You Should Want to Read Your Bible by Rev. Benjamin Glaser

 

When I was in Boot Camp down at Parris Island there was nothing better than receiving a letter, though there is a funny story about that. As a kid I made a lot of money cutting grass. One place I mowed regularly that did not provide me with a reward for that labor was at my house. My dad figured giving me a place to live, food, and clothing was a sufficient kick-back. To that end I had a little over an acre to push mow towards the end of high school in Pocahontas County, WV. A common wish I made of my father was that a riding lawnmower would be a nice admission to the family. He responded to me request by noting that I was doing a fine job with the one we had. Well, not a month-and-a-half after being under the care of Chesty Puller I received a note in the post, contained in that envelope was a polaroid. While my dad was not Ansel Adams I could clearly make out a Murray product that had four wheels, and a deck underneath that was clearly meant for taking the grass down a few pegs. A good motivator for getting through the 13 weeks I spent down there. For what it is worth recently I had a nephew of sorts who spent time down with the grandchildren of the same sand fleas that ate me alive and I was heartened to see that the Corps has not moved forward with time and recruits still received correspondence via pen and paper. In the Air Force they probably let you Facetime every hour. The Marines still are waiting on their Pentium 1’s to be delivered from the Navy. The reason why all that matters so much is that there is a unique connection between the written word and the two people engaging in that medium, even if it is to playfully pick at your son. It is like a nostalgia trip as each phrase lifts off the page and into the soul of the person reading it. There is nothing quite like it. No amount of mechanical jacobinry will ever replace that feeling.

I told you that story, to tell you this one.

Just recently I had the blessing of picking up a new reading Bible that I use for personal devotions and the like. It is a Cambridge Cameo KJV in goatskin leather. The blacks and reds jump off the page into your eyeballs like a 3D book. Royal Jongbloed in the Netherlands, who prints most Cambridge Press’s bibles does a phenomenal job with what they do. As you hold it the book almost melts in your palm. Such a pleasure to live in a day where that kind of quality is available at reasonable price. And people give me a hard time for being Post-Millennial! Yet to be honest I’d be perfectly happy reading out of a gift paperback for all that the outside matters. I think we would all agree that there is something more special about what’s inside those exquisite, supple brown covers. Whenever, and wherever, we get out the very word of the living God to read, to ourselves, to others it’s like those letters I got in boot camp times a billion. Every word is inerrant, and not just in the autographs, but in the apographs as well. That means that when we see an “a” in there it’s God’s “a”. That “a” communicates to us about His grace, His love, and His sovereign power over all the universe. It could have been a “the”, or nothing at all, but in the LORD’s covenantal mercy it is an “a” and that makes all the difference in the world. It’s one of the reasons why Paul tells young Timothy not to quibble with people over words, because they aren’t Timothy’s or Paul’s words to argue about. There is a majesty in which all men, believers and unbelievers alike, are to treat that inspired, and perfect Scripture. How arrogant is for men and women to think they have any authority to tell the Bible what it says about itself. We receive the Bible as the very word of the living God not because we are smart and stuff, but because that is what it testifies itself to be, and as our Confession says:

We may be moved and induced by the testimony of the Church to an high and reverent esteem of the holy Scripture; and the heavenliness of the matter, the efficacy of the doctrine, the majesty of the style, the consent of all the parts, the scope of the whole (which is to give all glory to God), the full discovery it makes of the only way of man’s salvation, the many other incomparable excellencies, and the entire perfection thereof, are arguments whereby it doth abundantly evidence itself to be the Word of God…

It is the most fallen human thing to come over the word and try and discern what the text says using the tools of man-made wisdom. I say all that because how we approach the word says a lot about our faith in the God of the word. Part of the reason why so many have such trouble getting themselves to read the Bible is because they come at it in all the wrong ways. Either we come to it as a duty, like a textbook our mom or professor is forcing us to read, or our time in the word is perfunctory, it’s something Christians are supposed to do, because we’re believers and that’s part of who we are, or at least that’s what we tell ourselves. You ever been new to a group and you are trying to learn the unwritten rules of the club? Another thing is no one likes being the new guy. You need to do stuff to act like you have been there before and aren’t what my kids call a noob. We can read the Bible that way as well. Try and act like we are John Calvin every time we pick it up. That’s exhausting.

So what are we to do?

Well, go back to the whole letter idea for a second. Remember that the Bible that you hold in your hand is the word that your Heavenly Father has carefully, and purposefully, provided for you in His love and grace. It is the way He communicates to you and tells you that He cares. As the Holy Spirit reminds you of what He has done, what He will do, and what He is doing for you the very moment you take in the revelation of God to your mind and soul. When you pick up your copy of the Scriptures next time I want to make sure that your not thinking that you are reading lore, nor is it a bore, and absolutely never a chore. When your eyes hit the page may your heart be comforted, strengthened, and reminded that what you have is precious, to be guarded for sure, but always is for your blessing.