What does the Bible say...really?

When I was an adolescent and teenager I used to think that I'd heard or read pretty much everything in the Bible, and reading parts of it again just became mundane repitition. The Bible seemed boring. Boy was I wrong. The truth is, I was boring.

Whether you believe in God or not, whether you believe the Bible is inerrent or have put some actual thought into the matter, the Bible is full of many adventurous, exciting, often graphic, scandalous, sexual, murderous and random stories.

One of my favorites is the story of Ehud from Judges 3. Ehud, an Israelite brings a gift to the enemy king ruling over Israel. After the "gifting" ceremony, Ehud gets the obese king alone by speaking of a secret message. Once alone, Ehud, a left handed man "drew the sword from his right thigh and plunged it into the king's belly. Even the handle sank in after the blade, which came out his back. Ehud did not pull the sword out, and the fat closed in over it. Then Ehud went out to the porch; he shut the doors of the upper room behind him and locked them."

Not surprisingly, I didn't hear that one in Sunday school as a kid. And there's no need to embelish this little nugget, it's graphic enough by itself.

In Mark, there's a random appearance of a naked guy. "A young man, wearing nothing but a linen garment, was following Jesus. When they seized him, he fled naked, leaving his garment behind."

Random, but okay...

Judges 4 graphically describes how an enemy general had a tent spike driven through his temple all the way to the ground while he was sleeping. Yikes!

I think if we spent half as much times reading the Bible rather than talking about the Bible we'd come to some pretty different conclusions. It turns my stomach often when people try to prove their own agenda by beginning sentences with, "Well, the Bible says..."

With the dawn of the internet, modern technology, and the persistence of the Gideons we have more access to the Bible than ever before, yet for some reason people seem to read it less. Now, this post is not meant to be a cheap guilt trip to get you to read the Bible or read it more. I do think, however, that people have lots of opinions about what the Bible says, but often little first hand experience to back up what they're saying. I've been in that crowd before too, so I'm no better.

I hope that as a community, Christians will begin again to read the Bible out of interest rather than guilt. Let's not use the Bible to promote our own cause but rather let it inspire a cause within us. So many of the storeis are radical, worthy of Hollywood's rendering. I hope we can more and more let the Bible speak instead of speaking for it.