#72 – How to Read the Bible with a Questioning Heart

Welcome to season eight of Presently Engaged with Mandy Pallock. Here you’ll find short, friendly, Jesus-focused encouragement to live intentionally right where you are. And now for your host, Mandy Pallock. You know that I love a good question.

Asking questions and listening well can take every relationship you have deeper. In this season, we are diving deep into questions and scripture because as we look to the Bible, we look to the very best source. We will then end the podcast with a scripture reading anchoring us in the truth of God’s word before you go on with your day. This will give us the opportunity to center our minds on Jesus and our hearts on his word because lives will change as we engage with God’s word.

I wonder if you could help me with something. Would you consider texting this podcast right now to a friend or to someone that you’re mentoring? Listen in and then join me at PresentlyEngaged.com. I am so grateful for your time and glad that you are here because you, friend, are making a difference.

In our first episode, we discovered that scripture is filled with more questions than exclamation points reminding us that God isn’t shouting at us. He is inviting us closer through conversation. And we saw how many questions, whether in scripture or in the talking seats of my family’s red van, draws us out of hiding and into deeper connection with God and with others. Before we look at asking questions of someone else, we need to look at the extreme, shocking, mind-blowing safety we have in asking God the massively huge questions of life.

God is safe and he’s good. The Bible is a record of people grappling with the biggest questions of life. They were united in their love for God and through the hard questions they asked. And in its pages, we see people taking those really big questions to God.

We’re going to look at several of them this season. David, Jonah, Habakkuk, Mary, the Israelites. When you ask questions found in scripture, you ask from a safe place, knowing your questions are both rooted and found in God’s word. We can ask secure in the truth that God is big enough to answer hard questions.

And in our journey of curious living, sometimes we may want to jump straight to asking other people questions. It’s often safer. It gets me out of the talking seat, so to speak, and into the safe spot for me of listening. But before you pepper other people with questions, build the habit of spending time with Jesus and taking your questions to him.

Ask him your questions. Wait patiently for his reply and then follow his lead. And so as we dive into a season of looking at questions in scripture, I think it’s beneficial to look at some common elements of scripture itself. Can we trust it?

How can we trust it? If we can trust it, how do we read it? The Bible is the revelation of a relational God. It tells us who God is, and it tells us how to know him.

The Bible is inspired by God. I believe that all the words in scripture are God’s words. It’s a story that points to Jesus. Mark 12 36 outlines Jesus telling his listeners that David himself pointed to Jesus clearly in the Psalms.

The Bible is authoritative for faith in life. It carries weight not because of our cleverness, not because of how smart we are, but because God speaks. To disbelieve or disobey any word of scripture is to disbelieve or disobey God. We can and should read all the parts of scripture, not simply favorite parts of the Gospels or favorite Psalms.

So friend, keep questioning, keep reading, keep engaging. We read and we learn with the understanding that the Bible is without error in its original form. And so that means that there are no contradictions in scripture. And where I think I see a contradiction, I can keep reading and keep studying, trusting that God is unchanging and anticipating that he’s going to show me in his time how his story is one big story without flaw.

Friend, I fully believe that God welcomes questions, that he’s a safe place for fear, that he knows my doubts whether I verbalize them or not, and that if I’m wondering if I can trust the Bible, taking those thoughts and questions to Jesus is the absolute best place to take them. The Bible can withstand any amount of questioning. And so I shared those ideas with you earlier, outlining the worldview that I bring with me when I open my Bible. The Bible is the revelation of a relational God.

The Bible is inspired by God. The Bible is a story that points to Jesus. The Bible is authoritative for faith and life. There’s more, it’s worth your time to study.

But that’s a summary. And that’s me. This is what I believe in who I am after more than 36 sweet years of walking with Jesus and studying the Bible. And so you might be over there thinking, I hear you, Mandy, but when I’m really honest with myself, I wonder if that’s what I believe.

Or, but what about this part of the Bible that completely doesn’t make sense to me? That is okay. The Bible can withstand any amount of questioning and Jesus invites questioning hearts. In Matthew 11, 28 through 30, Jesus invites, come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and humble in heart. And you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Are you burdened with questions and weary from doubts and wondering?

Come to Jesus. And this season of the presently engaged podcast will be turning to Jesus every chance we get. He’s gentle and humble and has an endless amount of truth we can learn from him. I’m praying that you would receive the rest Jesus has for you as you take your questions to Jesus Christ, the very word of God.

One more thing. Before we launch into a season long study of questions and scripture, it will serve us to identify some guidelines for reading the Bible. So let’s get practical. Here are five simple guidelines that will help you read with confidence, especially when you run into a tricky passage.

First, genre matters. It’s helpful to view the books of the Bible as a library. Each of the 66 books in the Bible has a primary focus. The first five books in the Bible, for example, primarily focus on laws given to God’s people, the Israelites.

