How do you read the Bible? If you consistently study it on any level, I want you, for a moment, to think about how you study it. Do you prefer the verse of the day on your Bible app, or do you like your daily devotional? Do you read it in large chunks? Do you read the entire books of the Bible in one sitting? I have heard, it would take from 65 to 80 hours to read it from beginning to end. Or, another way of looking at it, you could read approximately 12-15 minutes a day for a whole year.
I wouldn’t expect any one of us to sit down and read for 70 straight hours. However, I do have concerns that many of us struggle to fully grasp some of the more challenging themes of the Bible because we like to take teeny, tiny, bite sized pieces and often fail to fully understand their greater context. This can be a huge problem.
To take the ancient Scriptures and apply them to our lives, within a significantly different cultural experience, and not consider the context, could lead to us misunderstanding the whole point of the verse or greater, lead us astray from the purposes, plans, and commands of God in our lives.
Take, for example, Genesis 9:25 and the curse of Ham. Back in the 1800s, there were some who used this section of Scripture to justify racism and slavery, because Hams’s name meant ‘dark’, and the curse of Noah was a prophecy that the Canaanites would be subjected to servanthood for generations to come. However, this was a demonic twisting of the Scriptures, because, in context, the curse from Noah was upon the Canaanites for their sins against God, not because of their skin color. Even further, sin’s curse is on all people and does subject us to servanthood towards it because it becomes our master when we live in sin. The outcome of sin for all generations is death and destruction, because of rebellion towards God and His plan for all of creation.
So why don’t we study the Bible more from cover to cover? Why don’t we commit to reading through the entire books of the Bible in the proper time it may take us? My hope is to help us all in this endeavor as we continue to preach and do Home Group studies in books or sections of the Bible.
With this in mind, we start a new sermon series called: HISTORY – A study through the book of Genesis. Why Genesis? It should be obvious that the first book of the Bible, just like any first chapter of a book, is foundational to understanding God’s Word. Yes, the book of Genesis shows us the foundational themes in all of the Bible. It gives us the big picture.
Would you commit with me to this significant undertaking? Could we read together as a congregation, on our own time, the entire book of Genesis. Even further, can we commit to months of study in our Sunday services and in our Home Group Bible studies?
As a reminder, we will produce weekly videos on our Emmaus Lutheran Church Youtube page. We will also have imbedded in those videos, study questions for each message we preach at our weekly worship services at 8:30am and 11:00am every Sunday morning. If you are not currently in a Home Group and would like to be matched to one, don’t hesitate to call the church office and we will match you with a group.
Looking forward as we look back to Genesis,
Pr. Nick Dyrud