A Few Suggestions for Reading the Old Testament

One of the greatest resources we have for our own personal growth is the Bible. Innumerable people have gone to it again and again for refreshment and guidance in their journey through life.

Still, it is an ancient book, and it contains many things that may be unfamiliar, strange, or difficult. How can we read it in a way that will help us grow?

Here are a few suggestions:

1. Just get started. Almost everything worth doing is difficult at first. Just make a plan and stick with it. The Bible is a book, but it is made up of 66 books. Pick a book and start reading a chapter or two a day.
2. Pray. It is God’s book. He wants you to read it. Ask Him to help you before you read.
3. Ask: what does this teach me about God? Example: in the book of Judges, chapter 10, we read how the Israelites had forsaken God and turned to idols. The result is that God gave them over to their idol-serving enemies. In the story, the people ask God to help them. He refuses. They respond by destroying their idols. It then says, “And he could bear Israel’s misery no longer.” This passage teaches how much God cares for us and that even if He allows suffering for a time, it is not something He “bears” easily.
4. Ask: what does this passage teach me about human beings? In the previous example, it teaches that we should seek God no matter how much we have forsaken Him and continue to cry out to Him, even when it feels like He’s not answering. This passage has something to say about us as humans, how we are to relate to God.
5. Ask: what is the purpose of the story, message, or section that I am reading? Once you figure out the purpose, then you can see something of its purpose for your life. What would those who experienced these events think? What would the first readers think about this passage? In Judges 10, it would encourage those who had seen national or personal disasters to pray to the Lord in the midst of their struggles.
6. Ask: what does this teach me about Jesus? The Old Testament is full of ceremonies, leaders, and events that all point to Christ. As Jesus said, “These are they which testify of Me.” In Judges 10, the context is that God sends a deliverer or a judge to deliver the Israelites from their enemies. God’s ultimate solution to our plight is to send a deliverer. Jesus is the great deliverer who defeats the great enemies: Satan, sin, and death. We can turn to Him!
7. If you can’t figure the passage out, move on. You won’t understand everything perfectly the first time. That’s OK. Keep going. Even in human novels, especially the great ones, you miss things the first time and you continue to gain insights as you read them again. The same is true to a much greater degree in the Bible.

If we get at it, then we will find it an inexhaustible well of refreshing water for our souls.

There’s much more encouragement in the Old Testament than we tend to think: “For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope” (Romans 15:4).