How to Read the Bible Well

Sovereign Grace Family Church

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June 20, 2019

00:02: Well, good evening.
00:05: It's good to see everyone back.
00:07: We are now in week two of Fundamentals of Bible Study, and we are going to begin tonight looking at the topic, or the subject rather, of observation.
00:20: You should have completed your pre-class reading, which was Living by the Book, pages 51 to 65, and the workbook assignment, which was pages 15 to 20.
00:36: If for some reason you did not complete the workbook assignment, we are going to go over it later, so you can work on it a little bit in class.
00:44: But I do, at the end of this session, at the end of the eight weeks, I'd like to look over your books on the last night, since we're not doing a final part of what is your grade, is you're actually doing the workbook.
00:57: Now, if you're not writing in the workbook, you may be writing in a notebook.
01:02: Either way, just write down what pages it is.
01:05: It shows me that you did the work.
01:07: It shows me that you are keeping up with what we're supposed to be doing in class.
01:13: Also, you'll notice I have handouts for you tonight.
01:16: There is a hole punch going around somewhere.
01:18: You're welcome to punch those out, put those into a notebook as well, because they are important.
01:24: In fact, I'm going to be utilizing the handouts a little bit more in depth than I did during our history course.
01:31: Those of you who were part of the history course, the handouts were basically just added information.
01:36: I didn't really go over the handouts very deeply, but I am going to be using these handouts a little bit more in this course, because I created them.
01:45: I made them for some lecture information that I want you to have.
01:50: The first one we're going to look at tonight is the one that says translation methodology.
01:58: That is the one that looks somewhat like a speedometer.
02:03: That's this one right here.
02:08: Last time we talked about textual variation, and I wanted to, tonight, begin my introduction by talking about the differences between translations.
02:20: I showed you last week how certain translations deal with textual variance differently.
02:26: The ESV didn't even have the verse.
02:27: The King James had it, and the NIV had the number, but not the verse.
02:33: Some of you had never seen that before, so that was sort of an introduction to you.
02:37: Tonight, I want to talk about something that's a little bit more important in regard to what you're using in the way of tools.
02:45: Bible study is all about tools.
02:48: You want to have the right tools for the job.
02:50: The first and foremost tool that you should have is a good Bible.
02:55: All translations are translations.
02:59: I know that sounds like a redundancy, but it's an important redundancy because there is no translation that is perfectly accurate in every way, shape, or form to the original language.
03:16: There are certain words in the original that simply do not translate into our modern language.
03:22: We have to provide equivalents for those words or something else to help us understand how those words would function today.
03:32: If you look at this sheet, you'll notice I have given you basically a chart on the right side.
03:45: From the essentially literal categories all the way over to what we would call the paraphrase category.
03:56: What is the difference? The literal is what we call formal equivalency.
04:05: Formal equivalency is when there is a word in the Greek, there is an equal word or a seeking to be an equal word in the English as best as possible.
04:17: It means it's formally equivalent.
04:20: Now, that is not absolutely true because sometimes one Greek word can equate to about five English words.
04:29: If you look at the Greek New Testament, it has some 150,000 words.
04:36: In the English New Testament, it has more like 200,000 to 225,000 words.
04:40: If I remember the numbering correctly, I may be off a little on that.
04:42: The point is you're going to have more English words because one Greek word can account for several English words.
04:50: There is still a functional equivalent.
04:52: That one Greek word means those five English words as however it's expressed.
04:59: When you begin to move to the middle of the speedometer, that's what I'm calling it, you'll notice something different.
05:08: Something called dynamic or functional equivalent.
05:14: A functional equivalent is when you have a word or a phrase and you provide a modern or contemporary phrase that would have a meaning that is equivalent but the words are not equivalent.
05:35: The best example that I can give you actually is in the King James Bible.
05:40: People say, oh, the King James Bible is absolutely literal.
05:45: Well, no, it's not.
05:48: In the sixth chapter of Romans, the Apostle Paul asks, shall we continue in sin so that grace will abound? In the King James Bible, it says, God forbid.
