Understanding the Bible in Hard Times

Here are a few tips that might help you get the most out of the experience.

1. Pray for wisdom and discernment.

   

   Photo by Amber Kipp on UnsplashPray and ask for wisdom and insight.

2. Don’t try to sit down and just read the Bible from  from cover to cover at first  Even if you were to do this, it would not be useful. It would be the same as picking up any other piece of literature from another time and civilization and attempting to just read it. Try this with Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales and see how far you get.

3. Do read it as you would any other great literature. This means take it seriously, treat it with respect. Remember that just because it’s hard at times to understand doesn’t mean you won’t figure it out. In fact, when you study the history of Western Civilization, note that wars were fought over the question whether or not ordinary man should be permitted to read the Bible him or herself.

4. Avoid lifting passages out of context. This doesn’t mean you have to read it from cover to cover before you can study parts of the Bible. That goes against my second recommendation above. But it does mean it is important to have a good idea how any particular book in the Bible relates to the whole.  (Yes there are entire books in the Bible written over millennia of time and in at least two major  languages, Hebrew and Greek).

5. Find a Bible believing community within a Bible believing church and go to be taught, strengthened, and supported. Those who try to go it alone are most susceptible to buying into popular false narratives that will muddy your mind and keep you from knowing what to do.

6. Remember, love wins. Hate corrupts.

7. If you are frustrated and angry about the deterioration of the country and the world in general, you can still use this energy to move you to act in ways that are restorative and redemptive.

8. Don’t take matters into your own hands by lashing out.

9. Don’t seek relief in drugs, alcohol, or any other addictive behavior that will weaken your character. It’s all you really have within you that is of eternal value.

Here’s an excellent passage to ponder if you are looking for spiritual substance and encouragement.

Truly, you are a God who hides himself, O God of Israel, the Savior. All of them are put to shame and confounded; the makers of idols go in confusion together. But Israel is saved by the Lord with everlasting salvation; you shall not be put to shame or confounded to all eternity.

Isaiah 45:15-17 (ESV)

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Let me help you think this through.

“You shall not be put to shame or confounded.”

Who is this statement talking about, God or Israel?

It certainly could refer to either and depends upon context.

I think the best context is this world not heaven.

In heaven God is never put to shame or confounded.

On earth man often lives with shame and is routinely confounded, even believers in God — as identified by Israel in this Old Testament passage.

And since I believe in God, this passage speaks to me as well as those of Isaiah’s time.

This means we can substitute our own names with Israel. Try this in verse 17.

17 But [insert your name] is saved by the Lord with everlasting salvation; you shall not be put to shame or confounded to all eternity.

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Now go read the entire chapter of Isaiah 45 and tell me what you find. I’m all ears.

Photo by Emiliano Vittoriosi on Unsplash