As much as I'd like to think I'm a bible scholar, I'm the furthest thing from it lol
In fact, I would even consider myself a baby Christian, even though I was baptized over half a decade ago. Thankfully, God accepts our ignorance until we discover truth and wants us to get to know Him more.
Isaiah 1:18 states: "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord...." So it's obvious, God wants us to get to know Him! I'm so thankful and grateful for that. And I don't think we'll ever get to know Him completely, because that's what eternity is for after all ;)
But getting back to my 'bible study journey', I've tried to equip myself with all the tools I can...
Study bibles, an encyclopedia, a bible dictionary and yup, even a Strong's Concordance!
Combine that with some humble prayer and I'm good to go right???
Not so fast....
You see, I missed one of the most important parts of this scripture journey and what's funny is that.....God literally spells it out for us in the bible.
Sticking in Isaiah, we can fast forward to chapter 28.....If we read verse 10 we see how God is 'suggesting' that we look into scripture when we want to have an in depth study of His word....
"For precept MUST BE upon precept, precept upon precept: line upon line, line upon line, here a little, and there a little."
I'll give a second witness to this suggestion on how God suggests that we study His word but do we even need to?
In this verse, it's repeated on how to study....The Lord tells us TWICE in one verse, how important it is to look at things slowly and methodically.
But let's check out what the New Testament states about this important topic....
Let's take a look at 1 Corinthians 2:13. The apostle Paul writes:
"Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual."
Comparing spiritual with spiritual....Which falls in line with precept upon precept, line upon line.
What's my aha moment then when it comes to bible study?
Context!
The further I go in this journey of faith, the more opinions I start to hear. There's some interesting stuff out there, but a lot of it just seems to cherry pick verses and throws them together with the doctrine of men. Which we read in 1 Corinthians, is not what God intended.
Context is king, we've heard that forever. And I think it's so important that we as believers, follow how the bible tells us to study scripture.
Prayer first and then find the context. Once we do that, let's go line upon line.....Methodically understanding who is writing this, when, why and where....I think that's how we develop the proper understanding of the bible.
Do you have any tips or tricks that have helped you learn more about God's word?
I'd love to hear what has worked for you over your journey of faith.....
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Context is so important to understand what is being said in God's word, also placing onse self into the context of the intended reader, removing anachronistic ideas from our minds as we read.
So true. Sometimes we forget, this was written thousands of years ago. Different world views back then lol
The best way to learn about Jesus (Yeshua ha Moshiach) is to learn Hebrew and Aramaic. The languages he spoke, and the Aleph-bet that God (elohim/yhvh) used to create the Universe.
You can study @Hebrew starting with Genesis (BRSHYT) right here on Hive …
The Bible comes alive as soon as you can understand the Hebrew Aleph-Bet. Every single letter has a meaning.