The next 12 primarily share history, recording God’s promise of a coming Messiah through the king of Israel. The books of Job and Psalms and Proverbs and Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon are primarily poetry. So as you’re reading, consider the genre of the book that you’re reading. Read poetry like poetry and history like history and prophecy like prophecy.

There’s lots of overlap, but each book has a primary genre. So genre matters. Next, context matters. The verses around the verse will often tell you what it means.

So read and listen to large swaths of scripture in context. George Mueller was an English evangelist in the 1800s who served orphans in England. And at the age of 67, he began reading the Bible four times a year. And that time period covers his most productive time in his life.

There’s a beauty in individual favorite verses, like Psalm 4610, be still and know that I am God. Or Jeremiah 2911, I know the plans I have for you. But there is a depth and a hope that comes only when you see that verse in its context. So maybe your first step for studying the Word of God for yourself is to take that favorite verse that you have, consider the genre and consider the context of that verse as you read the verses before and after it in its context.

Next, culture matters. Ask yourself, what did this word or idea mean to the original readers? Let’s look at an example of this in the book of Matthew. Matthew 12 versus 46 through 50.

While Jesus was still talking to the crowd, his mother and brother stood outside wanting to speak to him. Someone told him, your mother and brothers are outside wanting to speak to you. He replied to him, who is my mother and who are my brothers? Pointing to his disciples, he said, here are my mother and my brothers.

For whoever does the will of my father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother. So we would appropriately ask, what would this have meant to the original readers? Where there’s a really simple yet life-changing implication for starters. Jesus lived in a patriarchal, Middle Eastern conservative culture where men were valued more than women and women were considered subservient to men with limited rights culturally.

A respected teacher or rabbi would have male disciples. In fact, some Pharisees would not even speak to a woman in public. But here, just by the word choice Jesus utilizes in verse 49, we know that he welcomed both male and female disciples. Quote pointing to his disciples, he said, here are my mother and my brothers.

And so when we read a Bible passage, considering the culture of the original readers, it gives us a deep and accurate insight into what God is communicating. In a culture that subjugated women, Jesus invited women to follow him, learn from him and be his disciples. He elevated them to a position of learning and respect. Genre matters.

Context matters. Culture matters. Next, let scripture interpret scripture. Cross references are your friend.

When you find a confusing or thought-provoking passage in scripture, you can think what other verses in scripture might speak to this idea. Let scripture interpret scripture. And then, finally, scripture won’t contradict scripture. The Bible is one story.

When I find myself in a passage that doesn’t make sense to me, I can remind myself that scripture does not contradict scripture. There is not an Old Testament God and a New Testament God. Each story in the Bible shows God’s plan from creation to final redemption, and each story in the Bible shows humanity’s struggles and hope for restoration. And that, dear friend, is the story of the Bible, from Adam and Eve to Noah and his family to Abraham and to the Israelites to exile to the Messiah coming in the person of Jesus Christ to the Church spreading across the globe and to us today.

That no matter how, no matter what, God always rescues. And we see that again and again. He preserves and he reserves a remnant. So genre matters.

Context matters. Culture matters. Let scripture interpret scripture, and scripture won’t contradict scripture. As you bring your own questions to the Word of God, keep these guidelines in mind.

But don’t take my word for it. Take these ideas. Take these concepts to the Word of God yourself and see where and how this aligns with scripture and then live out its truth. What if the key to guiding young people or strengthening your marriage, friendships, and family wasn’t about having all the answers, but learning to ask the right questions?

I’m Mandy Pollack and I recently hosted a streaming conversation series with 15 Jesus-loving visionaries about what it looks like to build resilient relationships with the people you love the most. You’ll hear from voices like Dr. Jeff Meyers, president of Summit Ministries, Aaron Davis and Lori Ferguson-Wilbert award-winning writers and teachers, Dr. Jonathan Rogers, storyteller and author, and Phil Lawler, co-creator of Ventures and Odyssey, and many more.

And the feedback has been powerful. The talks were motivating and practical. One person said it made me think intentionally. Someone else told me that talk encouraged me and the things God is calling me to do.

One participant shared, I love how focused the talks were on my relationship with God before focusing on building relationships with others. Friend, these conversations are free to watch and they’ll encourage you to invest deeply in the relationships that matter most. So you can find the replay today at curiousconversations.org. That’s curiousconversations.org.

And now back to questions in Scripture. As followers of Jesus, we each have a unique way of seeing the world on this side of eternity. A while back, a friend’s glasses broke. And while he waited for his replacements to come in, he had to navigate a few days without his glasses.

I have a light prescription that helps when I’m reading up close. I couldn’t loan him mine. My husband has a heavy prescription and has worn glasses since he was two years old. He couldn’t loan him his.

No, my friend needed his own glasses, made up of his own prescription, custom designed for him by his own optometrist. It reminds me of how the Holy Spirit provides just what we need to see what’s going around us accurately. Similar to the best custom prescriptions, God’s spirit is always accurate, always truthful, and never distorts the truth. 2020 vision is a worldwide standard. The truth never changes, but the glasses that you wear might be a bit different than mine.

