Knowable Word

Helping ordinary people learn to study the Bible

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Young Moms and Bible Reading

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Abigail Dodds has a wonderful piece at Desiring God called “Young Mom, You Can Read the Bible.” She speaks of the advice she received that never quite worked out: To make sure she woke early before the children in order to spend time with the Lord in his word. While such advice is not bad, it is not for everybody.

Perhaps forsaking the physically necessary (and often-too-few) hours of God-ordained nighttime rest isn’t a sustainable solution for your problem of inconsistent or nonexistent Bible reading. So, what is the solution? First, you must know your desperate need for God’s word every day. Then you must recognize that God’s word is more precious than you could imagine, and your ideals about how to read it are less precious than you might imagine.

She goes on to speak of the many opportunities to make use of brief, scattered moment through the day.

Reading God’s word is something that can be done with children around. It can be done with a baby in your arms. It can be done through your husband reading the Scriptures aloud to you over the dinner table. It can be done in the morning, afternoon, or night.

When you’re a mom of very young ones, an important tool you need to keep yourself fed with God’s word through those very short (yet very long) years is flexibility in how you read, along with consistency that you read. Be flexible about how you read God’s word, and be unwaveringly consistent that you read it.

There is much wisdom here. Check it out!

Let the Imbalances of Scripture Speak for Themselves

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Jim Elliff makes a terrific point in a very brief post. He encourages us to allow each passage of Scripture to speak for itself, each author for himself. Systematic theology is a wonderful and necessary discipline for the Christian faith, but perhaps we have been trained by it to over-harmonize texts and flatten the sharp edges of the scriptures.

Here is Elliff:

For instance, a man may read that he is to exert diligence in pursuing truths from God, but, on the other side his mind flies to passages that say God alone grants that understanding and unless God opens the heart, he is helpless to obtain any benefit from his diligence. So, the mind patches together a way both things are really one thing. But now you’ve ripped something away that the author intended to emphasize. He makes one point, but he purposely did not make the other point. He wasn’t writing a systematic theology, but was driving a truth home.

In some odd cases, the meaning of the first statement is turned on its head and all the potency is excised from the text by our propensity to blend all seemingly contrary thoughts together. As we read, we say, “Christ does not really mean we are to give up our possessions because in this place He says that some believers are wealthy.” So as we read we are denying the statement before we let it say anything to us. And, without intending to do so, we are telling ourselves and perhaps others that it would have been better if Jesus would have said something much more benign.

I think Elliff is exactly right. Remember, the Bible was not delivered to humanity on a fiery chariot from heaven, complete in 66 parts. Each book of the Bible was written, one at a time, from a particular author to a particular audience. Each of those books had real meaning in the minds of author and audience, even without a center column for cross-references. (And I’m not speaking about allusions to earlier texts that would have been clear to the original audience; I’m speaking only of parallel passages or texts that happen to cover similar topics or themes.)

Especially when it comes to application, we ought to receive the message of any given text with the full force intended by that author—even if that force feels out of balance with another part of Scripture. Why not just allow the perceived imbalance to simmer a little longer and spur us in a certain direction? We can always take more time later to examine other texts that speak complementary messages, that we may be prodded in a different direction.

Elliff’s brief piece is worthy of your time. Check it out!

Tips for Interpreting Old Testament Narrative

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Colin Adams offers 10 tips for interpreting Old Testament narratives.

  1. Try and grasp the overall point of the book.
  2. Read in big chunks – narrative often tells you ‘a little, in a lot.’
  3. Narratives tell you what happened, not what SHOULD have happened.
  4. OT narrative is first and foremost about God: his holiness, grace, salvation and justice.
  5. Moralise…but not too much.
  6. Repetition is a clue to what the passage is about.
  7. Don’t get bogged down in what the narrative DOESN’T tell you.
  8. Place names and people names are always important.
  9. When the writer’s “point of view” is revealed, you’ve just found gold.
  10. The New Testament ultimately fulfills whatever narrative you are in and is the supreme ‘commentary’ on your passage.

He illustrates each point briefly from the book of 2 Samuel. Check it out!

Why Memorize Entire Books of the Bible

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Andrew Davis has a lovely piece about “Why I Memorize Books of the Bible.” I confess that, though I’m a believer in memorizing lengthy portions of text, I have never memorized an entire book. But Davis makes me want to. Why?

  1. The rewards of Bible memory are measureless.
  2. Bible memory gets harder with age.
  3. Bible memory clarifies the beauty of Christ.
  4. Bible memory has built a city of truth within me.

