The first time I visited Israel, also the first time I traveled overseas, it was by myself, and it was 1997, a year of great unrest for Israel. I went into El Al Terminal as a novice and naive traveler and was interrogated for three excruciating hours by three exasperated agents. Two were very, um, shall we say, “stern” with me. The third wasn’t smiling, but at least she wasn’t yelling at me!
Don’t get me wrong--I was not at all upset with any of them, nor with El Al. I believe El Al is probably the safest airline in the world and because God’s people, the Jews, are the most terrorized people in the world, I condone and bless every one of their measures (at least the ones I know about) in providing safety for every one of their passengers.
The interrogators took me into the back room, and eventually into the back, back room! They took every single piece of my luggage and contents apart, including my brand new camera and my curling iron. They gave me back the parts of my new camera and eventually informed me that my curling iron would not be traveling to Israel as planned.
At one point in the interrogation, when the two “stern” ones left the interrogation room, I was left alone with Miss “at least she’s not yelling at me.” I had been praying to God for strength and wisdom throughout the entire ordeal. Suddenly a thought came into my mind. “Talk to her.” “Okay” I thought, “I’ll try.” I looked at her name-tag. It said “JAEL.” So I ventured, (as friendly and confidently as I could) “How do you pronounce your name?” She said immediately, “Yah-el.’” She hesitated, and then in Hebrew-accented English fired a question at me, “Okay, you say you are a Christian. I am in the Bible. Who am I?”
At this point, I was ungenerously thinking, “Great! Just great! Your name couldn’t have been Mary or Sarah! It had to be YAH-EL! Just who is Jael!!!”
Then I prayed, “Father, I think you want me to talk to her. I have read Your whole Bible, and if her name is really in there, then I should have it written on my heart somewhere because that is what you promised to do! Will you tell me who “Yah-el” is, if she’s in the Bible?”
Now, I wish God always answered as quickly and as clearly as He did that moment, but I accept that He doesn’t, and am grateful that He does even once in awhile! It popped into my head and out of my mouth something like this: “Judges! Tent-peg lady! You gave him milk!” (You can go to Judges 4 and read the account of one of Israel’s great victories and her part in it if you like!)
I was amazed to see Jael’s eyebrows relax and her mouth drop open as I told her ‘who she was’. She exclaimed, “You do know your Bible! You are a Christian!” At that moment, I realized God was orchestrating the entire situation and I knew He was sovereignly going to speak to Jael through me.
I peacefully replied to her, “No, Jael. I am not a Christian because I know the Bible. I am a Christian because God, the God of Israel, the One Who wrote the Bible, saved me and made me His child”. God had given me an open door that no one could shut. I had an opportunity to witness to a Jew, one of God’s special chosen treasures! It was wonderful!
I know that God could have given me the information about Jael whether I had ever read the Bible or not because He is God and He can do anything and everything, but I also know that is not how He usually works. This time because I had read His entire Word, He simply brought back to my remembrance information He had spoken to me earlier through His Word.
There is a common myth among people that the Bible is too big to read.
The myth is a lie. It is not true at all!
People the world over are taken captive to one of Satan’s Big Fat Lies!!!
The key to freedom in this case is faith is God’s Word and obedience to Him. Deuteronomy 8:3 “He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD.” Do you live by eating a little bit of food once a day, or once a week, or once a month, or once a year? No, you eat regularly and consistently. So, too, you need to feed on His Word daily - and not just for a few minutes here or there! Job 23:12 says, "I have not departed from the command of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my necessary food." Food is necessary for physical life and health, the Word of God is necessary for spiritual life and health!
Almost twenty years ago now, I was presented with the exhortation that many, if not most, Christians have never read the Bible through even once, much less regularly. I grew up believing that was quite a high and lofty ideal. I believed only preachers or very dedicated individuals would ever be able to do it!!! As I was hearing the exhortation, I realized that I was someone who had been taken captive by believing a lie from the pit of hell!
I had believed that the only way to even try to accomplish reading the whole Bible would be to use a guide and even then, it would take me an entire year! Trouble was, every time I started one of those “through the Bible in a year” schedules, I would eventually miss too many days, then I would feel stress and start to wonder if I could ever catch up. Sound familiar? Feeling a bit like a failure, I would ultimately quit and then wait to try again another year. Because you know the only legal time to start reading the Bible with one of those guides is in January, don’t you? Oh, boy!
I went home after receiving that exhortation determined to read through my Bible as literature. After all, what other book would you even expect to get anything out of if you stretched it out over the course of an entire year. Why, it’s silly to even think about doing it. Unless it’s a cookbook!!!
I started in Genesis (at the entirely wrong time of year, I might add) and read through to Revelation in only a few weeks. And I found that I enjoyed it (what an understatement!) more than I could have ever imagined. Many times I couldn’t put down God’s Word because I was so engrossed and interested. I loosely counted up the hours I had spent reading and realized it wasn’t all that many. (I won’t tell you yet just how many.) Hmmm… I had an idea!
