Yesterday's post brought out the Leviticus lovers. I love it. And it definitely got me thinking. Without Leviticus, the book of Hebrews would be one-dimensional. It's the Old Testament sacrifices, in all their gory detail, that help us appreciate the Lamb of God who was sacrificed for our sin. In a similar sense, it's the righteous anger of a Holy God in the Old Testament that helps us appreciate the amazing grace of a Loving God in the New Testament.
Job 11:6 is one of my linchpin verses: "True wisdom has two sides."
In other words, truth is found in the tension of opposites. Where there is no tension there is no truth. That's why it's so important to read the Bible from cover to cover! There is a beautiful tension between the Old and New testaments.
We generally speed read through parts of the Bible that we don't understand, don't obey, or don't like. Right? But that is often when we need to slow down our reading.
So here's my question: what is the toughest book of the Bible for you to read? What book seems least applicable or palpable? Which book do you generally speed read? Which book is the most difficult to understand, obey, or like?
I know it almost seems sacreligious to even ask that question, but there is a method to my madness. First of all, I'm just keeping it real. In the last several weeks, I've given pep talks to people who are bored with the Bible. I think we've got to be honest about the fact that lots of people struggle with reading parts of the Bible. Secondly, I'm fishing for a sermon series. We typically do sermon series on the easiest books of the Bible to understand or obey. We preach on our favorite passages. What would happen if we did a series on the toughest verses or toughest books?
Job 11:6 is one of my linchpin verses: "True wisdom has two sides."
In other words, truth is found in the tension of opposites. Where there is no tension there is no truth. That's why it's so important to read the Bible from cover to cover! There is a beautiful tension between the Old and New testaments.
We generally speed read through parts of the Bible that we don't understand, don't obey, or don't like. Right? But that is often when we need to slow down our reading.
So here's my question: what is the toughest book of the Bible for you to read? What book seems least applicable or palpable? Which book do you generally speed read? Which book is the most difficult to understand, obey, or like?
I know it almost seems sacreligious to even ask that question, but there is a method to my madness. First of all, I'm just keeping it real. In the last several weeks, I've given pep talks to people who are bored with the Bible. I think we've got to be honest about the fact that lots of people struggle with reading parts of the Bible. Secondly, I'm fishing for a sermon series. We typically do sermon series on the easiest books of the Bible to understand or obey. We preach on our favorite passages. What would happen if we did a series on the toughest verses or toughest books?
13 Comments:
Here's my top five:
Leviticus
Deuteronomy (or second Leviticus)
Ezekiel
Obadiah
Haggai
With 3 years of Bible college, credentials, and a shelf full of commentaries...these are still the toughest to read, apply, etc.
Just keeping it real.
1) Leviticus
2) Numbers (but I do like the story of Balaam)
3&4) I & II Chronicles (Didn't I just read this in 1 & II Samuel and I & II Kings?)
I may be in left field on this one:
Acts. Easy to read. Hard to live.
Maybe there's a third point of tension - the God of our future. I think Revelation is one of the hardest books to read, because my mind tends to want to make it a wash. All those references to beasts and creatures and crowns and horsemen just become a blur. It's a hard beating to wrench meaning out of that text, but there's some great value underneath.
1-2 Chronicles- very difficult to read (lots of begatting). Leviticus and Deuteronomy for sure and also Revelation.
leviticus
revelation
leviticus, because there's not a lot of practical application.
revelation, because it makes my head hurt.
I just recently read Revelations...TWICE! It was one of my toughest books to read..but I realized something...Jesus wins! and I'm a part of it...
and I've begun to hold on to all those "to him who overcomes..." verses....amazing promises for a Christian!
The end of Ezekiel (dimensions of the new temple), 1 Chronicles 1-10 (Genealogy), parts of Numbers and Joshua that deal with distribution of the land and counting of tribes.
Revelation. That's a given.
But have you seen Zechariah?! It's insane!
And Lamentations is just sad...makes me think I should buy a gun or something.
Not to be a downer, but since this coincides with my reading from yesterday:
My wife and I are doing a chronological read through and yesterday included Numbers 31, where Moses reinforces God's command to wipe out the Midianites. This is something I personally struggle with quite a bit because it seems to draw a very stark contrast with what I'll call my "New Testament" God. The operative word there was "my", since there is an objective, true personality and character of God present in both the Old and New Testament that I haven't yet fully understood and absorbed (I know my understanding will improve but won't be complete in this life).
I have trouble because many people were killed because of where they lived and who their fathers were. I know that God is holy, and that the Midianites had lead the Israelites astray, but this--and several others like it--are hard scriptures for me. I tend to think about it not from the standpoint of obeying God's commands on a national level (kind of standing back and reading the text as written), but from the standpoint of what God is literally asking individual people to do.
When you boil it down, Moses' instructions from God following the battle were: you forgot to kill everyone. Now, look out over the group of women and children you have captured and execute the boys and the mothers. My problem comes when thinking about it from the standpoint of what God is asking an individual soldier to do. Imagine being in your tent with your own son, happy to have survived the battle, when your commander comes in with these orders. These are passages I truly feel uncomfortable reading. While I have many scriptures where I read them and think: "Wow, I'm not doing/saying/thinking X, and I can't deny that God wants me to be doing/saying/thinking that," this is one of the passages where I wonder why God needed them to do this action. Several chapters earlier, he had caused the ground to open up and swallow disobedient families within the Israelites, did God really need to ask the soldiers to execute women and children? I am sure that there is something I can learn from this, I just don't know what it is beyond: God will ask you to do things that are difficult for you.
I agree with Don Ryan...
1 & 2 Chronicles...
One difference, I read in the New Living Translation. No "begats", just "was the father of"s.
I really don't like reading Revelation. I find that it has too much controversy surrounding its interpretation. It has a lot of cryptic language. I just don't want to deal with it.
Leviticus is rough to get through because of it being so dry. I know I am going to go against the grain here, but I really struggle with Psalms & Proverbs. I am reading the Bible now chronologically so I am hoping it makes more sense of Psalms. As far as Proverbs goes, it beats me up every time. A wise person does this, a fool does that. I need to read Revelation, but I am hoping to have a better understanding of it when I have read the rest of the Bible or need to find a really good resource to help along the way.
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