Check it out!

6 Key Questions about the Book of Job

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Christopher Ash, author of a new book on the Book of Job, answers 6 key questions on the book of Job.

  1. Is the book of Job about suffering?
  2. What are we to make of Job’s comforters?
  3. Did Job deserve his sufferings?
  4. Why is the book of Job so long?
  5. Who or what is Leviathan?
  6. Is there any hope in the book of Job?

I haven’t read Ash’s new book yet, but his commentary on Job is one of the best commentaries I have read on any book of the Bible. My understanding of Job has been shaped profoundly by Ash’s insights. I commend his brief blog article for your consideration to get a quick overview.

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Find Your Way in Isaiah

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Isaiah is one of those books I find especially difficult for modern readers. It is very long, and the neverending poetry can make it feel like sinking into a marsh with nothing to hold on to. Davy Elilson is here to help.

I hate being lost. Few things are more frustrating for me than meandering through an unfamiliar city, or hopelessly searching for an elusive item in the supermarket. I confess I’m not pleasant to be around in such moments.

Yet lost is exactly how I feel every time I come to Isaiah. As I begin reading, the same thoughts seize my attention: I will soon be lost; totally disoriented; Isaiah feels too big; there is no immediately discernible structure. Perhaps you share this experience. Somewhere in the middle of Isaiah 24, you begin to reel at the winding path that has brought you there and the unknown path that awaits you.

Perhaps a map would be useful. Let me offer some help by mapping five movements in Isaiah’s prophecy. These movements can aid us in finding our bearings in this mammoth book. As you’ll see, the movements are centered on one of Isaiah’s favorite descriptions of God: “the Holy One of Israel.”

Ellison’s concise map would be well worth your time and consideration. Along with an overview of the book, perhaps it may improve your chances of finding your way through such a crucial part of God’s Word.

Check it out!

Theological Themes in Ezra—Nehemiah

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If you’re looking to begin a study of Ezra and Nehemiah, Russell Meek has some important background for you to consider. He places the work within its historical context before tracing out some of the main theological themes: God’s sovereignty, worship, justice, and Scripture. Here is a taste:

I think the most important theological contribution Ezra-Nehemiah makes to our cultural context is its vision of the all-encompassingness of walking with God. These books show that every aspect of life is governed by the sovereign God. And this God is concerned about all aspects of life; there is no sacred-secular divide, no distinction between religious devotion and the rest of life—food, sex, work, worship, parenting, sorrow, joy, and everything else we do and experience in this life and the next comes under the sovereign purview of our almighty, faithful, fierce, loving Father. And, really, is that not the message of the entire Bible?

Check it out!

The Sexual Ethics of Leviticus 18 and Their Abiding Significance

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Thomas Willoughby has a helpful piece entitled “Does Leviticus 18 Apply to New Testament Believers?” In particular, he seeks to answer a common argument that the prohibition against homosexuality in Lev 18:22 no longer applies under the new covenant.

Willoughby models a clear and effective use of the context and structure of the text to conclude that not only Lev 18:22 but the chapter’s entire sexual ethic has abiding significance. I might quibble with some of his secondary conclusions, but overall, he makes a good case from both the context and correlation with the rest of Scripture.

Check it out!

Empower Your Church to Study the Bible

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Faithlife recently republished a guest post I wrote for them a few years back entitled “How to Empower Your Church for Serious Bible Study.” In the article, I promote four straightforward habits to develop a culture of rich Bible study within your church. Learn, model, teach, and coach. Please don’t rely on a single seminar or workshop to change people’s lives. Trust the process of discipleship, and win people through practice and repetition.

Here is a taste:

If you can’t articulate a simple Bible study method and show the fruit of it in your own walk with God, you’ll never win your congregation to the practice. You’ll inadvertently communicate that ordinary people can’t or shouldn’t try to study the Bible, and you’ll persistently work against a culture of Bible study within the church. Leaders must do more than regurgitate commentaries for their people; they must know how to handle the sacred text themselves.

Bible study skills are infectious, not contagious. In other words, they don’t catch very easily; they require close personal contact to be transmitted. In 17 years training dozens of people to study the Bible, I’ve seen that folks don’t really get Bible study until they’ve had ample opportunity to practice it, with coaching. Pastors can’t expect a single seminar or teaching event to create a culture; only a dogged pursuit of personal training will do it. So encourage people to try Bible study for themselves. And when they do, your role can shift from inimitable expert to beloved coach. Regularly check in, revisit the topic, and keep training people in groups both small and large.

Check it out!