Eat This Book
Every week at Grace Community Church we do what we call “Grace Verses”. Modeled after the “Fighter Verses” of Bethlehem Baptist Church, we have an assigned verse that we ask all of our members to memorize. Then, on Sunday morning, we ask for someone to stand and publicly recite the verse as part of our Sunday morning worship.
As I often introduce this segment of Sunday morning worship, I often try to make a distinction between just memorizing Scripture and internalizing it. This is something I’ve been considering for quite some time, drawing from the imagery of Ezekiel and Revelation. Both Ezekiel and John are commanded to eat scrolls (Ezekiel 3::1-3, Revelation 10:9-10).
Drawing from this imagery, we’re reminded that we need to do more than just memorize Scripture, we need to make it part of ourselves, embed it in our consciousness. Anyone can memorize facts and figures and regurgitate them at an appointed time only to lose them later when they’re no longer needed. Much of our education process is actually quite similar to this, we have to learn names, dates, etc., we spew them out for the test and then we rarely, if ever use them again as they fade into oblivion. I worry that many of us have the same experience with Scripture memorization, we are able to recite it at an appointed time but quickly lose it.
Compare this with the way that we can often recall vivid details about experiences that happened perhaps years prior. Or, how we can often recite verbatim, the words to some of our favorite songs. The difference is that the experiences and the songs are part of our lives, we live with them and they have a context that is actually our lives.
Part of the issue seems to be one of perceived value. We want to remember the look on her face when we’ve finished washing her feet at the Grand Canyon and ask “Will you marry me”? We want to remember the tone of her voice when she responds, “What did you say”? We want to remember those things because we are immediately convinced of their value. It would have been silly if someone had told me to memorize these things. Of course I’m going to remember them! They’re part of me!
Why is it that we don’t approach Scripture with the same perceived value? Quite often, it’s because we rarely experience the sufficiency of Scripture in everyday life. We know some key verses, maybe just enough to share the Gospel if we have to, but no one has ever shown us what the Bible has to say about marriage or stewardship or parenting. We hear the Bible on Sundays (sometimes) and we know it’s important but we’ve never seen just how much light it can bring to all of life and paths (Psalm 119:105).
Not only do we often have a misguided perception of the value of God’s Word, we are often, quite honestly, not convinced of its power. We’ve spent our entire lives working things out for ourselves with the help of Oprah and we’ve made it this far pretty well, right?! We’re honestly not convinced that Scripture has any wisdom or power that we don’t have on our own. Yet we cannot guarantee the outcome of our own words, but God guaranteeds that His Word will not return void (Isaiah 55:11). Far more than mere facts and figures, God’s Word is “living and active” (Hebrews 4:12).
Practically, another part of the issue seems to be a lack of accountability. Yes, we know that “two are better than one” (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12) and that we are all part of the one body (1 Corinthians 12:12-31) but when push comes to shove, we really don’t want someone in our business asking whether or not we’ve been in the Word the way we ought. But there is something special about not only committing to internalize God’s Word together but about hearing it recited publicly by brothers and sisters in the Lord.
As many churches step farther and farther into the world of pop psychology and mass communication/advertisitng/marketing/self-promotion, they, by necessity are also stepping off of the foundation of the Word. While it’s easy to point fingers, it’s much more difficult to personally work towards a solution. I pray that, each week at Grace Community Church, we are taking those steps.
Which version is the tastiest? King James? NIV? Pastor, I think that it is great that your church emphasizes scripture memorization.
My sketchbooks are full of sketches of future paintings on Bible subjects, and I research the scriptures to try to come up with a new, albeit more Biblical way, to paint something previously painted by Carravagio, Rembrandt,Moreau, etc. In a painting one must find a way to concretely (creatively) portray what is written: facts, customs, true emotions, symbolism. This is a different way to study the Bible, and for a different purpose, and interesting. This is one way that I try to make the Bible part of my life.
I just looked at Gunney’s blog, and he had a post on the sacrifice of Isaac. A very difficult story for people in our time to handle. Some modern folks would think that Abraham was committing the most ghastly phsychological abuse. I think that such folks forget the rough times in which Abraham lived, the cultural context in which God was communicating that He alone was our path to salvation. For instance, we sometimes forget that in those days and later, druids in the north, tribes in the Americas, idol worshipers in the mid-east, and too many others, were very customarily ritually sacrificing sometimes large numbers of human beings (some of these were volunteers). With all of that world wide sacrifice in mind, this story of Abraham and Isaac is therefore comparatively very sweet in its resolution, in what it says of the God of Abraham, that God Himself would provide the offering.
I’ve been making sketches for a possible painting. Pastor, how do you consider,imagine, Abraham’s and Isaac’s emotional states, expressions, in the preparations for that sacrifice?
We actually use the ESV for our public teaching and for nearly all of our memorization.
As you’ve pointed out, God’s command to Abraham would not have been as shocking to Abraham’s ears as it is to ours. His quiet resolve underscores this. Human sacrifice was quite common and God had not revealed His disgust with the practice.
As for abraham and Isaac’s emotional states, the text doesn’t portray it as the fearful dread we often read into it. Instead, both seem to possess a quiet resolve, mixed perhaps with the perplexed state of not understanding God’s plan but believing that He was good nonetheless.
As is often pointed out, Abraham plans on returning with the boy (22:5) and in fact tells Isaac that “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering” (22:8) and the writer to the Hebrews says that he assumed God would raise Isaac from the dead (Hebrews 11:17-19). But this in no lessens the severity of the situation. Abraham still had to plunge the knife.
I went to the ESV link which you provided. The ESV translation has some rather impressive endorsements. I enjoyed reading the comparisons, verse by verse, with other versions.(Psalm 23 was good!). We are planning on buying a new Bible, and will seriously consider your advice.
Thank you for your comments about Isaac and Abraham. My wife and I had been discussing this challenging subject, recently.
Now and then I, a Baptist, read scripture from the Jerusalem Bible,(yes, a Catholic Bible) which is a translation with a certain loveliness to the flow. I think that J.R.R. Tolkien was involved in this translation (Jonah?). Have you heard of any dramatic problems with this Bible, reasons for caution?
BJT, you’re right, Tolkien was a “stylistic consultant” on the project. Some criticize the Jerusalem Bible (JB) because sections were translated from the French rather than the Hebrew and Greek, but it is phrased well and is both contemporary yet appropriate for liturgical use. One issue for many seems to be their use of “Yahweh” rather than the more traditional “LORD”. Other than the obvious Catholic (Roman) slant of some of the study editions, I don’t know of any serious translations issues. Anyone else have any input?
I’m not all that familiar with it, but I would be curious as to how they deal with some of the more controversial verse/topics (e.g., Matt 16:18-19; Matt 12:46-49; Eph 2:8-10; John 14:6 come to mind).
Our church uses the ESV, by the way. I really like it. There are a few things I wish they had not done in interpreting for me rather than just translating, but I guess that’s inevitable.
Of course, like Heidegger said, “Every translation is an interpretation.”