April 12 Reading Comprehension

April 12

Reading Comprehension

Ne 8:8 So they read in the book in the law of God

distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused

them to understand the reading

 She was anxious to get home and tell her mother. In Sunday School they had been memorizing verses and she had learned a new one. When arriving home she happily recited the verse she had learned. “For many are cold but few are frozen, Matt 22:14”

During the song service little Johnny requested they sing the song about the bear. “Which one is that?” the song leader asked.

“You know …the one about Gladly, the cross-eyed bear”

Those are cute stories about how children don’t understand what they have read or heard. As adults we are sometimes guilty of the same things. I saw a little test that demonstrates that idea. Read the following sentence and identify what is wrong with it.

It is important to read the

the words that are on the page.

If you didn’t see the problem right away read one word at a time and you will see the problem.

Sometimes we do not understand what is actually being said because we do not know the meaning of a word but think we do.

A man was arrested for stealing a watch but there was not enough evidence to convict him so the judge told him “Due to a lack of evidence you are hereby acquitted of this crime”

“Oh thank you judge, but does that mean I have to give the watch back?”

 But understanding what the Bible says requires more than proficiency with our language. It requires a relationship with Christ.

1Co 2:14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

In the last few verses of the book of Luke we find another requirement for understanding what we read.

Lu 24:44 And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. Lu 24:45 Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures,

We certainly need to be spiritually alive, and have the aid of the Holy Spirit to fully grasp what the scriptures teach, but there is a lot that we miss just by not noticing some wonderful things in the scripture. For instance. In the Revelation 3:20 where it says “I stand at the door and knock” we may get the mental image of Christ knocking and overlook where he also says

.. if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.” 

Christ was also speaking as he knocked. We do not know what he was saying, but just knowing he spoke as well as knocked gives us a better understanding of the verse. It allows us to ask if we hear his voice when he speaks to us?

 Another simple example is in Genesis chapter 3. The woman told the serpent “neither shall ye touch it” but we do not find that prohibition in chapter 2:17.  Comparing scripture with scripture will help us get a more accurate understanding.

In Genesis 22 in the story of Abraham’s willingness to offer Isaac we read Isaac’s question in Genesis 22:7 “…behold the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?”  Abraham’s answer has deep meaning if we read it carefully.

Ge 22:8 And Abraham said, My son,

God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering:

so they went both of them together.

 

And we know that God did provide himself a lamb that taketh away the sins of the world.  The animal caught in the thicket was a ram, an adult male sheep. Now is this a prophetic reference to Christ, the Lamb of God, or is that reading too much into it? It is by reading closely that we find such questions and sometimes wonderful answers that we had not seen in scripture before.

Often the first and last verses of a book are instructive. For instance in Genesis the last verse we find “….in a coffin in Egypt”. What an ending to a book that had a beginning in the Garden of Eden.

The last word of the Old Testament is the word “curse”.

Mal 4:6 …lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.

Finally I should say something about our memory and how we recall the words of a verse. The computer Bible program I use in writing these devotionals has a wonderful search feature. You type in a word or two from a verse and all the verses with those words pop right up. I have been sure that a certain verse had some words in it but when I searched they were not there. I had recalled the verse incorrectly. Perhaps it was because I was reading the verse incorrectly?

And of course there are those things people think are in the Bible that are not. Don’t bother looking up “Cleanliness is next to Godliness” It just isn’t there. You also won’t find any mention of a cross-eyed bear!

Hopefully we will all do better at reading the Bible more often. With today’s devotional in mind may we also read it more attentively.

2Ti 2:15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God,

a workman that needeth not to be ashamed,

rightly dividing the word of truth.