An Inkling
I discovered afresh this
morning just how good the Bible is, as I was reminded yet again that its
riches, far from being exhausted, just keep going deeper. There is no other book like it in that
regard. And that’s yet one more reason
why I believe God inspired its writing.
The reminder came as I was
reading in Andy Crouch’s new book, Playing
God, and its exposition of John 2 and Exodus 20. I know those passages cold. I’ve studied, translated, preached, taught,
and discussed them scores of times. I
really do know them cold. And yet today
there was something more – much more – to be received.
Indeed, as I thought about
this, I realized that I’ve been a serious student of the Bible for 40 years
now. When the Lord graciously filled me with
his Spirit at age 18, one of the first changes I noticed was a sudden hunger
for the scripture. I had read it
dutifully, if sporadically, while growing up.
But from then on, I’ve been a diligent scripture student, and not so
much from duty as from desire.
This is no virtue. It’s more Pavlovian than that. The rewards are so regular and so good that God’s
gift of desire has only grown. I should
check to see if I’m salivating.
It’s not that reading the
Bible is extraordinary every day. Most
days it’s quite ordinary, and yet it’s always nourishing. But today’s meal became a feast, complements
of chef Crouch. His book is more than
worth a read. These are not the only two
passages for which he opens whole new vistas of insight.
If you’re a student of the
Bible, you may have had this experience too – coming to a passage that you know
cold, and by God’s grace having whole new insights emerge. And judging from past experience, even today’s
insights have not exhausted the wealth of those passages. It just makes me hungry for more of the book
like no other.
Come and dine!
Blessings,
Keith
