Bible 101

For those of you that are from Ottawa or at least Eastern Canada, you will most likely remember the "Ice Storm" that we had in 1998. At that point, I had moved back to my parents home in order to get my finances back in order after my company went bankrupt. The bankruptcy is a story for another day.

Our house was without electricity for 5 days. My parents went to my sisters where she had power and I stayed at our house to keep an eye on things. I kept a fire going in the fireplace and cooked meals on my trusty coleman stove. Things were pretty cosy. Now for those of you that know me...I love computer games. Without the electricity there was no gaming for me and no television as well.

So I went to my bookcase to find a book to read and there was my bible which I received when I was confirmed. I had taken it off the shelf a few times over the years but mostly to find a quote for a talk I was giving. It had dust built up on it. I remember hearing many times in my life that the bible was supposed to be the best book ever and I wondered why I had never read it. If it was that good wouldn't it make sense to read it from cover to cover?

I decided to take the plunge and it started off quite well. Genesis was easy and Exodus had some great moments but then I hit Leviticus and Numbers and my reading slowed down to a snails pace. If you have never read Leviticus or Numbers, here is an example:

Numbers 1:2-16

Take a census of the whole community of the Israelites, by clans and ancestral houses, registering each male individually. You and Aaron shall enroll in companies all the men in Israel of twenty years or more who are fit for military service. "To assist you there shall be a man from each tribe, the head of his ancestral house. These are the names of those who are to assist you: from Reuben: Elizur, son of Shedeur; from Simeon: Shelumiel, son of Zurishaddai; from Judah: Nahshon, son of Amminadab; from Issachar: Nethanel, son of Zuar; from Zebulun: Eliab, son of Helon; from Ephraim: Elishama, son of Ammihud, and from Manasseh: Gamaliel, son of Pedahzur, for the descendants of Joseph; from Benjamin: Abidan, son of Gideoni; from Dan: Ahiezer, son of Ammishaddai; from Asher: Pagiel, son of Ochran; from Gad: Eliasaph, son of Reuel; from Naphtali: Ahira, son of Enan."

I think that you get the point. BORING! When I went to school we used the "Look-Say" method of reading. It is also known as whole word. It means that I cannot read phonetically. I was never hooked on phonics. When reading the bible, I would stumble badly over the parts where they had names that I had never seen before. I wanted to give up and read something a little more exciting; perhaps a Ludlum or a Clancy novel. I had King's "the Shining" somewhere that certainly has a fast pace. The problem was that I was interested in seeing if the bible was the greatest book ever. At that moment I wasn't too sure but the only way of knowing was to read it from cover to cover.

I knew what I had to do. I couldn't read it all in one sitting. I had to break it down into smaller pieces so that I could "make it through" the tough parts. I committed to reading a chapter a night. Over the next three years, I read the bible from cover to cover. I found some parts awesome and some parts slow. There were nights that I was really tired and didn't want to follow through on my commitment but I had to.

After reading the bible, I can tell you that it is the most amazing book ever written. It really helps you to understand God and how the fullness of God was revealed slowly to humanity. I has helped me to understand the Trinity and it helped me to have a deeper understand of the Church. I loved reading it so much that I decided to continue with my commitment for the rest of my life.

Last night I was reading about Josiah. He was a King in Jerusalem. He is mentioned in the book of Kings. Many of the Kings did really bad stuff but Josiah was a great King. He understood his faith and undid many of the evil things that the previous Kings had done. He strived for integrity; not only for himself but for his people. As I read this, I thought of my own life and how I really want to strive for the holiness that Josiah had. This is the beauty of the bible. It leads you into deeper love of God.

A few years back, a Priest friend of mine (who happens to be the first Canadian Priest blogger) said that we can parallel the different books of the bible to our lives. In our lives we all have a beginning story (Genesis), we all have rules that we live by (Leviticus), we have a romantic part of our lives (Song of Songs) etc. It was so true and it helped me to appreciate the bible even more.

I think I will start up a bible website which will have in depth explanations. It could have a family tree. It could have pictures from the Holy Land of some of the places mentioned in the bible (i.e. the ruins of the Temple of Solomon). Well time to go...