Biblical familiarity is a huge boost to any Christian’s spiritual walk.
The more you know the Bible the more it just makes sense and the more you can get out of it.
But I think a lot of people dread the process of learning the information to build familiarity.
Just looking at your average Bible, it’s a honkin’ big book. How could you possibly learn all the information in it?
It’s better to not try than to try and fail, right?
Yes, I know more than your average bear about the Bible. But lately I have been blown away by how much I’ve been learning (or maybe “realizing”) just by reading my Bible.
Actually that’s only a partial truth.
I have been reading a CHRONOLOGICAL BIBLE for my daily Bible Reading.
What is that? It’s a Bible that organizes scripture into a chronological sequence.
Yes, it starts with Genesis 1:1 on page 1. And Revelation 21 on the last page. Those are alpha and omega bookends for sure.
But in between, things might come in a different sequence.
There has been a serious amount of study invested to come up with this arrangement. And it’s mine (or yours) just for the opening and reading.
And the best thing is, you might not realize you’re learning as you’re learning!
Lately I realized I was learning without meaning to.
- David didn’t write all the Psalms! In fact there’s a whole bunch of them that we don’t know who the author was (because they don’t say). Because we don’t know who wrote them, we don’t exactly know when they were written. We only know that King Hezekiah is supposed to have collected the 150 Psalms during his reign. So on my chronological Bible, I’ve been reading a bunch of psalms in the middle of 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles – in the middle of Hezekiah’s reign.
- Solomon didn’t write all the proverbs! Once again Hezekiah is reported to have assembled the contents of the book of Proverbs – pulling from Solomon and other sources. So while reading about Hezekiah, I’ve also had a bunch of proverbs sprinkled in because we don’t know who wrote them or when – only that we think Hezekiah collected them and published them.
- Most of the prophets who wrote books did so late in the history of Israel and Judah (or post exile). We don’t get a lot of prophetic writings from the first few generations of the dynasty. Perhaps because this is when God’s anger at Israel’s disobedience was building – after generations of disobedience… I guess I had thought that maybe they were evenly distributed through the time of the kings. Nope! heavily weighted toward the end.
- Don’t get me started on what will happen when I get to the gospels and read all the stories of Jesus lined up in chronological order – from all 4 gospels reworked into one timeline!
Those are just some big insights I’ve had recently as I’ve been reading my chronological Bible.
It’s a surprise to see these pop up and draw my attention to a writing in a different timeline that I expected.
I’m learning. And I’m not even trying!
If you think that you’re challenged to learn the details of the Bible, you should consider this sneaky method to build your knowledge. Just about 15 minutes a day and you’ll get a secret education.
I use the Chronological Bible linked on this page of my website:
https://www.dennis-stevenson.com/resources/oneyearbible/
Just scroll to the bottom of the page and you’ll see it listed.
Wishing you a sneaky learning experience.
Dennis
