Reading the Bible (5)

Continuing from our last post...

 Lay of the Land Reading

Developing and maintaining an overview of the Bible 

            Lay-of-the-land reading is reading to familiarize and expose ourselves to the entire scope of Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation. Because the various sections of the Bible are interrelated thematically and by reference and inference, our appreciation of what we’re reading deepens as we understand these relationships. Here is an example:

            “In the second year of King Darius, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the LORD came by Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, saying, Thus speaks the LORD of hosts, saying, This people says, The time has not come, the time that the LORD’S house should be built.” Haggai 1:1-2.

            Haggai is almost at the end of the Old Testament and to most people it is an obscure book, little read and little understood.

            If we were to read these two verses for the first time, having never read them before, and if these were the first verses of the Old Testament that we ever read, we might ask:

            “Who are these people with the unusual names and what is this all about?”

            However, rather than being intimidated by unfamiliar names, a second look at the verses yields the following:

a.       A king (Darius) has been referred to.

b.      A prophet (Haggai) has been introduced.

c.       A governor of Judah (Zerubbabel) is on the stage.

d.      A priest (Joshua) is also on stage.

e.       The attitude of “the people” is an issue.

f.        The subject of the attitude of the people (the LORD’S house) is another issue.

            If we will get past the unfamiliar names we find that we know a lot more than we think we do. Moreover, when we keep reading a storyline unfolds and we soon see that the people of Judah were more concerned about their own houses than the House of the LORD and that God was not pleased with their selfish way of life. God had a purpose for the people of Judah and they were ignoring that purpose.

            So whether we know anything else at all about the historical setting of the book of Haggai we can learn some important principles about God’s relationship to His people and how we should respond to God by putting His will and purposes above our own.

            If I allow myself to get hung-up on the unfamiliar territory of the very first verse of the book of Haggai I’ll never get to the storyline and if I never get to the storyline I’ll never see the purpose of the book and the principles it contains.

            Lay-of-the-land reading is when I’m reading to cover territory, to familiarize myself with the Scriptures, to learn the storylines, and so when I come to unfamiliar territory, such as Haggai 1:1, I just keep reading. I say to myself, “Those are some strange names. I wonder what this is about. I’ll just keep reading and see what happens.”

            By the time I’ve read the short book of Haggai I can say, “While I still don’t know the entire historical setting of what I’ve read, and still don’t know a whole lot about Darius, Zerubbabel, and Joshua, I know a lot more than when I started to read this and I’ve learned some things about making God first in my life.”

            If I keep doing lay-of-the-land reading eventually I’ll come to the book of Ezra and I’ll read the story of the Jews returning to Judah and Jerusalem from being captives in the land of Babylon. I’ll read that the reason the Persian king let them return was to rebuild the Temple of God. I’ll also read that Zerubbabel was the governor of Judah and that Joshua was the high priest. I’ll learn that the Jews faced opposition from the surrounding peoples and decided to stop restoring the House of God. Then I’ll come to Ezra 5:1:

            “Then the prophet Haggai and Zechariah the son of Iddo, prophets, prophesied to the Jews who were in Judah and Jerusalem, in the name of the God of Israel, who was over them.”

            When I read this I can say, “Oh, this is related to the book of Haggai. This is more of what I was reading about when I read Haggai. I’m getting more of the picture now.”

            Here’s another example:

            “Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us,” 1 Corinthians 5:7.

            The immediate context of this passage is purity and discipline in the Corinthian church. Paul, who wrote this letter that we call 1 Corinthians, uses two images from the Old Testament to encourage his readers to be obedient to God in purity of life. Both of these images find their roots in Exodus Chapters 12 and 13.

            Exodus is the second book of the Bible and was written around 1450 B.C. 1 Corinthians is toward the end of the Bible and was written around 55 A.D. About 1,500 years separate the writing of these two books, and yet Exodus influences 1 Corinthians and 1 Corinthians refers back to Exodus.

            If I read 1 Corinthians without having read Exodus I’ll still get the point of what Paul is saying, but I’ll miss the rich imagery and depth of the point he is making by referring both to the Passover Lamb and to unleavened bread. (You can read Exodus Chapters 12 and 13 to see what I mean).

            Furthermore, since many of the books of the Bible between Exodus and 1 Corinthians refer to the Passover and the exodus from Egypt, if I’ve read them I’ll also see that Paul is using a major theme of the Bible when he invokes the imagery of Passover. In other words, Paul is building on an image, a truth, a teaching, that had its roots 1,450 years before he wrote, and which was referred to constantly by God and the prophets during the intervening centuries.

            In fact, when I read the last book of the Bible, Revelation, and encounter the image of the Lamb (Rev. 5:6; 22:1-5), I know that the image of the Lamb was first introduced in Exodus Chapters 12 and 13. So now I’ve connected the second book of the Bible with the last book of the Bible.

            If I read 1 Peter 1:19 - 20 I see that I’ve been redeemed, “with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you.”

            In 1 Peter I not only have the image of the Passover lamb in Exodus, but now I’m told that before the foundation of the world the sacrifice of the true Lamb, Jesus Christ, was ordained. Now I’ve not just gone from Exodus to Revelation with the image of the Lamb, I’ve gone beyond Exodus to before time began. Furthermore, when I read the first book of the Bible, Genesis, I’ll see images of the Lamb there as well. The more I become familiar with the entire Bible the more I can relate what I read to the big picture of the Bible. There is no substitute for reading the entire Bible.

            Lay-of-the-land reading is like moving into a new area and getting accustomed to the road system. At first I learn to get to the major places I need to drive to; work, shopping, and friends. Then I become curious about where different roads go to and whether or not there are other ways to get around rather than the main highways. Eventually I develop a sense of the road system and it becomes second nature to me, but only after I’ve actually driven the roads. I can look at maps all I want, but until I’ve actually driven the roads they don’t become a part of me. There really is no substitute for reading the Bible. Reading about the Bible, as we’ll see in the next section, can be helpful, but reading about the Bible is not the same as reading the Bible.

To be continued...