Knowing God’s Word helps me to love Him with all my heart, soul and mind.
Step1 : “Grasping the Text in Their Town” or “Reading in Context”
The Bible was written by men inspired by the Holy Spirit in a certain time and place and oftentimes to a certain people. If we want to learn to love God the best we can, it is helpful to learn to read the Bible in it’s context before thinking about “today.” We can start that journey by looking at certain features in the sentences. Here are a few:
Repetition Comparison Cause and effect
Contrasts Lists Figures of Speech
Example – The Bible uses comparisons and contrasts to highlight different points. Sometimes, the point is more basic like in the Proverbs passage below, and sometimes the point is more nuanced and helps to make a point without spelling it out with many words (see Jonah 1).
Example Passages:
Proverbs 14:31
1 John 1:5-7
Jonah 1 (hint: repetition to help make contrast)
A Further Look into Jonah 1
Repeated concept: Presence of the Lord
What verses talk about the presence of the Lord?
Why is the presence of the Lord talked about in this passage?
What is the presence of the Lord?
Is the presence of the Lord demonstrated in this passage without using the phrase?
What was Jonah’s belief of the presence of the Lord at the beginning of this passage?
Do you think Jonah’s belief of the presence of the Lord was different at the end of the passage?
Repeated word: Hurl
What verses contain the word “hurl”?
Who does the “hurling”?
Does this repetition help to tell the story? If so, how?
Repeated concept/word: Afraid/fear
What verses contain variation of the word “fear”?
Who is doing the fearing?
Compare and contrast: Afraid/fear
Again, who is doing the fearing?
Compare and contrast the two groups of “fearers”
How are the people doing the fearing different? Are the types of fear different?
If the fear is different between the two groups, how so?