John H. Walton - The Essential Bible Companion: Key Insights for Reading Gods Word

F amiliarity with the Bible has been largely lost to the church. For the most part, we believe that this is true because people dont have time to read it, and when they do, they simply dont know what to do with it. Many people desire to know Gods Word, but feel that they are groping blindly as they seek to figure out how to make Scripture relevant to their lives. Often the Old Testament is presented as if it were a haphazard collection of moralistic lessons or endless lists of names and dates. The New Testament may seem more directly applicable to Christians today, but still much of it seems alien. What are we to make of references to phylacteries and tassels (Matt. 23:5)? And what of commands to greet one another with a kiss of love (1 Peter 5:14), or which forbid women from wearing pearls or braided hair (1 Tim. 2:9)? And what about all those strange and puzzling images in the book of Revelation? We want to obey the Bible, but dont know quite how it applies. We read and study the Bible, but our effort often leaves us empty and yet mystified about how its power works in our lives.

For many, their experience with the Bible is similar to the piata game. A target is out there, but they are blindfolded and have been turned around so many times that they are entirely disoriented and dont know where to aim. They flail wildly at the air and become frustrated with an exercise that offers so little return for their effort. In this book we want to remove the blindfold, and point you, the reader, in the right direction.

Our goal is to go beyond basic Bible content to help you know its meaning and just what you are supposed to do with it. We hope that this approach will remedy the all-too-frequent caricature of the Old Testament as little more than endless trivia, irrelevant history, and obscure prophecies only alleviated by some comforting psalms and models for living from the heroes and heroines of the faith; and that the New Testament narratives, letters, and prophecies are neither simple moral codes (which can all be applied directly to your situation) nor dry and dusty history. They are rather our history, the story of how God revealed himself in the person of Jesus Christ to men and women of faith our spiritual ancestors, and how these followers of Jesus launched the greatest movement in human history. You will be impressed with the way that the Bible uniquely reveals the God of the universe. That is the purpose of the Bible. These 66 books do not contain simply human ideas and experiences of God. They contain Gods revelation of himself. When you read its pages, you encounter God himself.

In The Essential Bible Companion, you will gain not only an appreciation for the central importance of this sacred text, but in doing so will come to appreciate the literature, theology, and history for the contribution they make and the role that they play in the greater story of Gods plan for reconciling his creation to himself, restoring his presence in his creation, and forging a relationship with his people.