HOW TO READ THE BIBLE PART 3: WHAT TO DO WHILE READING
HOW DO I TAKE GOOD NOTES?
“Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do.” Joshua 1:8
Taking notes in the Bible is a great way to stay alert while reading, to remember passages well, and to remind yourself of things the Holy Spirit has spoken while you read.
There are so many different ways to take good notes while reading the Bible. Here are a few ideas:
1. Colour. God’s Word is colourful! It is full of joy and majesty and wonder. And God, of course, is the Creator of all things colour!
If you’re a visual learner, you may appreciate having a journaling or colouring Bible; highlighting different passages in a colour code (ie. yellow for Jesus’ speaking, red for God’s commandments and laws, purple for passages about sin, Satan, spiritual warfare, and temptation, pink for passages about relationships/how to treat others, etc.).
2. Greek/Hebrew. It can be incredibly revealing to look up the original Greek/Hebrew word within a passage and understand the word’s meaning in order to understand the given passage to its full extent. You can use Hebrew/Greek lexicons to aid in this reading. For example, the phrase “so that” is a common one throughout the Bible. Take Romans 15:4: "For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope." “So that” comes from the Greek word ἵνα (he-na), which always denotes great purpose. So, this verse shows us that indeed, the very purpose of past Scriptural writings was to teach us so that we may have hope! How amazing is that?! Sometimes subtle and sometimes major, the Truth we can glean from understanding the original language of Scripture cannot be overlooked.
WHAT DO I DO IF I DON’T UNDERSTAND SOMETHING?
There are many ways to go about this. What we commonly recommend is taking the following approach:
First, pray about the verse. What is the Holy Spirit saying? See if He wants to speak any life into the verse or show you something new that you may have overlooked. The Spirit helps us in our weakness (Romans 8:26), and we can trust Him to inform His own Word in Truth, Love and Power.
Then, look at the verse again, as well as some commentaries. Read through some commentaries, reread the verse (and make sure you read all around it to understand context), and see if the Lord shows you anything new. Take some notes on what you learn in the commentaries. What is similar/different about different commentaries?
Finally, talk to some people you trust. Share your findings with some fellow believers, a mentor, etc. to see if they have some clarity they’ve come to themselves about the verse. Bring other Christians into the conversation.
WHAT COMMENTARIES ARE TRUSTWORTHY? SHOULD I CONSULT COMMENTARIES AT ALL?
Commentaries can be very helpful when reading the Bible. Many scholars have prayed into, researched, and reflected on the Truth of the Scriptures long before our time, and still to this day.
Some great commentaries we would recommend taking a look at when reading the Bible are The New Bible Commentary, the IVP series, and the Expositor's Bible Commentary. BibleGateway offers several good commentaries, too.
HOW IMPORTANT IS CONTEXT?
Context can be very key when it comes to reading the Bible.
If you’ve lived longer than ten years, you’ve probably often heard several Bible verses quoted out of context, maybe without even knowing it. Jeremiah 29:11 is a popular one: “For I know the plans that I have for you, says the LORD; plans to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you hope and a future.”
This verse is often quoted when people are feeling anxious about their futures. And while it is absolutely true that God knows the plans He has for all of us, that isn’t totally what is being said or talked about here:
This passage is written to a whole group of people—an entire nation. For all the grammarians out there, the “you” in Jeremiah 29:11 isn’t singular, it’s plural. And you don’t have to be a Hebrew scholar to realize that “one” versus “many” is a big difference.
And the verse just before it is perhaps even scarier. For in Jeremiah 29:10, God lays down the specifics on this promise: that He will fulfill it “after seventy years are completed for Babylon.” In other words, yes, God says, I will redeem you—after 70 years in exile. This is certainly a far cry from our expectation of this verse in what God’s plans to prosper us really mean. He did have a future and a hope for them—but it would look far different than the Israelites ever expected.
So what? Some of you may be thinking. Even when the verse is taken out of context, it still offers value, right? God does know the plans of individual people, so it’s just as well to keep prescribing Jeremiah 29 for those seeking God’s plan for their life, right? Well, yes and no.
We need to let the Bible speak to us, not allow our own personal bent to speak into the Scriptures. If Jeremiah 29 is speaking to the nation of Israel, and not just one person, then we should start with the truth in the Scriptures. Context matters—God speaks at a particular moment in time, to a particular people group, for a reason.
What this means is that God has plans for a whole group of people, namely the nation of Israel. And if we read on in the Scriptures we find that this promise was fulfilled: those in exile returned, and the nation of Israel was restored for a time. God made a promise through the prophets, and that promise came true.
But that’s not the end of the story, either. There is something to the out-of-context prescriptions that so many make using this verse. God is a God of redemption, after all, and He wants to redeem people and put them on a path of wholeness, just as He wanted the nation of Israel to be redeemed and whole again.
As John Calvin says about this passage, the prophet is speaking not just of historical redemption, for that period in time, but also of “future redemption.” For the Israelites, God listened to their prayers when they sought Him with all their heart, and in His time, He brought them out of exile.
But how does any of this apply to us today? Can we still take heart in such a beautiful promise—even though it was spoken to people long ago, people in a far different situation than ours?
First and foremost, we are all in this together. This verse does not apply to isolated individuals or to a broad community. It applies to both, together, functioning as one. The image painted here is one of individuals in community, like the Body of Christ which Paul talks about. Here are a bunch of people, worshiping God together, hoping for a future redemption.
The theologians Stanley Grenz and John Franke explain in their book Beyond Foundationalism just how a community “turns the gaze of its members toward the future.” The future in Jeremiah is one that is bright—one that everyone in the community through prayer and worship seeks as their collective future hope. Many of us want to desperately know the plan that God has for each one of us as individuals, but let the prophet Jeremiah remind us that it’s not all about us, and it might not look like what we think.
Even more important than our decision about which college to attend, which city to move to or what job offer to take is the future hope of the Kingdom of God foretold by the prophets and fulfilled in the reign of our now and coming King. In this way, the promise of Jeremiah 29:11 is bigger than any one of us—and far better.