I decided to exhort my Bible study students in the same way that I had been exhorted. I told them how I had even learned interesting things in Leviticus! (Because of course, another lie of Satan’s is that parts, if not all, of the Bible are dry and boring or too hard.) I told them how beneficial it was to read through an Old Testament book in just a few days because I could see how verses were simply referring back to something I had read just a night or so ago. I told them how I had started to cross-reference my Bible myself whenever that would happen.
I told them the story of the fruit I saw from reading God’s whole Word when I went to Israel and was interrogated by the El Al interrogation agents. My classes all loved the story I told them about Jael but still were not convinced they could ever really read the whole Bible, because they were believing the lie that it is too big of a book for normal people to actually read! Satan has filled the world, tragically, even the church, with the lie that the Bible is just too big to read--it would take too long! What is really too big is Satan’s lie!!!
I then delivered the clincher, my last hope to persuade them. I said, “Just guess how long it would take. How long do you think?” Most said about one year. Some ventured to guess below that universal figure, but not too much lower.
I then said very quietly, “It only takes 60 to 70 hours to read the Bible.” They couldn’t believe it and responded, “No way could it possibly take less than many months!” I encouraged them, despite their unbelief, to just start reading it! God wrote His Bible as literature, He expects it to be read that way. It’s not an encyclopedia!!! You don’t just look up bits and pieces of it for information as it suits your need!
How about you, did you know that the Bible can be read aloud in 77 hours? That means you can easily read the Bible all the way through silently to yourself, and it will take less that 77 hours! This should give you an idea of how long it will take you each and every time you read the Bible all the way through, because I am certainly not advocating reading it through just one time! You need to read it through as literature for the rest of your life--over and over and over again. (And, of course, it is a given that you must study it, as well.)
A few math facts are in order. I am using the 77 hour figure which, remember, comes from reading it aloud. Reading it silently to yourself will take even less time than the figures below. Ready? Here goes! If you read the Bible for one hour every day, it will only take you 77 days, or only 2 1/2 months, to read it through. If you read the Bible for ½ hour each day, it will only take you 154 days, or five months, to read it through. If you read the Bible for 15 minutes a day, it will only take you 308 days, or 10 months, to read it through. If you want to read through the Bible, and you are determined to stretch it out to an entire year, you must be willing to limit yourself to only reading it for 12.6 minutes per day!!!
The truth is out!!! We are free to read God’s Word!!!
You can read through the Bible in way less than one year!!!
You can read the Word of God way more than you thought!!!
When I told my students that if they only read the Bible for 15 minutes a day they would finish in 10 months they were amazed. That was less than the “through the Bible in a year” guide. By the way, I was not, and am not, suggesting to only read for 15 minutes a day; you need to spend serious reading hours, just like you would with any book you might read. The promotion of those kind of ‘guides’ may lead one to think it is so hard to do that practically the only way one can read the entire Bible is to use a schedule! That’s garbage--and that is the place where I put my old guide!
The Bible is not an encyclopedia, although it has more information than one. Nor is the Bible a recipe book, although it gives you the Bread of Life. Therefore, you cannot read it like you would an encyclopedia or cookbook book. You need to read it as a piece of literature, a Masterpiece, to be exact!
One year, my husband, who was Director of WORD Center Ministries, in Iowa, felt God wanted us, as a body, to read the entire Word of God out loud—Genesis to Revelation—round the clock for as long as it would take. The purpose was not a competition or a gimmick. Rather, it was to dedicate the property God had given us by continuing to dispel the lie that Satan had entrenched in so many people— ‘reading the Bible was just too huge of a task’!
We started at 6:00 PM Thursday, November 30, 2000, and finished at 11:37 PM on Sunday, December 3, 2000. During those 77 hours and 37 minutes, 88 different people came to read a portion of God’s Word. The room where the reading took place was available for anyone to come early, or stay later, to listen.
It was indescribable to be drenched (or delightfully drowned) in the Water of His Word hour after hour. Spirit and Life Itself affected men, women and children alike, as The Living Word spoke to all who came to listen to Him. It was more than an experience…it was a matter of being consumed by the Power and Love of God Almighty Himself.
As the reading continued throughout the hours, crescendo after crescendo echoed the cries of God’s goodness. More than once, tears were common to all who were in the room. More than once, a pause in the reading reflected a heart that had been pierced by His living, active, and oh, so sharp, Word! More than once, I lowered my head, closed my eyes and thanked this great and fearful God for His mercy and goodness to me.
I pray that you will see the importance of God’s Word and be motivated to spend more time with Him in it. I pray that His Spirit and Life will consume you. I pray that you will seek Him in His Word daily. I pray that you will immerse yourself in His testimonies continually. May you never, ever be the same…
WORD Center Ministries is founded on, and grounded in, the WORD of GOD. We attempt to help people listen to God in His Word (the Bible) by teaching them how to study the Bible itself and by giving them the tools needed to study the Bible for themselves.
The first step in studying the Bible is to read it. How can something which can elicit ‘Duh!” as a response be so profound?
Adapted from "HIStory—From Event To Event The Bible Is One Story"
