Our culture gets in the way of our Bible study far too often. It is a lesson taught to me by a younger woman about twenty years ago. During that class we were discussing the wives of David and the problems that might have caused—all of them being wives of the same man. Naturally the idea of jealousy and resentment came up first, and we discussed that for several minutes. Finally this young woman spoke up and said, "I don't think we have any idea how those women felt. They grew up with the idea of polygamy. It was all around them, especially in the neighboring countries, and even among the richer Israelites. They knew from the beginning that they might find themselves in this situation. Their own mothers might have been in that situation. How can we who are used to monogamy even imagine what they were feeling?"
I knew immediately that she was correct. We carry our cultural baggage into our Bible study when we need to be dropping it off at the study door. The only way to know how these women might have felt is to talk to a woman who has experienced it since none of us have.
And because of our cultural baggage we miss a lot of other examples in the Biblical text. Lately, I find lessons in passages I have studied for years, even decades, without ever seeing before. I suppose that some of these things just take age and experience to realize, as well as hour after hour of study.
And there are other problems as well. When you have studied something for years, it is difficult to enter into it again without remembering all the things you have already discovered or thought about. It is especially difficult if you have them written all over your Bible. It will be practically impossible to see anything new. My husband and a couple of the Florida College Bible faculty have openly recommended that you only write in one Bible and leave your study Bible blank for exactly that reason. You may think those little squiggles won't influence you as you study the passage anew, but you are wrong. It's like the elephant in the room—they are there and you can't help but think about them, even if you try to make a point not to read them. And if you are young and absolutely sure that such is not the case with you, please take a step back and think about the arrogance of chucking advice from older, wiser, and far more knowledgeable heads.
And then there is the old intellectual snobbery problem. We think we are so much smarter than those "primitive" people back then, and that our culture is so much more enlightened. And that effectively wipes out some of the more important lessons they can teach us. And so I plan to present a series of lessons we might have missed. I really do not know how long this series will last. It might stop and then start again when I find other lessons I have not yet thought of. For now, most of these will revolve around Abraham and Sarah.
We will begin next week, one lesson a week to give you time to absorb something new, but in the meantime, let me challenge you to start reading all those old Bible narratives, look again at those characters, and see if you can find something new yourself. Perhaps you can share your discoveries with me as we go along. I would love to hear them.
Wherefore also it was reckoned unto [Abraham] for righteousness. Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was reckoned unto him; but for our sake also, unto whom it shall be reckoned, who believe on him that raised Jesus our Lord from the dead (Rom 4:22-24).
Dene Ward
I knew immediately that she was correct. We carry our cultural baggage into our Bible study when we need to be dropping it off at the study door. The only way to know how these women might have felt is to talk to a woman who has experienced it since none of us have.
And because of our cultural baggage we miss a lot of other examples in the Biblical text. Lately, I find lessons in passages I have studied for years, even decades, without ever seeing before. I suppose that some of these things just take age and experience to realize, as well as hour after hour of study.
And there are other problems as well. When you have studied something for years, it is difficult to enter into it again without remembering all the things you have already discovered or thought about. It is especially difficult if you have them written all over your Bible. It will be practically impossible to see anything new. My husband and a couple of the Florida College Bible faculty have openly recommended that you only write in one Bible and leave your study Bible blank for exactly that reason. You may think those little squiggles won't influence you as you study the passage anew, but you are wrong. It's like the elephant in the room—they are there and you can't help but think about them, even if you try to make a point not to read them. And if you are young and absolutely sure that such is not the case with you, please take a step back and think about the arrogance of chucking advice from older, wiser, and far more knowledgeable heads.
And then there is the old intellectual snobbery problem. We think we are so much smarter than those "primitive" people back then, and that our culture is so much more enlightened. And that effectively wipes out some of the more important lessons they can teach us. And so I plan to present a series of lessons we might have missed. I really do not know how long this series will last. It might stop and then start again when I find other lessons I have not yet thought of. For now, most of these will revolve around Abraham and Sarah.
We will begin next week, one lesson a week to give you time to absorb something new, but in the meantime, let me challenge you to start reading all those old Bible narratives, look again at those characters, and see if you can find something new yourself. Perhaps you can share your discoveries with me as we go along. I would love to hear them.
Wherefore also it was reckoned unto [Abraham] for righteousness. Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was reckoned unto him; but for our sake also, unto whom it shall be reckoned, who believe on him that raised Jesus our Lord from the dead (Rom 4:22-24).
Dene Ward
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