I grew up with wonderful Bible teaching. The church I grew up in highly valued the written Word of God, and every gathering was centered around that Word being honored. I knew all the “common” Bible stories that any church kids would know. The truth is, though, that most of those stories and principles I was taught got filed away as knowledge. I knew Jesus at a young age and had some very real experiences of being very grateful for my sins being forgiven. That didn’t stop me from treating church like a “two or three times a week exercise in sitting still and being bored way longer than I wanted to” event! I mostly learn by listening, and I enjoy facts, so I still absorbed a lot of information, but that’s precisely what it was to me.
That all changed when I was 16, when I was baptized and attended summer camp. I realized that God’s Word meant something for me every day. All those facts, principles, and timeless truths were meant to affect each thought, every action, and the overall direction of my life. Suddenly, the stories I knew made me want to bend my own story to be in line (at least with the good parts) with those stories. I had a hunger to know what God said about everything that He spoke about in His Word. I would read my Bible for hours a day with joy. I had known many of the stories, memorized verses, and had been taught what so much of it meant, but reading it with the intent for the words to change me gave me fuel I had never felt before.
I have been reading the Bible for almost 30 years now, seeking a life change through it. I have had mentors, friends, pastors, and teachers since then who added so much insight to the excellent foundation I had. My favorite parts of the Bible currently are the Psalms and any time a character breaks out into a song during a story in the Bible. I love it all, but if I have “extra” time to read one day outside of my regular reading or studying, these are the places I will go. My lifelong favorite is the book of Ecclesiastes. I just have a nagging feeling that if I spend enough time considering its high and complex wisdom, someday a little wisdom will rub off on me!
You might think that, with all this buildup, I have a very heavy and serious point to make. We all need to learn the Bible, and being taught it at a young age should not be taken for granted; it is a wonderful gift. It should also be stated that God Himself claims the primary role of teaching us His Word (Hebrews 8:10), so if you haven’t been blessed in the same way I described above, don’t lose heart. God works to teach us all His Word, and your learning it later in life doesn’t put Him at a disadvantage. Our various testimonies do not hinder God. He is always looking for open and believing hearts.
I would like to highlight a truth, but through a new observation I made, which, honestly, is a pretty silly and hilarious moment in the Bible. Recently, Jack referenced Exodus 4 in one of his sermons. As a diligent Bible student, I strive to read the verses surrounding any passage someone uses in a sermon—reading the entire chapter (or larger section) around a few referenced verses is called examining the context. It is always beneficial to consider the broader context to gain a clearer understanding of why something is said or why someone does something.
In Exodus 4, God instructs Moses to use the staff he had used as a shepherd to perform a miracle, proving to the people of Israel that God had indeed brought Moses back to them from another country to lead them out of their slavery in Egypt. This was a huge deal, and a slave rebellion on this level needed to be God’s idea, or it probably would have ended very badly for the Israelites. In Exodus 4, God tells Moses to throw down the staff he had, and God turns it into a snake… and in Exodus 4:3, we read that when that miraculous transition happened and Moses saw his staff turn into a snake, it says “he ran from it!” I have probably read this account or heard it read dozens of times, and I did not remember that Moses got scared and ran away from the snake that God turned his own staff into. It’s silly, mildly hilarious to think about, and so typical of us as people!
There are two things you can ponder about this story told by a staff person at GCC, about a silly observation of a staff turning into a snake. First, as I began to move past just storing the facts of Bible stories, I started looking for ways to live differently. That is an essential step in our development as we learn to follow Jesus. As I have continued to grow, I have really started to look at what the details say about our hearts as men and women. We should never use our experience to interpret something in the Bible, but recognizing similarities in our life experiences with characters in the Bible can help inform us as we look at people's reactions to situations in the Bible. I get startled when I see a big snake up close, and seeing Moses do that reminds me that even though his life is immortalized in the pages of scripture, he also had weaknesses, hopes, dreams, and momentary lapses in trust in God, just like I do. It helps me to think deeply about my relationship with God when I wrestle with that minute detail in the story. Did Moses run from the snake because of the simple flight response we can all feel when started by an animal we didn’t expect to see? Was Moses’ response a more profound and darker lack of trust in God? Shouldn’t he have felt at peace? God was literally telling him that He would do miracles to prove to the Israelites that God Himself had sent Moses to set them free. We later see Moses doubt God’s ability to speak through Him, leading God to call Moses’ brother Aaron to be the primary speaker of God’s message to the people. How often do I fall into these same silly but possibly unbelieving mindsets when I know God wants me to do something?
Second, God can give you lots of chuckles, deep insights, or new perspectives on Him or how people react to Him if you keep reading, listening to, and studying your Bible. There are little nuggets to be had that you haven’t seen yet, and if you let them open your heart to what God wants you to see, it can bring you nearer to Him! Many movies would have us see Moses as a somber, almost terrifyingly powerful leader who led God’s people out of the servitude of the greatest ruler of the day. He did that… but don’t forget that he also hiked up his robes and did a little dance in the desert when he saw a snake. God wants you to stay plugged into His word so that whatever you read in it, whether it's silly or serious, it will bring you closer to Him.
Thanks for Reading,
Pastor Will