— by Stanley A. Clark
“One of the characters in Dostoyevsky’s great novel, The Brothers Karamazov, is an old Russian Orthodox monk named Father Zossima. He is laying on his death bed, reflecting on his life, and says this: “What a book the Holy Bible is! What a miracle, and what strength it gives… to man! It is just like a sculpture of the whole world and all its human characters… what mysteries are solved, and revealed.”
I took up the challenge Ken gave us a year ago, and signed on to read the Bible in 2014. And I made it. In fact, I was finished by September; it was too easy to “just keep going” each day. There are many ways to accomplish the task; I read it book by book, alternating between OT/NT, and doing it chronologically. I divided the Psalms into three sections, and each of the Gospels too, so as to spread those parts throughout the year.
This was not the first time I have read the Bible cover to cover. It was the second. The first time was exactly 50 years ago, as part of a class requirement in my Freshman Bible class at Wheaton College. That may shock you, as it does me…but the truth is that I have only read the Scriptures piecemeal since I was a teenager. For all of my adult life I have either read the Bible in an unfocused way (randomly) or focused (as when I was preparing a sermon, a devotional, or a major address). In my heart I knew I should read it all the way through from time to time, but I didn’t, because I had been steeped in the Bible from my early childhood. I had memorized a lot of Scripture, and had good head knowledge about where key passages were located. I also had good recall about historical details. It all gave me sinful pride, because others were impressed with how much of the Bible I seemed to know. So I relied on my reputation, and not on the Holy Spirit.
Enough confession. The point is that to read the Bible piecemeal is like putting together a jigsaw puzzle, a few pieces at a time, and then tearing it apart and putting it back in the box. You may get a splotch of color here and there, or the border pieces, but no matter how often you do it this way, you will never see the full context, or the depth, or the beauty of the picture; you have to complete the entire puzzle.
So… what did I learn from the exercise? First, I was reminded of the great contrasts between the OT and NT, which can be summarized in a few short phrases:
law and grace (or, rules and freedom)
prophecy and fulfillment
shadows of Christ, and Christ incarnate
Jews and Gentiles
the beginning of history, and its end
But these contrasts are only in emphasis; they are not contradictions. As Augustine said (as quoted on our church website), “The OT is the NT concealed; the NT is the OT revealed.”
Second, I realized once again what a diverse collection of literary styles are found in the Bible: poetry, love songs, history books, letters, visions, theater, wise sayings. Here are 66 books, written thousands of years ago and compiled under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, telling one sweeping story. The Bible could easily be subtitled, “The history of the world.”
Third, I rediscovered what its greatest theme is, from Genesis through Revelation. On one hand we have God, full of unfathomable mercy and patience, who loves and is jealous for His creation and His chosen people. He is completely steadfast to His Covenant promises. And on the other hand we have the unfathomable sinfulness of mankind– always rebellious, idolatrous, immoral, twisters of the truth, failures in every way. Mercy meets sinfulness. God provides, we complain; God warns, we ignore; God offers salvation, we worship idols. We are hopeless, until Christ appears to redeem us and set us free. And in Him, our lives are completely transformed.
Fourth, it’s not an easy book to read. There are some very difficult passages, hard to understand or hard to stomach. It raises questions and introduces mysteries; I now have a number of question marks in the margins, including issues that have puzzled scholars for centuries. And it can be confusing; for example, I was struck by the baffling similarity of the names of Israel’s prophets and kings, in I and 2 Kings:
Jeroboam and RehoboamJoram and Jehoram
Ahijah and AbijahAmaziah, Azariah and Ahazia
Elijah and ElishaJehoiakim, Jehoiachin and Jehoahaz
Omri and Zimri
…after awhile I found myself asking, “really?”
Fifth, I was struck by how clouded my memory had become over time. For example, I had completely forgotten some of the OT stories, both in their context and detail; in fact, there were some points where I would say, “I have never seen that verse before.” That’s why we have to keep taking it up each day.
The final lesson I learned is this: the Bible is a living book. I’ll say it another way: it’s alive. We read it, and through the Spirit of God, it speaks to us. It makes our own spirits leap. We read familiar passages, and they take on meaning we had not seen before. We discover that the Bible has layer on layer of meaning, and applies to our daily lives at literally every turn, no matter what generation we live in. It’s an astounding book indeed, unmatched in human history.
But be careful about this project: reading the Bible isn’t an end in itself; in fact, it’s the easy part. The real goal is summarized in James 1:22 (“Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves; do what it says”).
I read this week on Facebook about an initiative in the Episcopalian Church, started in 2011 by a priest in Pennsylvania. The goal was the same as ours: to get people to commit to reading through the entire Bible in one year. In 2014, in that one denomination alone, 500,000 people made the commitment, from 40 countries. The stated purposes were these (and they are precisely the reasons we should do the same):
–to transform lives
–to discover a love for God’s word (which is already planted deep in the believer’s heart)
–to allow the Scriptures to bring clarity, inspiration, comfort, strength, guidance, hope and love
into our lives
I will close with a verse from a magnificent hymn:
May the Word of God dwell richly in my heart from hour to hour;
So that all may see I triumph only through His power.”