"...that you may have a walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God," (Col. 1:10)

When you read and study the Bible, think of your quest for knowledge like a two-way trip. You go to a place, stay there a while, pick up some things, then return. Once you get back, you use what you picked up on the trip.

Reading and studying the Bible, you make a trip back in time, often to strange places. You go back and visit the land of Moriah with Abraham and Isaac. You take a tour of the land of wilderness with the Israelites, or you spend some time with Isaiah who is trying to tell the people about their sin. While visiting these times and places, you pick up lessons about life.

The hope is, when you return to your present existence, you will use those lessons. In the land of Moriah with Abraham, you learn the depth of trust in God and the activity that trust causes. While touring the desert with the Israelites, you pick up some valuable warnings about temptation. As you read Isaiah, you are able to discover what ruined a society, and bring with you from that trip an awareness of what can ruin us today.

"Bridging the gap between our own world and the world of the Bible requires that e make a two-way journey. We begin by traveling from our own time and place to the ancient world of the bible. Then we take a return trip to our own experience of life. Two questions govern our interpretation of a biblical text: What did it mean then? What does it mean now?" (From Effective Bible Teaching, by Jim Wilhoit and Leland Ryken, p.#96).

 

By Warren E. Berkley
The Final Page
From Expository Files 15.8;  August 2008

https://www.bible.ca/