050: Reading leads to Questions

April 6, 2010
1 Samuel 11

After a bit of an extended absence from my readings in 1 Samuel (I got side tracked by various themes I wanted to look into for the last couple weeks…), I’m back to reading about Saul and Samuel and – soon – David.

I used to feel guilty when I’d hop around the Bible like I’ve been doing recently, but I stopped that. I do think methodical study of the Bible is important – really important, in fact! But I also think that reading the Bible is much, much more about attitude than what book you’re in. By that I mean that when I’m only reading from a strict sense of duty and obligation, from personal experience I know that I’m not getting NEARLY as much out of my readings as when I’m excited to delve into it.

Something I hate about myself is the fact that I don’t always find the Bible interesting. I don’t always want to read it. In fact, far too often, I’ll choose reading a variety of other books over reading the Bible. That’s not to say I don’t love my Bible – I do – it’s just that I don’t always feel like it’s as exciting and new as books I’ve never read before. After all, I’ve read the whole Bible at some point in time – I took about 18 months to go through it slowly a couple years ago – and it’s hard to imagine it changing that much. And, in addition, the same chapters seems to be the ones I turn to again and again, and I get kind of tired of them, but I don’t know where to go otherwise because I’m stuck in this rut!

All that to say I don’t really stress that much about Bible reading now. I mean, I wan to prioritize it more than I do, so as a result I carry my Bible around with me everywhere so whenever I have a spare couple of minutes, I can pull it out and read a bit. I guess I see the most important thing to be that I’m actually opening my Bible and reading…

But I like the consistency of going through a book at a time, which leads me back to 1 Samuel…

I think this passage is a little crazy. Passages like this, in fact, always make me come up with a list of questions. Here’s what I’ve got for this chapter: Isn’t it ironic that Saul is all gung-ho about leading the Israelites into battle when in the previous chapter he was hiding with the bags? The people of Jabesh-gilead must have had a lot of confidence in Saul and his recruited army, because they basically surrendered to the Ammonites without knowing any sort of plan. Do I foolishly stake things on other people without developing or hearing a plan? Do I over-prioritize planning and how it impacts me? Was Saul really that committed and honoring of the Lord at this point in his life? Or was his speech at the end of chapter 11 a result of publicity? Is there anything significant about the right eye? Why did the Jabesh-gileadites wait until they had been threatened before calling in help? Do I wait too long to ask for help?

What have you been reading lately? What do you wish you’d been reading lately in the Bible? What sort of questions can you develop that might help your brain stay focused on the text and what you’re trying to learn from it?