As we live lives worthy of the calling that we’ve received, we can be united in the things that really matter. The things that we see in Ephesians 4, 4 through 5, one body and one spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is overall and through all and in all. So as you read and interpret God’s word, you may see things differently than I do. You probably will.

As you ask big questions, you may ask different questions and get different answers than I do. I’m going to trust that the Holy Spirit inside of you is just as measureless and God-sized as the Holy Spirit inside of me, and that I don’t have to prescribe how you interpret God’s word. That’s what the Holy Spirit does. When reading his word, his spirit gives precisely what we need to see life rightly.

As we both keep reading the Bible and keep engaged with his word and community, we will become more and more like Jesus. Genre matters. Culture matters. Context matters.

Let Scripture interpret Scripture. Trust that Scripture won’t contradict Scripture. As we continue our study of questions in the Bible this season, we have the consistent and helpful guide of God the Holy Spirit directing and prescribing application, communicating the overwhelming truth of his word, that good will triumph over evil. All will be restored and the best is yet to come.

We end every episode with a reading from Scripture. Today, let’s read Matthew 12 together. In addition to it containing the story we referenced earlier of Jesus calling his disciples, his mother and brothers, this chapter contains eight questions Jesus asked and two from other sources. So listen for them as we read and ponder genre, context, culture, cross-references, and non-contradiction as you do so.

This is the word of the Lord. At that time, Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, Look, your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.

He answered, Haven’t you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread, which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests. Or haven’t you read in the law that the priests on Sabbath duty in the temple desecrate the Sabbath and yet are innocent? I tell you that something greater than the temple is here.

If you had known what these words mean, I desire mercy, not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the innocent, for the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. Going on from that place, he went into their synagogue and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Looking for a reason to bring charges against Jesus, they asked him, Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath? He said to them, If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out?

How much more valuable is a person than a sheep? Therefore, it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath. Then he said to the man, Stretch out your hand. So he stretched it out and it was completely restored just as sound as the others.

But the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus. Aware of this, Jesus withdrew from that place. A large crowd followed him and he healed all who were ill. He warned them not to tell the others about him.

This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah. Here is my servant whom I have chosen, the one I love and whom I delight. I will put my spirit on him and he will proclaim justice to the nations. He will not quarrel or cry out.

No one will hear his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break. In a smoldering wick he will not snuff out till he has brought justice through to victory. In his name the nations will put their hope.

Then they brought him a demon possessed man who was blind and mute. And Jesus healed him so that he could both talk and see. All the people were astonished and said, Could this be the son of David? But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, It is only by Beelzebul the prince of demons that this fellow drives out demons.

Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined. And every city or household divided against itself will not stand. If Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then can his kingdom stand?

And if I drive out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your people drive them out? So then they will be your judges. But if it is by the spirit of God that I drive out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. Or again, how can anyone enter a strong man’s house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man?

Then he can plunder his house. Whoever is not with me is against me. And whoever does not gather with me scatters. And so I tell you, every kind of sin and slander can be forgiven.

But blasphemy against the spirit will not be forgiven. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven. But anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come. Make a tree good, and its fruit will be good.

Or make a tree bad, and its fruit will be bad. For a tree is recognized by its fruit. You brood of vipers. How can you, who are evil, say anything good?

For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him. And an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken.

For by your words, you will be acquitted. And by your words, you will be condemned. He answered, a wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah. And now something greater than Jonah is here. The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon’s wisdom. And now something greater than Solomon is here.

When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, I will return to the house I left. When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits, more wicked than itself.

And they go in and live there. And the final condition of that person is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation. While Jesus was still speaking to the crowd, his mother and brother stood outside, wanting to speak to him.

Someone told him, your mother and brothers are standing outside wanting to speak to you. He replied to him, who is my mother? And who are my brothers? Pointing to his disciples, he said, here are my mother and my brothers.

For whoever does the will of my father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother. God’s word is for you, friend. Can you imagine not being able to read it or listen to it in your own heart language, the language that you think in, dream in and speak in? Biblical is a global ministry innovating new ways to reach people with the Bible.

My husband, Peter and I have supported their work for almost 10 years and we’d like to invite you to join us. Biblical’s mission is to end gospel poverty wherever it is found. So as your heart was blessed by today’s reading of God’s word, please visit biblical.com to support translating and distributing the Bible in someone else’s heart language. God’s word and people are the two things from this world we take into eternity.

Together, we can provide the Bible in accurate contemporary translations and formats so that Bible-less people experience the word of God in a language they understand. $2 delivers a Bible to a waiting community. How might God include your family in translating God’s word, delivering Bibles to frontline churches and sharing the love of Jesus? Send truth, hope and God’s word at biblical.com. And now, as we conclude, a blessing for you from Romans 15 verses 4 and 5.

Since everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, may you receive and build the endurance taught in the scripture through the encouragement they provide. May you have hope. May the God who gives you endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had so that with one mind and one voice, you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.