Beef Up Your Bible Reading 1

You wouldn’t do it with any other book, so why do it with the Bible? With any other book you wouldn’t think of starting in the middle. You’d never dream of just dipping in and reading bits here and there. Would you?

Well, maybe you would. Maybe you are the kind of person who gets hold of a new book and starts reading part way through, but, I’ll tell you, if you do, you won’t be able to make sense of it. You might think you’re making sense of it but you’re only guessing. You can’t be sure that what you’re making of it is what the person who wrote it meant you to make of it, unless you read the whole thing from the beginning.

The Bible is no different. The Bible is a book that tells one story. I hope you realise that. The Bible is not a book of unconnected short stories. Too many people read it like it is and that could be one reason why they find it hard to understand. The Bible tells one big story that starts in Genesis and ends in Revelation and the bits in between only make proper sense when you can see where they fit in the big story.

Can I encourage you, if you haven’t done it already, to read through the story of the Bible in the order things happen? (Remember, the books are not all arranged in chronological order.) Make notes as you go: draw a timeline. Get the historical order of things clear: Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Noah, Abraham, David, Solomon, the division of the kingdom, the exile and return, the coming of Jesus, the growth of the church. Start with a basic framework like that, fill in some details then work out where each of the Old Testament kings and prophets fits so you can see what was going on when each king ruled and when each prophet was preaching.

It’s not as hard as it sounds. If you want to take a shortcut, any good Study Bible will give you what you’re looking for. There are lots of books that will do the job. You could even search online for a ready-made “Bible timeline.”

If you make the effort, in future, when you do dip into your Bible and pick out bits to read, you’ll be able to see how they fit into the bigger story, you’ll be able to understand them the way God means you to and I promise, you’ll see some amazing things you’ve never seen before. It'll really beef up your Bible reading and, who knows, you might even start to enjoy it.