Why Read the Bible?

The Bible is not a "book;" it is a library, a collection of scrolls.  The convenience of having all those scrolls (books) bound into one volume is incredibly valuable for us modern-day readers.  It is a gift not available to centuries before us.  But that convenience has also made people think that if they want to read the Bible, they must treat it as a book, beginning with the first page of Genesis and reading straight through to Revelation. 

Our Kindle readers today are amazing portable libraries.  No one that I know would think herself obligated to begin reading the first book listed on her kindle and not stop until she had read all the books in the order they happened to land on the Kindle list.  When we enter a real library, we do not feel obligated to begin with the book closest to the door and read our way around the room.  Rather, we browse, pick up a book, flip through it, consider its contents, and then maybe put it back on the shelf, repeating the process until one book grabs our attention.

When we come to read the Bible, we need to consider that the Holy Spirit is somehow involved in the decision even to lift the book off the shelf.  He is directing our attention for a reason, so our browsing ought to be under His guidance and inspiration, beginning with prayer and attentive listening to the movement of our heart.  Even when we settle on a place to start, we do not need to read the entire book from beginning to end.  It is "permissible" to read a few sentences here and there from random sections of books or the library of scrolls that we hold in our hands.

In other words, we read the Bible not for information, but for inspiration.  There are some among us called to be scholars of the Word and to "study" the Bible -- but that is a specific vocation.  Most of us will not be called to "know" the Bible from cover to cover.  But still, there are wonderful reasons to be familiar with the Scriptures.

First of all, they contain the promises of God as they were made and fulfilled in human history.  When we read stories such as those in Guideposts, for example, we become more convinced of God's presence, love, and faithfulness in our lives.  We dare to believe that what happened to another person might also happen to us.  Faith is confidence that God will fulfill His plans for us, and that His plans for us are good and not evil:  "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future" (Jer. 29:11). 

If we do not read the Bible, we cannot know God's "mind-set" toward us -- and therefore, we will make up our own theories about both God and His plans for us -- usually, plans to harm us, for some reason.  Elizabeth said to Mary, Blessed is she who has believed that what God has promised her will be fulfilled.  If we don't know what God has promised us, we cannot believe that it will be fulfilled.  If we don't know "The Lord is my Shepherd/ He makes me to lie down in green pastures/ He leads me beside still waters/ He restores my soul," then we will not expect God to do this very thing for us. 

If all we read for the rest of our lives is Ps. 23, and if all we did is to absorb those promises, we would have peace and confidence in God.  Faith is not "blind;" it is based on experience, just as our faith in other people.  If someone tells you they will meet you at a certain time, and they are an hour late one day, you will write that off as unavoidable.  If that pattern is habitual, however, you will not have "faith" that they will ever meet you at the agreed-upon time. 

Our faith is based on an encounter with the Living God, Who is there to meet us when we pray.  If we know that "many are the troubles of the just man, but out of them all the Lord delivers him," we will not collapse under trouble, but rather look toward God to keep His promises.  Faith receives what God has promised -- it does not come all at once, but little by little as we experience again and again His help on our journey.  That is why the story of Abraham is so powerful -- it was not that Abraham was a paragon of virtue that we honor him; it was that he learned on the journey that God was with him no matter what or when or where he went. 

I encourage everyone to pick up the Bible and browse, stopping at an interesting section, listening for the voice of the Holy Spirit directing us to "Stop, Look, and Listen" here!  There is no telling what God has in store for us!