It’s important when reading the Old Testament (and the New Testament for that matter) to know the context of what you’re reading. The best way to do that is to read large chunks of it, before honing in on smaller portions. Ideally, everything you read in the Bible should be seen in the context of the surrounding chapters and verses, the book you are reading, the history of the period it describes, and that in which it was written, and the Bible as a whole. If possible, read the whole of a book right through at least once before studying it verse by verse. Obviously that’s not usually possible with a book like Genesis or Isaiah, (although it makes a good project for a long journey or a weekend break.) But with shorter books it is well worth taking the time. Don’t get bogged down in genealogies and long lists of names and places, just skim over them on this first reading.
By reading a book right through you’ll get a sense of how the writer constructed the text, you’ll often start to see patterns in what is said, and you will have more sense of what the writer was trying to achieve. Then you can go back and look at the text in more detail.
Reading long sections of the Bible is like climbing to the top of a hill to get an overview of the landscape, before descending to follow the trail. It helps you to keep your bearings when you’re in rugged country and stops you losing sight of the forest for the trees.
This post is part 2 of a series on reading the Old Testament:
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