Just Between Us

by Steve Tandy

November 18, 2007

A REALLY BAD WAY TO READ THE BIBLE

                A.J. Jacobs may be the worst Bible reader ever. I hope you and I never get close to his style of reading God’s Word. Jacobs is the author of a new book The Year of Living Biblically: One man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible. [I’m not recommending the book, and I have no intention of reading it myself. A newspaper review of the book is enough for me – and hopefully good enough for one bulletin article.] A Jew by birth and an agnostic by belief, Jacobs, 39, said he wanted to explore biblical literalism for two reasons: one, to understand a worldview shared by millions of Americans; and two, to live religion rather than study it in hopes of discovering if he was missing out on spiritual life. He came up with a list of 700 Bible “rules” and set out to try and follow them for a full year. When his year was completed he said he was changed. “I would call myself a reverent agnostic,” he said, “I believe that whether or not there’s a God, there’s something important about the idea of sacredness.” You may wonder how a guy could follow the Bible for a whole year and end up with that kind of muddle-headed conclusion. I think it’s because he committed three fatal errors.
                First, he looked for rules – not reasons. It sounds like he paid little or no attention to the context or purpose of the rule. So, he blew a trumpet once a month and didn’t shave or cut his hair all year. He also read the OT rule about not “touching” women (due to menstruation) and tried not to sit on the subway or in restaurants where women may have sat. God’s rules make a lot more sense when taken in context and for the reason they were intended.
                Second, he looked for rules – not God. God promised in Deut. 4:29 that if you “seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul.” The Bible is God’s revelation of Himself. If we read it seeking Him, we WILL find Him. Mr. Jacobs obviously wasn’t looking for God.
                Third, he focused on the outside – not the inside. He tried to wash the outside of the cup and neglected the dirt inside. Keeping every obscure rule didn’t work for the Pharisees – and it won’t work now. The heart of the matter is a matter of the heart. It sounds to me like Mr. Jacobs never got his heart involved.