The Bible is a tool to help us interact with the One True God. As such, I believe the actual value of it is realized as we see how God dealt with people and situations in the past. We see his character revealed.
We get glimpses of his detailed involvement with people and events and we come to expect some of the same in our lives and situations. Therefore, it is an infinitely useful book.
- It draws us to ask God to interact with us with patience and mercy as he did the Israelites in the wilderness.
- It invites us to ask God to provide for us as He did the Egyptians through Joseph’s wisdom during their abundance and famine.
- It challenges us to seek God in such a way that He would talk to us face to face as He did with Moses.
- It encourages us to have faith to believe Him for those things that seem unbelievable like Abraham and Sarah and their expectations of having children more numerous than the stars.
- It reminds us that following Him means leaving other things behind like the disciples in the New Testament.
If we read it for knowledge, we are missing the point. It is a book of action. Therefore, the Bible must provoke us to action for it to be most effective.
The verbs are important in your list: draws, invites, challenges,encourages, and reminds. “Answers” is not in that list, and rightly so.
The tricky thing for me, though, is that it’s almost like talking about love or patriotism or some other idea. It’s going to be interpreted, or experienced, differently by everyone, and that makes the firm foundation of solid answers more appealing.
It’s easier to measure progress against a list of rules, and while that’s not warm or comforting or even relational in any way, at least you can tell where you are.
It’s scarier to wait and listen, especially when not hearing anything at all is a very real possibility. I think this is the appeal of rules and answers and lists- you can tell where you are- even if it’s lost, wrong, and coming up short.
You’re right. Rules and answers are much easier to cope with than a relationship with an unseen, impossible to understand God. Because God is so much more than we can comprehend, we are left with faith….an uncomfortable option and yet the only viable one if we truly want to be followers and friends of God. However, the more we step out in faith and onto the seemingly shaky ground (much like Peter stepping out of the boat and onto the water at Jesus’ command), we find that it is more stable than we thought…..at least for a while. It seems that God doesn’t mind shaking things up on a regular basis. Perhaps that is the best way to keep our attention on him instead of all the other things that distract us so easily.
I totally agree with faith being uncomfortable. I have a real stuggle with trusting God about my future and letting Him worry about it! It’s so easy to quote to myself “which one of you can by worrying add a single day to his life?’ (Mt. My personal translation: Worrying doesn’t help.) But its so HARD to put it into practice. That brings me up to another point: My Church is on a series called “You want me to do what?” (Yes, I’m a SW member too!) And that is exactly what I feel like when God tells me to do something the majority of the time, if not always! But it’s really nice to know Someone is working everything all out. Even though I feel like it isn’t going to go my way.