When reading the
Bible throughout the year I try to read from the Gospels and Acts, the Epistles
(including Revelation, which is a letter), the Psalms, Prophets, books of
Wisdom, and then the Pentateuch and history books at any given time. The number
of places I read varies from time to time, but my point is that I want to read
in such a way as to keep me continually exposed to all genres of the Bible so
that the Word speaks to me as a whole rather than piecemeal. The Bible is a
symphony and all the instruments are meant to play together, not in isolation. One
reason that Revelation is usually misread and misunderstood, and that Hebrews
is seldom read and nearly always misunderstood, is that we read them in
isolation, we read them devoid of what is called “intertextuality.”
I suppose intertextuality
is a fancy word which, in our context, means that we read any given Biblical
passage in the context of all Biblical passages, that we participate in a dance
of all Scripture and behold Isaiah interacting with Ephesians, and 1 Kings with
Daniel, and John with Genesis and Psalms. This is not about using a concordance,
though it does not rule out a concordance; it is rather about insights and
concepts and “seeing” in and through the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit
revealing Jesus Christ.
That is,
methodology is not enough, for learning without the Holy Spirit makes us
scribal people on the one hand, and antinomian people on the other…and I suppose
everything in between. So when we read the Bible we cover the breath of the
Bible, the genres of the Bible, so that the Holy Spirit can use the seed we’ve
sown, by God’s grace, to reveal Jesus Christ to us. As Proverbs tells us, “He
who tills his land will have plenty of bread.” When we read and meditate in the
Word, we can trust our Lord Jesus to provide us with plenty of bread, and of
course He is the Bread of Life.
What has all of
this to do with reading books other than the Bible? Well, just as the Bible
contains many literary genres, there are many genres in the world of literature
and writing in general and it just may be a good idea to varying our reading
diet, both within the religious world and the world at large.
One of the
points in all of this is that we should be reading for a lifetime and not so
much reading to meet an immediate need; not that the former doesn’t have its
place, but it should be a secondary place. Yes, I realize that our culture,
with its deemphasis on character development, does not value much that is
long-term; if there is no immediate gratification or result then something has
little value. However, this runs counter to the Biblical theme of pilgrimage,
of being on a journey to the City of God, of growing in our faith and character,
and of transformation into the image of Jesus Christ.
And here is a
warning for preachers and teachers, if we are not taking those we serve on
pilgrimage, but rather feeding them piecemeal on Sundays and Wednesdays and at
other times, if we are in effect “channel flipping” in our presentations, if we
are not constantly referring back to previous teaching and seeking to integrate
thinking and vision…then perhaps we have adopted the world’s ways. There may be
times in life when we do need to sprint to accomplish a goal, but the fabric of
a life of growth and character is that of a marathon – are we teaching others
to run a marathon?
Are we reading as
those running a marathon? Are we planting the Word of God deep within our souls?
Are we helping one another in this planting?
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