Learning and Living Scripture. Geoffrey D Lentz
sound Some people like to study with praise music running
Notebook If you prefer to take notes somewhere other than your margin
Computer Allows you to use Bible study software or to take notes
Devotional guides If you have trouble deciding where to start
Attitude Preparation
Your attitude preparation is really very simple. Get ready to listen and discern, but not to condemn. You are going to be reading about people who lived in a culture very different from your own.
Reading with an open mind doesn’t mean that you accept everything that the characters or even the writers say and do. You don’t have to view their culture as the ideal. What you do need to do is understand their actions within the limits of what they knew and within their circumstances. It’s very easy to assume that someone should have known better when you don’t understand their situation.
For example, much of the violence in the Bible needs to be understood in the context of the times. We’re not going to try to resolve all of the issues that result from incidents of violence in the Bible in this book, but we would like to suggest some ideas that must be a part of understanding violent passages.2 Christians have often reacted in one of two extreme ways. Some would reject all of those passages by rejecting the entire Old Testament, claiming it is superseded by the New. That does eliminate many difficult passages, but it both leaves some unresolved issues with the New Testament, and it tends to cut off a large percentage of the way in which God has worked with people. On the other hand, some Christians use violent passages in the Bible to justify being violent people now; if the Israelites could make war and wipe out whole cities, we are justified in advocating the same thing. If the Israelites stoned people to death, we can do the same.
It looks as though God’s message in the Bible had to be targeted at the situation in which people lived. Reform is not as easy to implement as we may think. Thus one needs to understand people’s violent actions in the context of a violent world. At the same time, one cannot justify actions now based on the situation then. The question for a Christian would be, what direction is Jesus leading us? Is Jesus calling us to violence or to more peaceful action? This can be a complex question, but is part of the joy of Bible study.
First, learn to understand what people did and why in their context, then as you study you may be able to learn what God was trying to do with them, and by extension what God is trying to do in your own life.
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