jordanabina
The Bible is a paradox.
It’s the word of God, written by the hands of men. For years men and women around the world have dug deep into its caverns looking for treasure, answers, and insight into the divine. Many have returned with pearls beyond price while others have come back with questions or realized they didn’t have the right tools for the journey.
It is complex and simple. There are lines found in the Bible that would take a lifetime to unpack and see lived out.
Whatever is has already been, and what will be has been before; and God will call the past to account.
Ecclesiastes 3:15
While others are easily applied.
Remember to live wisely, and what you learn will keep your lips from saying the wrong thing.
Proverbs 5:2
In his book, Eat This Book, the late Eugene Peterson shows what scripture was meant for, why we have it, and how it should be heard. Not only that, but he plunges into the language in which it was originally spoken. I’m not talking about the Greek and Hebrew language, I’m talking about how it was spoken on the streets in ancient times.
Here’s a question we hear asked a lot.
How’s your Bible reading going?
Better question.
What is God saying to you through your Bible reading?
Peterson is a little edgy in this book. He flies against many things I hear many teachers saying today. Peterson says to personalize the text, put yourself in it, read it like a story. Not because it is a fable, but because it was written like that.
But beyond those things, the biggest take away for me came from the overall title and purpose woven throughout the book. Eat This Book comes from the passage in Revelation 10.
9 So I went to the angel and asked him to give me the little scroll. He said to me, “Take it and eat it. It will turn your stomach sour, but ‘in your mouth it will be as sweet as honey.’[a]” 10 I took the little scroll from the angel’s hand and ate it. It tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it, my stomach turned sour.
The Bible was meant to be digested, it’s meant to get into our system, both body and soul. But how? Peterson does a fabulous job explaining what happens when we take scripture and make it something it isn’t and miss out on all the nourishment it has for us. If it is the word of God then it is the voice of God. While it’s true we may be reading, are we listening? reading and listening are different, but the Bible requires both.
If you’ve ever wondered about the validity of The Message translation of the Bible, I highly recommend reading this book and getting Peterson’s perspective. What’s more likely? That Jesus sounded like He does in the King James Version of the Bible…or The Message?
I have a guess.
Listen to Peterson.
Having and defending and celebrating the Bible instead of receiving, submitting to, and praying the Bible, masks an enormous amount of nonreading.
Eat This Book – Eugene Peterson
What’s the Bible for? Study? Worship? Reflection? Rebuke? Wisdom? All of the above? All of those options sound pretty good to me, but John in Revelation was told to eat it. It would be sweet in his mouth but bitter to his stomach.
For Jesus is the descent of God to our lives just as we are and in the neighborhoods in which we live, not the ascent of our lives to God whom we hope will approve when he sees how hard we try and how politely we pray.
Eat This Book – Eugene Peterson
I want to hear from God when I read the Bible, and I know you do too. Peterson’s book is a sharpening of perspective and pruning of bad habits. I’m thankful to have read it during a time where Bible reading and prayer has increased in my schedule.
Eat This Book, by Eugene Peterson, go get it.
