How to Read the Bible without Falling Asleep (Part One)

It's not as hard as you think

Today’s post is the first of a two-part series on how to read the Bible. Today’s Part One discusses the change of perspective that we need to make in order to get the most out of reading the Bible. In Part Two (next week), I’ll give some practical tips for applying what the Bible teaches to everyday life.

You know the feeling. You take your Bible from a shelf or the bedside table where it’s been sitting for the last few weeks since the last time you read it, but this time you’re determined to do better. So you brush off the dust and open it with good intentions only to get lost for what seems like the upteenth time in all the strange words, odd names, long sentences and unfamiliar events that seem to fill every page. Then, after plowing through a few chapters you either fall asleep or put it back until curiosity, desperation or guilt drives you to try again.

Does reading the Bible have to be so hard?

No, it doesn’t. That’s why in this article I suggest three shifts in perspective that can lead to a better understanding of the Bible’s message. They may have the added value of keeping you from falling asleep as you read it.

Focus more on the Bible’s major themes than its minor details

The first shift is to focus more on the Bible’s major themes than its minor details. In other words, don’t lose sight of the forest by looking too intently at the trees.

When you set out to read the Bible, it’s easy to be distracted by all the supernatural experiences, figures, languages and historical movements that make up much of its content. How did God divide the Red Sea in order for the Israelites to journey through it? Who were the Jebusites, Edomites and Amorites? What influence did ancient empires like Egypt, Babylon or Rome exercise on God’s plan for the tiny nation of Isarel? How do the original languages of Old Testament Hebrew and New Testament Greek affect our understanding of the spiritual truths the two testaments contain?

Those diverse and complex issues—and many others like them—aren’t incidental information. They’re the means of grasping the essential truth that the Bible isn’t a made-up book in a make-believe world but the record of God interacting with people rooted in real time and place. That the encounters happen against the backdrop of actual history tells you that the same God who worked his redemptive purposes in people then can work his way in your life now.

The problem comes when the details become the main thing, like the Bible teacher who was asked about his lessons on the book of Revelation. “I teach about the furniture of heaven and the temperature of hell,” he replied. To be sure, information about heaven’s furnishings and hell’s comfort level is important; but it’s no substitute for Revelation’s greater promise of hope for persecuted believers through Christ’s Second Coming. While I suppose the teacher was technically correct, he was missing the book’s broader message.

The Bible tells you about your origin, your purpose and your destination. Keeping those major themes in mind even as you dig down into the minor details will make your reading more enjoyable and meaningful.

Read the Bible as a single narrative instead of a collection of independent stories

The second shift is to read the Bible as a single narrative instead of a collection of independent stories.

While the Bible reflects different ages, cultures, nationalities and events, it tells a single story. What begins in the book of Genesis continues through the pages of the Old Testament and reaches its high point with the coming of Jesus as recorded in the four Gospels. The remainder of the New Testament shows how the message of Jesus expanded through the ancient world and, by implication, into the modern world. Finally, the book of Revelation shows how the story ends.

The figures in the Bible drive the narrative. The main character, Jesus, is the focus; indeed, any accurate interpretation of the Bible (Old Testament as well as New Testament) begins and ends with him. Secondary characters—Abraham, Moses, the Prophets and the Apostles to name a few—cast light on the main character. Satan is the enemy who seeks to destroy the main character and keep him from achieving his purpose.

For me as well as many others, the Bible’s narrative coherence is the strongest argument in favor of divine authorship. I see no other explanation for how so many people through so many ages in so many circumstances facing so much opposition could put together such a treasury of spiritual truth. If God had not inspired the writers, the Bible wouldn’t have been written.

But the story told by the Bible is much more than a story. It’s also the true and accurate description of your nature and place in this world. Created by God for his glory, you have rebelled against your Creator and his purpose for you. But God in his mercy doesn’t leave you in that state and rescues you through his son, Jesus.

If you read the Bible as a single narrative—or in G.K. Chesterton’s memorable phrase, a fairy tale that’s true—you’ll have a wholly different experience than if you read it in bits and pieces as you would a collection of short stories. What you’ll discover is that the Bible becomes less of a boring book about religious history and more of a personal invitation to locate the story of your life in its larger story of God and his love.

Read the Bible with an attitude of faith instead of skepticism

The third shift is to read the Bible with an attitude of faith instead of skepticism.

This shift is harder than it sounds because of the way the Bible invites you into a different world than the one you live in. Regarding politics, for example, the Bible says that there’s an invisible Kingdom with far greater authority and resources than any nation on earth can imagine. When it comes to human reason, the foundation of the modern world, the Bible asserts a deeper wisdom because it contains the very words of God. Even the right to individual autonomy, today’s bedrock conviction that each person can be or do whatever they choose, is contradicted by biblical reality. “Know that the Lord is God,” Psalm 100:3 says. “It is he who made us, and we are his.” And then there’s the claim made by the Bible that reveals the greatest distance between its world and the world you live, the claim that your future isn’t determined by personal failures but by God’s grace.

The natural way to read the Bible is with a skeptical spirit and to assume that the world it portrays is unreal and unrealistic. After all, who really believes that the invisible Kingdom of God is greater than the visible nation we live in? Or that the technological wonders we enjoy today through the power of human reasoning are less important than the spiritual wisdom the Bible contains? Or that individual autonomy isn’t a good that should be pursued but an evil that should be avoided? Or that God’s grace can overcome even the most devastating personal failure?

But the Bible itself is clear that its riches aren’t for the skeptical but for those who are willing to step out in faith and receive them. “Without faith it is impossible to please him [God], for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” (Hebrews 11:6) You’ll never grasp the power and the promise of the Bible without nurturing within yourself the capacity to believe what it says.

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