Late last year I challenged myself to read the whole Bible. Front to back. No skipping anything. A few weeks ago I finished my first time through the Bible and now I’m on my second time around. Before I get too far this year though, I want to record and share what I’ve learned, gleaned, and experienced.
At first thought, I’m not sure what I got out of it. I’m glad I did it. I don’t want to be a “Bible believer” having never read it, but I’m not sure reading it straight through made a difference on the surface. Just for context, I read it straight through just to get through it, to have a base. I didn’t read to study, understand, or go deeper.
Obviously, recognition is improved at this point. I can go to church and have a better idea of context, back story, characters…etc.
I hear more of the Bible in songs and that helps me to commit stories to memory better. For instance, the song Hallelujah by Jeff Buckley.
Well I’ve heard there was a secret chord
That David played and it pleased the Lord
David was the writer of most of the psalms…
But you don’t really care for music, do you?
Well it goes like this:
The fourth, the fifth, the minor fall and the major lift
The baffled king composing Hallelujah
…and he was a king
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Well your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
This references when David saw Bathsheba bathing on the roof. She was another man’s wife…
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew ya
…He slept with her and she became pregnant; David had Uriah (her husband) killed in order to save face
She tied you to her kitchen chair
And she broke your throne and she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah
And this references Samson, his hair was to never be cut, it was directly linked to his strength, but Delilah tricked him in to telling her this, she cut his hair and he was overcome by his adversaries, the Philistines.
There’s a ton of Christian music with Bible verses in them but one of my favorites right now, Nobody by Casting Crowns has a verse like this:
“Moses had stage fright and David brought a rock to a sword fight”
Really the part that sticks out to me is David, he defeated Goliath, a giant by essentially taking a sling shot and a rock and shooting it at his head. So, “David brought a rock to a sword fight” is funny and accurate. Moses did have stage fright, he told God no three times due to his fear of public speaking….enter Aaron. By the way, this is the same David from Hallelujah, so that just goes to show you that if you think you’ve done too much wrong in your life to be loved by God, well you’re wrong about that.
It’s taught how awesome Esther is, and don’t get me wrong, she is pretty great. I’m glad to have another strong female with a name in the Bible. But I would argue that Mordecai, her cousin, is the one to talk about. He’s the one with the plan and the foresight. He orchestrated the whole thing! But I digress, maybe I missed something there…other than Esther taking the obvious risk of death by requesting a meeting with the King before being summoned…
One thing reading the Bible one time through has left me with, is more questions than I had when I started. But that’s a good thing. We should never be done learning or exploring. Like the saying goes, the more you know, the more you don’t know. I know it gave me more than I can think of, and it will show up in ways I won’t expect or recognize for the rest of my life. I’m excited to read it through again with a little more focus on studying and trying to recall things from last year and to see more connections throughout the Bible on my own rather than by someone else telling me.
home 