Bible Study – Part 1
June 30, 2002
Dear Friends,
Most people have seen the horrible pictures of people who are starving to death. The bloated bellies and the pitiful faces are too much to bear. Yet, there is another famine that is equally tragic and much more widespread and that is the famine for the word of God. The prophet Amos speaks of such a famine when he says “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD.” (Amos 8:11)
The tragedy of this famine is that, unlike a natural famine which is often unavoidable because of climatic events such as drought or flooding, the famine for the word of God is completely manmade. If we use the analogy of the parable of the sower with the seed being the word of God, there are some places that are not being sown because of lack of preaching. How tragic that some will die never having heard the good news. On the other hand, some receive the seed in abundance, but like the lazy fool of Proverbs, he “buries his hand in the dish; he is too lazy to bring it back to his mouth.” What an incredible picture is brought to the mind of a person starving to death but too lazy of pick up the food that is right there in front of them. How many people do you know that profess to be Christians yet would have great difficulty telling you where in the Bible the book of Hebrews is? Could they even tell you if it was in the Old Testament or the New Testament? Could they even tell you if there was such a book in the Bible? Yet, there are few households in first world countries that don’t have a Bible somewhere in it.
When am trying to encourage friends to read their Bible, I ask them a simple question. I’ll say “If you received a personal letter from God, would you read it?” Inevitably, the answer is “yes” they would read it. I then tell them that they have received a personal letter from God. It is called the Bible. I then quote to them 2 Timothy 3:16-17 which tells them why it is so vital to them. “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” The word “perfect” in the King James means “complete.” We can be complete through the reading of the Bible.
Those who have adopted Bible study as a lifestyle recognize this book for what it is — the words of God which “are able to make thee wise unto salvation.” (2 Tim. 3:15) They are like the Apostle Peter who said “thou hast the words of eternal life.” (John 6:68) The are like Samuel of whom it was said that God was with him and Samuel “did let none of his words fall to the ground.” (1 Sam. 3:19)
The prophet Daniel read and studied the prophecy of Jeremiah. Through this study, he was able to determine the meaning of the seventy weeks prophecy and understand that the Babylonian captivity was about to end. “In the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the Scriptures, according to the word of the LORD given to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years.” (Dan. 9:2) I wonder how many other people in Babylon took the time to figure this out?
Lord willing, we can look at some other aspects of Bible study in the coming weeks.
Have a great week!
