Lots of Words

I was never encouraged to read the Bible when I was growing up.  It's not that my parents didn't believe in God.  Our tradition just didn't encourage Bible-reading as a part of our walk.  When I first started going to a church that encouraged Bible-reading, then, I was a bit overwhelmed at first.  People would immediately turn to the book, chapter, and verse when the preacher or teacher would tell them to turn to a passage.  I had no idea where the information could be found.

The Open Bible, containing the 1977 New American Standard Bible, published some statistics that reminded me why I was overwhelmed at first.  In this Bible, there are two sections containing 66 books, 1189 chapters, and 31,173 verses.  No wonder why I had trouble looking up a verse!  The overwhelming feeling started to come back when I saw the final statistic.  This Bible contains 807,361 words.  (And you thought my sermons were wordy!)

One of the other statistics found in that Bible was interesting.  The middle verse of the Bible is Psalm 118:8.  It says, "It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in man" (Psalm 118:8 [NASB]).  God's Word is worth getting to know.

I wanted to get to know what was in the Bible, but I didn't know where to begin. How in the world do I even try to read 807,361 words.  Reading a verse a day, with no breaks, would take me over 85 years.  Reading a chapter a day would still take more than 3 years.  That's much more achievable, but I wasn't sure I could have that kind of discipline - especially when the words were big and the people in these stories lived so long ago.  Yeah, I was overwhelmed.

That was 25 years ago.  Since then, I've read through the Bible many, many times.  I've not only learned from God's Word, but I've learned about God's Word through that process as well.  For example, I've learned different strategies people have taken for getting all those words in their minds.  Here are a few you may find helpful.

Talk About It
Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. (Deuteronomy 6:5-9 NIV)

The Old Testament people didn't have a Bible in their home.  The technology wasn't there yet.  So, they had to talk about it.  God's Word was passed down from generation to generation through oral tradition.  Fathers told their children the stories while grandpa was there to correct dad whenever he got a detail wrong.  Passing along God's Word was very personal and family-oriented.  Wouldn't it be great if your pre-teen daughter had a poster of Psalm 118:8 instead of Nick Jonas on her wall?  (Ok, that's unrealistic.  How about next to his poster?)  When we discuss God's Word in our homes, it becomes important to us.  We start getting it into our minds and our hearts.

Listen to It

Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. He was teaching in their synagogues, and everyone praised him. He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began by saying to them, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." (Luke 4:14-21 NIV)

When the technology existed to write Scripture down, it still wasn't easy or cheap.  Pounding out papyrus reeds and drying them in the sun just to get a piece of paper took time.  People started gathering to places where they could get God's Word into their minds.  They gathered in synagogues and, later, in church buildings where God's Word was read to them as a part of their worship service.  This is the way I was learning God's Word when growing up.  Many of our church traditions still practice this in one way or another today.  When someone else reads the story, along with those big words and unpronounceable names, it's easier to catch the gist of what is going on.  Often times those worship services have someone explaining more background, too, so it helps the passage make even more sense.

Read It

"Haven't you read," he replied, "that at the beginning the Creator 'made them male and female,' and said, 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh'? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate." (Matthew 19:4-6 NIV)

There are many Bibles with readable translations now a days.  They also have excellent helps that can match your personality.  Daily devotions, study materials, archaeological facts, theological insights, men's/women's/teen's issues, and much more can be found packaged in your favorite Bible.  Now they are available electronically, in the cloud, and on an app.  Some of them will even read the Bible to you.  There are plenty of ways you can get God's Word into your life.  You may be surprised how quickly those 807, 361 words start making sense.

How about you?  Do you read the Bible?  What is your strategy or approach toward all those books, chapters, verses, and words?  When you read those words, do they help you "take refuge" in God?