My Greatest Lesson This Year

      It is the last month of 2005. For the last month I have thought about what I have learned this year. I wanted to be very specific. This exercise was actually exciting. When I applied myself to consider where I was January 1, 2005 and where I am now on December 18, 2005, I actually pinpointed the single greatest lesson I have learned this year. I am so struck by how fundamental it is and how it has impacted every aspect of my Bible study and Bible application, I want to share it with you.

      I have actually known this lesson for years, but it has finally sunk in (I think) and become a practical help to me in Bible study. How many times have we heard that in Bible study we must consider who was speaking, who they were speaking to and when they were speaking? These are perhaps the most important questions to answer in order to understand the individual Bible passages and books.

      I have known that principle for years, but really started applying that principle this year. Those who have been in the “Story of God’s People” class will, I hope, have noticed this. It is important to know the history as a flowing unit. However, if we constantly meld together all the history from all the Bible books, we often miss the actual point of each individual book. In our Old Testament “Story of God’s People” classes we worked to learn the history of God’s people mixing together the accounts found in the Old Testament histories. At the same time, we questioned, why does Chronicles give us information Kings does not and vice versa?

      We answered this by recognizing Kings was written during the latter half of the Babylonian captivity. Chronicles was written after the captivity. The authors were telling the same history to two different audiences. Each author had a different point because of the audience they addressed. They used the same history, however, to make their distinct points they presented different aspects and details of the same stories.

      Kings explained to the captives why they were in captivity. Chronicles encouraged the post-captive Jews not to turn to the sins of their fathers. Piecing these narratives together gives a more accurate view of the historical events. However, to know the particular point of each author, we must keep the stories separate. Having seen what the author intended to tell his specific audience, we can then determine how it transfers to us. The same lesson applies to the gospels, epistles and other writings.

      I can’t wait to see what depth of study will be mined by consistently applying this lesson. For better or worse, it is the single greatest one I have gathered from my experiences in 2005. I look forward to learning something even greater in 2006. I hope my telling you about this lesson has helped you.

Edwin L. Crozier