scripture take root in our hearts they form unshakable convictions that protect and shape us. And so God’s Word is precious to us, not just necessary for us. We know the commands to seek God’s Word embodied in statements like “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4), but we also know the great privilege and preciousness of the Scriptures that Job testified of: “I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my portion of food” (Job 23:12). We feel both the compulsion as well as the attraction of God’s Word, but (you just knew there was a “but” coming right?), many, many people get stuck in their daily reading of God’s Word. Are you in a devotional rut?
This week I finished a year and a half travail in the study of Biblical Hebrew. I still haven’t learned anything about modern Hebrew. And so I can’t introduce myself or make even the most basic comment about the weather in Hebrew to my Jewish neighbours. And yet I’ve poured more hours than I’d care to count into my studies. Many people have asked me to explain why. Let me share three ways that studying Biblical languages has helped me to understand the Bible better.
I remember a conversation I had with someone I had been studying the Bible with and they said to me, “I don’t know what to make of the Bible.” Before they had started reading it, they assumed the Bible was a book of legends – amazing stories intended to communicate spiritual truths. But as they began to read, they realized that the Bible contained too much detail and first-hand witness to read it as a fable. It seemed like a collection of letters, speeches and historical accounts. The problem they had was that it also spoke of things they found too remarkable to be true. And so they were at a loss to know how to read the Bible. I think a lot of people have drawn similar conclusions.