“America Reads the Bible” began Saturday at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, DC. Over seven days, nearly five hundred participants will read the Bible aloud from Genesis to Revelation. Daily readings are scheduled from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
If you wonder whether America needs a spiritual and moral awakening, you need only read the news. Yesterday’s mass shooting in Shreveport, Louisiana, in which a father fatally shot eight children, including seven of his own, is enough to break your heart. There was also a shooting early Sunday on a pedestrian mall near the University of Iowa, injuring five people.
I could go on, which makes my point.
In such a broken world, how does reading the words of an ancient book out loud help? There are no plans to preach or teach from the biblical passages being read. The words themselves will simply be read publicly across the week.
Is this merely a performative gesture, perhaps with political motives?
The answer is more relevant to our souls and national future than one might think.
“Bind them as a sign on your hand”
From its beginnings, the Judeo-Christian worldview has promoted the public declaration of biblical revelation. In Deuteronomy 6, the Jews were instructed with regard to the “commands” of God: “You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates” (vv. 6, 8–9).
This led to the tefillin (also called a “phylactery”), a small box containing Scripture verses that orthodox Jews still bind to their hands and foreheads during worship. And to the mezuzah (Hebrew for “doorpost”), a small, decorative case containing a scroll of Scripture that Jews affix to the doorposts of their homes.
When I led more than thirty study tours to Israel, we stayed in hotels adorned with mezuzot on each doorpost. Observant Jews often touched them on their way into the rooms.
In Christian terms, the reading of Scripture is a central part of our public worship services. Some see this as merely the prelude to the sermon to be preached on the text, but many churches read the Bible, often responsively, as an act of worship unto itself.
Why is this more than performative religiosity and ritual?
“I did nothing; the Word did everything”
In Isaiah 55, God makes a remarkable promise:
As the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it (vv. 10–11).
Here we discover that the words of Scripture possess intrinsic agency and authority. This makes sense when we consider their origin: “No prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:21).
The same Spirit who inspired Scripture also knows every human mind and heart and can use biblical truth to guide us into “all the truth” (John 16:13). This is why “the word of God is alive and active” still today as it “judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12 NIV). The Bible is therefore “profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16–17).
For example, Martin Luther explained his role in the Protestant Reformation this way:
I simply taught, preached, wrote God’s Word; otherwise, I did nothing. And while I slept, or drank Wittenberg beer with my friends Philip and Amsdorf, the Word so greatly weakened the papacy that no prince or emperor ever inflicted such losses upon it. I did nothing; the Word did everything.
The “secret” that changed Billy Graham’s ministry
Billy Graham explained his ministry in similar terms. His most famous, oft-repeated phrase was simply, “The Bible says…” Over and over, we heard him say this as he quoted God’s word.
This was intentional. During the 1948 Los Angeles Crusade that made national headlines and promoted him to the forefront of American culture, Dr. Graham “discovered the secret that changed my ministry.” As he began quoting Scripture over and over, he said, “I felt as though I were merely a voice through which the Holy Spirit was speaking.”
A crusade scheduled for three weeks stretched into eight, with hundreds of thousands in attendance. Dr. Graham explained:
The people were not coming to hear great oratory, nor were they interested merely in my ideas. I found they were desperately hungry to hear what God had to say through his Holy Word. I felt as though I had a rapier in my hand and, through the power of the Bible, was slashing deeply into men’s consciences, leading them to surrender to God.
He added:
I found that the Bible became a flame in my hands. That flame melted away unbelief in the hearts of the people and moved them to decide for Christ. The Word became a hammer breaking up stony hearts and shaping them into the likeness of God.
I can attest personally to the truth of the great evangelist’s experience. The most transforming thirty minutes of my life each day are the time I spend each morning reading Scripture. Not to prepare an article or write a book, but simply to let God’s Spirit speak from God’s word to my mind and heart.
The esteemed theologian J. I. Packer called the Bible “God preaching.” When last did hearing your Father’s voice change your life?
Why not today?
Quote for the day:
“The Bible is the book of my life. It’s the book I live with, the book I live by, the book I want to die by.” —N. T. Wright
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