To read without expecting any application to your own life would, of course, be little more than an academic exercise. We should read asking and expecting the Holy Spirit to show us what the text has to say to us personally. Many Christians have had the experience of reading a passage and one or two verses immediately seem to have great significance for their own situation. It's as if God has highlighted them. But generally we should expect the benefit of reading scripture to come from a regular, intelligent reading of the text and an understanding what the authors were saying, followed by obedience to it's truth.
Whether you're reading a short passage of scripture or a whole book, it's helpful to have a framework for approaching the text. Here's a simple set of questions that can help in understanding what you're reading. You shouldn't need more than the notes in a study Bible or a single-volume Bible handbook to answer them. Often the text itself will provide the answers.
WHO - who wrote the text? Sometimes there's a lot of debate about this, and it's not worth getting side tracked by the arguments (unless perhaps you're a theology student doing an assignment.) But if it's clear who wrote it, that may provide a clue to the author's view point. We'd expect King David, composing psalms in Israel's heyday, to have a different point of view than Ezra the prophet writing after the exile, for instance.
WHEN - when was it written? A related question. Again there is often a lot of debate, but where it's obvious, we need to take this into account in understanding what's being said. Don't, for example, read New Testament ideas into an Old Testament text without first getting to grips with what the text meant at the time it was written. Once you have grappled with the original meaning, there will undoubtedly be New Testament themes to explore, and a grasp of the original meaning will often help to expand and enrich these.
WHERE - where does the passage fit into the book, where does the book fit into the Bible as a whole? In other words, what is its context? Reading a whole book (if time allows) before looking at a particular passage is often very helpful in keeping the overall context clear.
WHICH - which genre is it? Poetry, narrative, prophecy, law, teaching? What type of writing, in other words. This will often affect how we are to understand it.
HOW - how is the text written? Are there any patterns in the structure, or repeated words or phrases? These might provide a clue to what is important. Is there an introduction somewhere earlier that tells you what the text is about?
WHY - why was the author writing? What is the purpose of the passage or book? Is it addressed to a particular person or group of people? Why did he write what he wrote in this particular way?
WHAT - what does the text say? Try not to bring in what you've heard or read in the past, or what the commentaries say, until you've read the text several times. If there are verses that are difficult to understand, work on getting a sense of the meaning of the whole, then ask yourself "what could they mean, in the context of what I'm reading? And what couldn't they mean?"
Once you've answered these questions, then it's time to look at how the text relates to what you know of the rest of Old Testament scripture, and the New Testament. Only then ask how it applies in your own life.
This post is part 5 of a series on reading the Old Testament:
Reading the Old Testament part 7 - Is the Old Testament misogynistic?
This post is part 5 of a series on reading the Old Testament:
