Chapter 8
Chapter 8
Merely reading the Bible is not what God wants. Again and again we are exhorted to “search.”
Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so. (Acts 17:11)
They read from the book, from the law of God, translating to give the sense so that they understood the reading. (Nehemiah 8:8)
We must study the Bible thoroughly and hunt through it, as it were, for some great truth. If a friend were to see me searching around a building and were to come up and say, “Moody, what are you looking for? Have you lost something?” and I answered, “No, I haven’t lost anything. I’m not looking for anything in particular,” I suppose he would just leave me alone, and think me very foolish. But if I were to say, “Yes, I have lost a dollar,” then I might expect him to help me find it. Read the Bible, my friends, as if you were seeking for something of value. It is a good deal better to take a single chapter and spend a week on it than to read the Bible at random for a week.
My son, if you will receive my words and treasure my commandments within you, make your ear attentive to wisdom, incline your heart to understanding; For if you cry for discernment, lift your voice for understanding; If you seek her as silver and search for her as for hidden treasures; Then you will discern the fear of the LORD and discover the knowledge of God. (Proverbs 2:1-5)
There was a time when I used to read a certain number of chapters a day, and if I did not get through my usual quantity, I thought I was getting cold and backsliding. But if a man had asked me two hours later what I had read, I could not tell him; I had forgotten nearly all of it. When I was a boy, one thing I used to do was to hoe corn on a farm. I used to hoe it so poorly in order to get over so much ground, though, that at night I had to put a stick in the ground so I knew the next morning where I had left off. That was somewhat the same as reading through a certain number of chapters every day. I read to meet my requirements, and not to grow closer to God.
A man will say, “Wife, did I read that chapter?”
“Well,” says she, “I don’t remember.”
Neither of them can remember, and so he might then read the same chapter over and over again; and they call that “studying the Bible.” I do not think there is a book in the world we neglect so much as the Bible.
This is how many group Bible studies are today. Men and women sit around and read a little book, and then say, “What do you think?” Then they ask the next person, “What do you think?” At the end, you know what everyone thinks, but no one knows what God says. Too often we start and end with our opinions instead of the Word of God.
Now, when you read the Bible at family worship or for private devotions, look for suitable passages. What would you think of a minister who went into the pulpit on Sunday and opened the Bible at random and began to read? Yet this is what most men do at family prayers. They might as well go into a drugstore and swallow the first medicine their eye happens to see. Children would take more interest in family prayers if the father would take time to search for some passage to suit a specific need. For instance, if any member of the family is about to travel, read Psalm 121. In time of trouble, read Psalm 91. When the terrible accident happened to the Spree as we were crossing the Atlantic in November 1892, and when none on board ship expected to live to see the light of another sun, we held a prayer meeting, at which I read Psalm 107:23-31:
Those who go down to the sea in ships, who do business on great waters; They have seen the works of the LORD, and His wonders in the deep. For He spoke and raised up a stormy wind, which lifted up the waves of the sea. They rose up to the heavens, they went down to the depths; Their soul melted away in their misery. They reeled and staggered like a drunken man, and were at their wits’ end. Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and He brought them out of their distresses. He caused the storm to be still, so that the waves of the sea were hushed. Then they were glad because they were quiet, so He guided them to their desired haven. Let them give thanks to the LORD for His lovingkindness, and for His wonders to the sons of men!
A lady came to me afterwards and accused me of making that passage up to suit the occasion. She did not know it was in the Bible. We need to get to know the Bible, and use it!
There are some questions that will help us get some good out of every verse and passage of Scripture. They may be used in family worship, in studying the Sunday school lesson, for prayer meeting, or in private reading. It would be a good thing if questions like these were written in the front of every Bible: