Intro
In 1955, a young woman from Boston was offered a job teaching school in
Damascus Arkansas. Having never traveled much and not being married, she decided
to take the job. When she arrived for the interview she was told she would be
teaching the intermediate English class. After being issued her text book she
went home and began to study. School would be starting in about a week. Each day
she studied the English Grammar textbook wanting to make a good impression on
her students.
The first day of school came and during the
course of the class she announced her grading system. “You will receive your
grade for my class in three parts. Part one will be 33.3% for your English
pronunciation, 33.3 will be for your spelling, and 33.3% for your comprehension
of the all time classic book, Moby Dick. The book report is due Friday. I have
checked and there are a sufficient number of copies in the
library.”
On Friday morning the teacher gathered the book
reports and over the weekend she graded them. On Monday the teacher passed out
the papers all marked with a failing grade. The class was devastated. “What will
we do teacher, that’s one third of our grade?”
The young woman looked at the class and smiled,
“You will have all year to bring the grade up. What you have just learned is the
need for proper study. How many of you have ever seen the ocean or a whale?” No
one raised their hands. The young lady smiled again. “What you need to learn is
the proper way to understand the book you are reading. Since you have never seen
the ocean or a whale and know nothing about whaling, you will never understand
the size of the whale in proportion to the boat, the methods of whaling, the
character of the people, or anything else concerning the customs and abilities
of the whalers.”
One young man in the back of the room stood and
asked, “How do we get to know these things?” The teacher smiled and replied,
“Read more books.”
During the course of the year her students spent
many hours in the library reading books she recommended. At the end of the year
each student turned in a book report on Moby Dick the author would have been
proud of and each student received an A.
Although the above story is fictional, it will
make you stop and think. How much do you know about sheepherding, how much do
you know about a king, how much do you know about the Jewish customs, have you
ever been to Egypt or Israel? These and many other questions should cross your
mind every time you sit down and study your bible.
It doesn’t matter how much education you have in
the field of science, or English, or math; if you don’t start your studies by
asking God to help you, you will never understand the bible. I know preachers
with Doctorate degrees in Theology who don’t have a clue about the bible because
they tried to learn about the bible in a Seminary without God’s
help.
Read Jude (14-16) and you will see a quote from
the book of Enoch. Is this book cannoned in the bible? No, but the brother of
Jesus thought it important to know it’s content. There are other books mentioned
in the bible that are not cannoned. There are events mentioned in the bible that
happened in the 450 years God was silent. There are many references to sheep and
sheepherding in the bible you may not understand if you have never studied about
sheep. There are customs talked about that we would consider barbaric, but to
the Children of Israel they were a part of life. Why?
I’ll give you the same answer the teacher gave
her students, read
more books.
In this chapter we are going to look at some
considerations concerning these books that you must look at before choosing
them.
1.
Does
the book help you understand the language?
2.
Does
the book contain ideas that are not biblical?
3.
Is the
book historical?
4.
Is the
book easy to understand?
5.
Does
God tell me I can trust the book?
As we study these lessons I will give you lists
of recommended types of books to study and perhaps include in your library. I
will not recommend an author or publisher. To do so would not be fair or
ethical. There are many good authors out there and many good publishers. Let God
guide you in which ones to use.
Because of legal technicalities I have to
include a Bibliography of the reference books I used to write this workbook.
These books are not necessarily the best ones, they are simply the ones I had at
my disposal at the time. If you want to know which ones are the best, ask God.
He is the only one who knows for sure. Even your pastor will admit that he has
his favorites, but that doesn’t make them the best.
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