You're Lazy and a Mystic: Why You Stink at Studying the OT. Part 1

To begin, the first couple of posts will more than likely be more broad and less pointing to a specific book of the Old Testament (OT).

Most would agree that magic is left to J.K Rowling or the once famous game Dungeons and Dragons. When taking the Bible and magic and comparing the two most would prepare their mind for a study of contrast. I mean God doesn’t need magic, supernatural activity sure, but magic is weird and chaotic and learned, God and his ways just . . . are. Okay, fair enough, though not a satisfactory argument by any stretch of the imagination. But what about how you and I interact with the Bible? What about how we approach studying the Bible? A good descriptive for people who ‘study’ the Bible and most assuredly the OT is lazy. Exhale you gaspers. The average Christian in America studies the Bible in a laughable manor and I think the birth that this monstrosity occurs is a sense of magic. I know you are thinking, in the words of Lucille’s husband Ricky in the television show I Love Lucy, ‘You have some splaning to do!!’

Excuse number one: I have the Holy Spirit. The argument goes like this: since I have the Holy Spirit (HS) now I do not have to study the Bible so hard. The HS was given, among other things, to Christians to enlighten and illumine them as they ponder God’s Word. So since I am at a great advantage I do not need to study like those who did not have the HS studied prior. It is almost like a higher level of osmosis, I just have to read over the Bible and application and understanding will flood my inner self. This is ridiculous. Jesus was God and still went to temple, still prayed a lot for wisdom and discernment and pondered deeply and at a young age the Bible, as He had it then of course. While the HS is a great and wonderful gift it is not a crutch but a greater reason to study more in depth the things of God because we now know something that those who did not have the HS knew, namely, we will be guided by Him as we study. In his second letter to Timothy Paul said to his young pastor friend, ‘Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.’ You see it? Paul says as you use the gift of thinking and pondering, the gift God has given to you, He will give you understanding in everything, He will lead you to what is correct and true and right. In Acts the church would meet together to break bread and to devote themselves to the apostles teaching and pray together. Jesus--have fun arguing with Him--said if you love me you will skim around and kinda know, generally, what the Bible says? NO!! Jesus Christ said if you love me you will abide in my Word—and we know that essentially the whole OT was speaking of Him. Abiding is actively placing yourself in the midst of, not resisting but going towards. There is no flashy Greek to get you out of this one. You love Jesus? You’ll study and know Him and He is found only in the Bible, for our purposes here.

Excuse number two: The OT is confusing and does not make sense. Math does not make sense, until you familiarize yourself with its language, terms and purposes. A sheet of music is confusing until you devote yourself to learning what it is doing, what the symbols mean and the placements convey. When I first started running a specific trail in college I got lost a lot but after a few runs I began to recognize things and I was familiarized with where I was going. I could go on. My point is if you are not actively reading and familiarizing yourself with the books of the Bible how in the world do you expect them not to be confusing? Some people in the past would read the book they wanted to better understand and study 30 times before actually breaking it down. It is best to study as an Eagle—looking broadly and seeing the whole picture—and as a badger—in depth digging. Many people now purposely put themselves on reading plans to get through the OT once and the NT twice in a year. John Sailhamer, who wrote large, helpful volumes of thinking and commentary on the first five books of the OT, said of studying the first five books of the OT that the most essential key to study is reading the text over and over. This takes time but hey, if you want to understand it you need to take the time to do so.

Excuse number three: I’ve read some of the books front to back, mostly the minor prophets because they are short, and they are still confusing. The Bible is a story, all of it. It is a story, a story formed in the same way The Chronicles of Narnia is a series of story culminating into one big story. Books fill in the blanks and have differing viewpoints. Do you ever wonder why there is so much overlap between 1 & 2 Samuel, 1 & 2 Kings and 1 & 2 Chronicles but there are differing and almost contradictory words about the same events and lives? Two were written before both kingdoms were taken in captivity (Samuel and Kings) while one was written after the kingdoms were taken captive and some were brought back to the land of the Israel (Chronicles). Because of this there are different things that they authors of each want to emphasize. For example, David in Samuel—written before the kingdoms were taken from the Land—is seen in a very candid way; his sins are before the audience: coveting, adultery, murder, pride, etc. People were close enough to him to know the sins David committed, people were still alive possibly who could say, yup, he did that. But in the Chronicles version the sins of most of the leaders, including David, are omitted. Some have said that the nation of Israel was remembering their history in a positive and less candid fashion, their history and lineage of great men. Maybe they wanted their audiences to say, ‘Hey, look what God did among us, what leaders he gave, He can do it again!’ My point, each story and book is not to stand-alone, they build upon and fill in for one another.

So, have you been approaching the OT study in a magical or mystical way? Are you waiting for understanding just to come to you without study, contemplation, and prayer? Maybe you have not and you are simply lazy and you know it. You can change the times my friend.

I think that you are getting the picture that study is work. (Nooooooooooo!!) It is true. Paul says we can glorify God by working so working is not an evil thing, remember work was cursed; work was made toilsome as a punishment for sin but it was in existence prior to the sin of Adam and Eve. But think of this, as you study and meditate on the OT you will begin to understand it more, the fog will begin to lift a little more and the glory and character of God and Christ and the HS will be more fierce, more terrifying, more great and something you’ll crave. A great advantage of the OT over the New is that it is filled with exciting and interesting stories which are easier and at times more enjoyable to study. The OT is not something that you might break-down like one of Paul’s letters. It is a big chunk of reading but intriguing and helpful for your soul and others’ souls. Someone told me when I first became a Christian that if you rake you’ll get leaves but if you are patient and dig you’ll get diamonds and gold. ‘I want tha gold.’

Next time I hope to look at the problem OT studiers have of running too quickly to Jesus: is Jesus playing hide-and-go-seek in the OT; is he to be found everywhere?