Observation – Part One: Book Overview
For most of us, reading the Bible can be really challenging. I think a common experience goes like this: we start to read, maybe attempting to read one entire chapter, and we find most of the verses in that chapter to be incredibly confusing. We stumble through the entire chapter feeling somewhat disoriented to the meaning of what we just read. Then, every once in a while, we come to a verse that seems to make sense, and it feels like we have stumbled upon a really powerful verse, a nugget of gold in the sand. For example, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Phil 4:13). We do not understand anything that came before it or anything that comes after it, but we love that verse. I think most of us have had this very experience or one of a similar sort.
We might call this kind of Bible-reading the “Instagram Bible Version.” Think about this with me: what do we do when we find that one verse we understand? That is the verse we post to Instagram. First, we clean it up and make it look nice, remove all the verses around it and, second, we post it to Instagram for all the world to see. Now, I am not saying that if you post Bible verses to Instagram, you are a bad person. If you are posting on Instagram, I encourage you to post the Bible. However, when it comes to Bible-reading, plucking the verses that we understand out of the Bible and looking at that verse isolated from the rest of the chapter or book is not good practice because that is not how the Bible works. Rather than giving us a plethora of Instagram-worthy sayings, the whole Bible is telling us one unified story. We are not meant to take it apart as we read, but we are meant to view ourselves and our lives in light of the grand story of the Bible.
I hope we can strengthen one another to not only understand those beautiful and powerful verses like Philippians 4:13 but to also understand verse 11, 12, 14 and 15! When we look at each verse, and each chapter, and each book in its context, we will begin to grasp the intended meaning of that powerful verse and see it for all of its beauty and relevance for our lives. The first step to reading the Bible like this is observation. Peter Krol has a great quote about this:
“Before we can set our eyes on the horizon, we have to get our noses in the text. Our study must begin with observation. When we observe, we try to figure out what the text says – not what we want it to say, think it should say, or heard someone else say about it. We receive each text on its own terms, and that process requires careful observation.”
Before we read a verse, we should start with the biblical book that verse is in. We might call this step of observation “Book Overview.” In this first step, we are trying to find answers to the following questions:
Author: Who wrote this book?
Audience and Occasion: To whom did he write? And what was happening when he wrote it?
Themes: what are the big ideas of this book?
Purpose: why did he write this book?
If you have a good Study Bible (I recommend the ESV Study Bible or the NIV Grace and Truth Study Bible), the editors will have a page at the beginning of each biblical book that provides a helpful overview that answers these questions. But you don’t need a Study Bible to find these answers. The best starting place is to read the whole book once or twice before you slow down on each chapter. I know this sounds like a tall task, but I promise it is worth it. You will get a feel for what is going on in that book. You might write down the words and topics you think are important or repeated throughout the book. Look for purpose statements for why the author wrote the book. Bible reading can be like a puzzle. This first step of “book overview” is like looking at the whole picture on the cover of the box before picking up all of the individual puzzle pieces (verses).
A quick example of why this helps: Paul wrote a letter to the church in Philippi (the biblical book of Philippians) in order to strengthen and encourage their faith in the midst of trial, particularly while Paul was in prison for preaching the gospel. That’s the overview. When you realize this overview, and then you come to Philippians 4:13, you begin to realize that Paul is not talking about doing anything he wants through Christ who strengthens him. Rather, Paul is saying that he can be content even in the worst of circumstances, and so can the Philippians. How? “through Christ who strengthens them.” There is joy for Paul even in prison because Christ continually strengthens him to keep the faith. Beautiful!
I encourage you this week: read the whole book of 1 John a few times (its not too long!), and jot down your own observations about the Book Overview.
Pastor Mark