It’s taken years, but I’ve begun to learn patterns of Hebrew thought and narrative structure that have helped me navigate the Bible, leading me closer to what was likely the intended purpose.
It’s normal, I think, for us to struggle with excitement when reading Scripture.
Everything else in our lives seems more entertaining, and it’s tempting to think that the Bible can only be enjoyable when preached by an exciting, good-enough-for-a-TED-Talk pastor with three points and properly timed joke.
But that isn’t true, of course. The Bible is a wonderfully mysterious and powerful library of books that contains within it the narrative of God’s people, culminating in the story of his Son. The thing is, most of my life I’ve struggled with my eyes not glazing over while reading the Bible, even though I’m sure I’m “not supposed” to feel this way.
I don’t want to read the Bible as a boring obligation, a thing I do with my morning coffee. I want to love it, to be eager to read it. But often the whole thing is confusing and repetitive, and I used to find myself sticking to the New Testament because at least there I thought I had a decent shot at understanding what was going on.
But that changed a number of years ago, and now I find myself eager to open my Bible and rest within its pages. Talking about the Lord and his story is, and I mean this literally, my favorite topic of conversation.
But that shift happened gradually, and in something like stages.
The Shift
I’m not exactly sure when it started, but I think it had something to do with Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes by Brandon J. O’Brien and E. Randolph Richards. I’d been leading a book club for a year or so, and someone had requested it as our next read.
Among other things, the book opened me up to one wonderful truth: The Bible is a strange book from people who don’t think like me. I always knew that on some level, but I was never actually sure what to do with those differences. O’Brien and Richards’ work didn’t answer all my questions, but it did help me see that learning more about the culture in which the Scriptures were written would, if nothing else, help those confusing Old Testament texts have a bit more clarity.
And it was fun. I think most of us enjoy getting a peak into the way others in the world have lived.
At some point, this newly piqued interest led me to the BibleProject, and specifically their podcast (the same people who have the popular YouTube channel). The first series I recall listening to explored the theme of “The City” throughout the whole Bible. Honestly, I hadn’t the slightest clue there was a particular meaning to cities, let alone that there are thematic elements from Genesis to Revelation (literally) that can clue us in to why a city (and not a Garden) will descend from the skies in the end.
So, with this haphazard understanding of ancient Hebrew culture from O’Brien and Richards (who could cover everything in one book?), and a sparse (but growing) collection of Hebrew words and biblical themes from the BibleProject, I found myself having more confidence when I opened my Bible. My eyes grew far less likely to glaze over, even when I was reading a genealogy!
An Example
Let me use a familiar Biblical narrative to help paint the picture of how my Bible reading has matured as I’ve dived deeper into these (and similar) resources.
Do you recall the story of David and Bathsheba? Essentially David sees Bathsheba bathing and takes her and sleeps with her. But her husband, Uriah, is one of David’s soldiers. Bathsheba gets pregnant, and David recalls Uriah back from war so he could sleep with his wife and cover up David’s sin and shame. Uriah refuses, and David has him killed.
We’ll use this story to see how my Bible reading has evolved over the years, and why the Bible gets me excited now. You can read the story yourself in 2 Samuel 11-12.
The Early Years
Initially, I read these chapters as David making a stupid mistake, and God leading his servant back to repentance. David is (in this story) an incredibly terrible guy, but he repents in the end and God brings something wonderful (Solomon, the next king of Israel) from this terrible act.
If I’m honest, I was also left with a sick feeling that God called a guy like this “a man after his own heart” (1 Samuel 13:14), but I was never certain what to do with that.
About the Culture
O’Brien and Richards introduced me to the idea that ancient Israel was an honor-shame culture, and this added a whole level of complexity to the story by expanding the possibilities of what may have been going on beneath the surface. I say “may” because learning about cultural context means that you’re veering from what is explicitly stated in the story, and instead trying to understand the cultural elements of the story that were “just understood”.
For example, it’s very likely that Uriah (and everyone else) knew that David had been sleeping with Bathsheba (he didn’t exactly hide it from his servants). When David brings Uriah back from war and tells him to go home, Uriah may know exactly what’s going on. If he goes home, then he is choosing to let David “save face”. Instead, he refuses to go to his wife, using it as his only means of recourse against a king — a way of bringing shame upon David’s head by not covering his sin.
None of this is explicit in the text but learning about these cultural elements helped engage me better in the story. It honestly made reading Scripture more enjoyable. But I was still bothered by the language of David being “a man after his own heart”.
Biblical Themes on Repeat
For me, learning about Hebrew words and Biblical themes is when the Bible truly started to become alive.
Check this out: When David sees Bathsheba, he is on his roof. The Hebrew for “roof” is gāḡ which is only one Hebrew letter different from the Hebrew word for “garden”, gan. For Hebrew readers, this would have already clued them in to what was going to happen. This sort of wordplay is common in the Hebrew Bible (our Old Testament) and is very intentional.
But let’s continue.
David “saw a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful in appearance” (2 Samuel 11:2, emphasis added). David sends for her, and the text says he “takes” her. David, on his roof (which sounds like “garden”), sees something that is both beautiful and forbidden (because adultery is forbidden in the Torah). And then — he takes that which he should not take. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?
This narrative isn’t just a historical story about David during his reign. It’s been crafted in a way to paint David as Eve. The authors of this text wanted the audience to see that this is David’s “Garden Test”, and he fails it just like every human before him. In fact, it’s so on the nose that the very next scene has David’s children abusing and murdering one another, like Cain and Abel from Genesis 4.
David’s “Garden Test” falls in line with all of God’s chosen before him who, in their own way, submitted to the temptation to do “what was right in their own eyes”. (Judges 17:6) In this moment, David proves he isn’t our prophesied “snake crusher” who will lead us back into the presence of God.
The narrative feels deeper and more meditative to me now. In some ways, it’s gotten harder to just pull three application points and move on.
Which has me thinking about this “man after my own heart” language as well. David isn’t a hero or villain; he’s a complex man who fails his major test like every person in Scripture before Jesus. And yet, just like Moses and Abraham, God seems to treat David based upon the larger pattern of his life rather than based upon his worst actions. David never serves another god, like many of the kings after him, and does ultimately repent. And yet, the decisions he made still had disastrous consequences for his family.
Like David and all the other characters of Scripture, I’m going to face times in which something looks good, or feels right, and yet is in contradiction to God’s commands. I will be forced to choose whether to take the fruit or not — to decide to do what is right in my own eyes, or in God’s. And taking the fruit can, it seems, cause multigenerational damage, even when there is repentance.
It's a more weighty, thought-provoking, and sadder story now. But one far more likely to change me and the way I live.
The Today
And that’s where I sit today: with a strange Bible I don’t always understand but am eager to open. It’s taken years, but I’ve begun to learn patterns of Hebrew thought and narrative structure that have helped me navigate the Bible, leading me closer to what was likely the intended purpose.
If you’re in a rut, where Bible reading seems like a boring slog, I would check out the BibleProject website and either listen along to one of their podcast series or check out their free classes (I’d start with Introduction to the Hebrew Bible). Although there are many amazing resources out there, this is my “go-to” recommendation because the content is incredibly deep. But it makes getting started — making that shift — so easy.
Photo Credit: ©Unsplash/Ben White
Phillip Snyder is a Leadership Consultant at Medi-Share. He spends his time writing and speaking on all the numerous intersections of imagination and spiritual formation. He lives in the Nashville area and loves spending time with his wife and four boys and drinking good coffee.
