The book of Proverbs promises many great blessings to those who will set their hearts on reaping it’s treasures. In its opening verses it offers to give us: wisdom, instruction, insight, wise dealing, righteousness, justice, and equity; prudence, knowledge, discretion, learning, guidance, and understanding. What a list! The person who has those things in their heart is well-equipped to live life, and well-equipped to please God. But how do we get those things out of the book and into our lives? Perhaps some serious study or a commentary? I’ve tried both.
I spent three years at Abilene Christian University earning a BA and an MA in the bible, and it was life-changing. Instead of studying doctrine and theology, I studied the historical, literary, and grammatical skills that allowed me to sidestep some commentator’s opinion and get down to the actual message of the biblical writers. It has been one of the greatest blessings of my
entire life.And yet by the time I finished college, in many respects I had begun to put the scriptures and God himself into an intellectual test tube where I could poke and prod like a scientist examining a specimen. My study was rewarding, but it was also more factual and academic than it was dynamic and alive. What was missing? Perhaps a couple of illustrations will help:
Some time ago I put one of my favorite movies into my Blu-ray player and then chose the option to listen to the director’s commentary as it played. I was amazed at how much deliberate effort had gone into the movie’s creation and production. As the movie played, the director explained exactly what he was trying to achieve and all of the methods that he had employed accomplish that. In this particular case he had used a specific color theme in the early scenes of the movie to convey as certain emotional tone. Later he deliberately shifted to different color tone for a different emotional effect. When he described it, I realized that it had indeed affected me exactly as he had intended. In one of the disks special features the director and the composer had numerous discussions about how they were going to musically support those same feelings. On and on it went; deliberate detail and depth that I had totally missed. Hearing the director’s explanations gave my next viewing experience far more impact. I became aware of how the various elements were affecting me and of many others that I had missed altogether. This was not the analysis of a movie critic who may or may not have understood the director’s intent (like some bible commentator telling us what he thinks the scriptures mean.) It was the director himself doing the explaining.
Here’s one more illustration. I have a bought the audio version of few of my favorite books (read by a narrator) so that I can listen to them in my car. I have noticed a dramatic difference between a book read by a professional narrator and one read by the author himself. The understanding and inflection of the author makes a huge difference in the experience. In fact it has far more impact than when I read the printed copy for myself. Hearing the author read his own book makes it feel like he is actually speaking directly to me.
So let’s go back to the scriptures. Instead of reading them on your own, even with years of experience, or with the limited, imperfect insight of some great scholar, what if you had the director explaining how he “made the movie” and why? What if you had the author himself “reading the book” directly to you? What if you had the Living God Himself at your elbow pointing things out, especially as they related to your life? The good news is that you can, BUT you have to ask Him!
In one of the letters that he wrote to his young understudy, Timothy, the apostle Paul used several illustrations to make his point and then urged Timothy:
Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything. (2 Timothy 2:7)
For a long time I had taken Paul’s advice to heart, but I still felt like I was coming up dry. And then one day it hit me. I was still “thinking it over” on my own. It was the height of arrogance and stupidity to try to puzzle my way through the scriptures on my own without actually asking God Himself to help me understand and apply what I was reading. I found that when I deliberately asked God to read with me, all of a sudden the scriptures came alive. And what’s more, reading them became a real-time interaction with the Living God!
Having done that for some time now, my perspective on the scriptures shifted a little more. Instead of a printed document, I have begun to view the individual books in the bible like the rooms in a great house. So each morning I sit down with my bible and out loud, I invite the Living God to meet with me in one of those books and to tell me what’s on His heart. And you know what? He does!
Try it for yourself. It will change your life!