Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Peter Krol
Read between
January 8 - January 11, 2020
You and I have the Bible as an absolutely indispensable help in building our relationships with the God who wrote it.
most of us don’t know how to dig into the Bible itself, mine its endless seam of precious gems, and come away spiritually richer and more in love with the awesome God who has given us his only Son as our Lord and Savior.
In short, we study the Bible to know Jesus and to help others know him.
Observation—what does it say? Interpretation—what does it mean? Application—how should I change?
OIA is neither new nor innovative. It simply outlines the steps by which all human beings communicate with each other—we observe what was communicated, we interpret the meaning, and we respond (and when all goes well, we respond appropriately). God designed communication to work this way, so our Bible study should follow this universal pattern.
But note this well: whenever Jesus references an Old Testament text, he uses the OIA process.
Bible study ultimately becomes fruitful only when we approach the Bible rightly, in reliance on the Holy Spirit to grant us a measure of access to the very mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:6–16). What a joy, then, to know that if you want such access, all you have to do is ask (Luke 11:13).
Before we can set our eyes on the horizon, we have to get our noses in the text. Our study must begin with observation. When we observe, we try to figure out what the text says—not what we want it to say, think it should say, or heard someone else say about it. We receive each text on its own terms, and that process requires careful observation.
When I think I know something as well as I need to, I stop trying to learn more about it.
Author: Who wrote the book? Audience and Occasion: To whom did the author write? What was going on in the lives of the author and the audience at the time? Themes and Structure: What are the big ideas or episodes, and how are they arranged? Purpose: Why did this author write these things to this audience at this time?
The best way to answer these questions is simply to read the whole book five or six times.
Through Genesis, the Israelites came to learn the beginning of the greatest and most important story ever, and they learned that God had placed them—above all peoples—at the center of that story.
Genre.
Words.
Grammar.
Structure.
Mood.
If you try to read Luke as symbolism, for example, you will be well on your way to joining the National Heresy Society. Books of the Bible must be read according to their genre.
“Words are the bricks with which you build. Buy the bricks before starting on the wall.”
Repeated words. These are some of the simplest but most fruitful observations, and I begin every study with them. Get a Bible that you’re willing to write in. Highlight repeated words with the same color, or circle or underline them.
Connectors. These are words like therefore, in those days, or in the same way that connect sentences, paragraphs, or chapters.
Names and titles. These kinds of words develop characterization. God is God in Genesis 1, but he’s the Lord God (that is, Yahweh God) in Genesis 2.
“Like everything metaphysical, the harmony between thought and reality is to be found in the grammar of the language.”
If you keep going, maybe using a particular highlighter color for the subjects and main verbs, you’ll sketch the story’s skeleton.
The beautiful structure raises a few questions. Why did God do it this way? Why not just make it all to perfection in the first instant?
Sometimes the structure eludes us until we recognize comparisons and contrasts, which are connections that show how two or more things are similar (comparison) or different (contrast).
Observe Words: Specifically, Repeated Words Observe Words: Specifically, Connectors Observe Words: Specifically, Names and Titles Observe Structure: Specifically, Comparison and Contrast
We interpret because God made us to interpret. Communication always moves beyond the “what” to the “why.”
Communication always moves from observation to interpretation.
Careless presumption will kill your Bible study. It will strangle observation and bear stillborn application. It will make you look like the stereotypical, narrow-minded Christian, and it will diminish your influence for the Lord.
Relativism—believing a text means whatever we want it to mean—can be a form of presumption.
Tradition can be a form of presumption when it bullies observation, threatens investigation, and demands adherence to a sanctioned message.
Education can be a form of presumption when, like tradition, it generates thoughts but not thinkers.
Premature application can be a form of presumption when we jump to conclusions in the name of relevance.
Authority can be a form of presumption when we carelessly trust what the experts say about a text.
Your job is not to innovate, but to uncover.
answer only those questions that are either assumed or addressed in the text. Let the rest go.
Albert Einstein once said, “I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.”
What matters is that you learn to use these tools to foster curious, honest, fruitful investigation.
My intention is not to impress people with long lists of questions and answers but to integrate those questions and answers into a coherent main point.
The challenge of interpretation is to discover the “why” of the passage. Why is this text here? Why did the author write these things in this way?
If you want to convert these summary headings to main points, sometimes you only have to ask why. For example, why does this passage tell of the creation of the world?
Break the chapter into paragraphs and figure out each paragraph’s main point, which is a sub-point on the author’s agenda.
If you’re still stumped, you can break each paragraph down into sentences and track the flow from sentence to sentence.
They are to shine his light (possibly his word, truth, or glory), shape his world (subdue it and rule it), and fill it up with more people who will continue the work (be fruitful and multiply).
God’s creative work sets a pattern for human dominion of the earth, and therefore humanity realizes its potential when it illuminates, shapes, and fills the earth in God’s name.
They would advance God’s kingdom by believing and acting on God’s promises to Abraham (Genesis 12:1–3). In other words, they would image God by subduing the land of promise (shaping), multiplying in it (filling), and making God’s blessing available to all nations (illuminating).
“Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.”
Paul has Genesis 1 in mind as he proclaims the gospel—good news—to “all creation under heaven” in Colossians 1. The good news of illumination: Jesus, the fullness of God, radiates God’s glory (Colossians 1:19–20) and delivers us from darkness into light (Colossians 1:12–13). The good news of shaping: Jesus, the head of the body, created all things and holds them together; he rules and subdues all things that in everything he might be preeminent (Colossians 1:16–18). The good news of filling: Jesus, the firstborn of all creation, fruitfully multiplies in the earth, reconciling you by his death
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Explaining why Christians should apply the Bible is almost like explaining why lovers should kiss or why children should open birthday presents. Good things delight the soul, and true delight can’t be captured in a numbered list.