06:03: That is not what the Greek says.
06:06: The Greek says may genoita.
06:09: The word may is the adversative.
06:12: Genoita is the root of gene, meaning to be or to exist.
06:20: And so what it actually means is may it never exist or may it never be.
06:25: And that's why your modern translations will say, shall we continue in sin so that grace should abound? May it never be or certainly not.
06:35: But the King James translators used an expression which we would call a dynamic equivalent.
06:43: God forbid.
06:45: Neither the word God nor the word forbid are there, but it means what it means.
06:51: And it means the same thing.
06:53: And so we would call that a dynamic equivalent.
06:57: I'm not saying it's wrong.
06:58: I'm saying it's a different way to translate a word.
07:02: All right.
07:04: You're making an equivalent translation.
07:08: Now, the further you get to the right side of the page, you'll notice that you fall into the category of the paraphrase.
07:16: A paraphrase is much different than a dynamic equivalent because a paraphrase is not seeking to have any real equivalency at all.
07:27: It's seeking to simply restate something in a different way so as to make it more contemporary and clear.
07:37: You'll notice on the right side, the one at the bottom is the Message Bible.
07:43: Eugene, was it Phillips, wrote the, Peterson, Eugene Peterson, thank you, wrote the Message Bible.
07:50: I consider the Message Bible much more akin to a commentary than I would a translation because it does not really provide an accurate rendering of the original language.
08:04: So why does this matter? Well, it matters to me because if we're going to practice the art of observation, then we ought to be observing as close to the original as possible.
08:20: At least that is my opinion.
08:22: I'm sharing, you know, you can argue with me later if you want to.
08:25: I get to state my opinion because I'm teaching, but you can tell me your opinion later.
08:30: The point is, if I'm going to put in the work of observation, I don't want to spend all my time observing something that wasn't in the original text.
08:41: I'll note at the bottom, you'll see I have the New American Standard Bible, which I consider to be one of the most literal, one of the most functionally equivalent, I'm sorry, formally equivalent.
08:54: You'll see I have Luke 10, 4.
08:57: Carry no money belt, no bag, no shoes, and greet no one on the way.
09:03: Simple sentence.
09:07: The Message Bible.
09:09: Notice it is three lines instead of two.
09:13: I simply point that out because oftentimes paraphrases beef up the text and include a lot more than is necessary.
09:20: And again, if you're practicing the art of observation, note right away that you're going to be observing more and often superfluous information.
09:30: But notice what it says.
09:32: Travel light, comb and toothbrush, and no extra luggage.
09:36: Don't loiter and make small talk with everyone you meet along the way.
09:41: Now, I've always jokingly called the Message Bible the Toothbrush Bible because I don't know of any other Bible that has the word toothbrush in it.
09:48: And I don't do so to make fun.
09:51: I just simply say it's an interesting choice by Eugene Peterson to include a modern tool like a toothbrush in his translation.
10:02: Certainly that's not what Jesus said, but it's an attempt to contemporize what Jesus said and give us an understanding that might make sense to us.
10:12: Again, I am not mocking or saying it's bad if you want to read it, but I am saying if you're going to invest in observation, you might best invest in observing something that takes you as close to the original as you can.
10:28: You'll notice something to consider in the middle of the thing.
10:32: All translations involve some interpretation.
10:37: How much interpretation do you want? Because basically what you're doing, with a paraphrase or even a dynamic equivalent, is you are allowing the translator to interpret it for you.
10:54: You're letting them do the job of interpretation.
10:57: I want to do the interpretation.
11:00: Just give me what it says.
11:04: So that's this.
11:06: And you'll notice it's New American Standard, English Standard Version, the New English Translation, which is actually a very good free translation you can get online.
11:16: And it's a textual critical edition, which means it deals with the textual critical issues that we talked about last week.
11:25: The NET notes are very fantastic.
11:28: King James Version, New King James Version.
11:30: The Christian Standard Bible used to be called the Holman Christian Standard Bible.
11:36: Now they dropped the Holman.
11:37: Now it's just the Christian Standard Bible.
11:38: The NIV is the flagship of the dynamic equivalent movement.
11:44: And I like the reading of the NIV at certain points.
11:47: I think it does a good job.
11:49: So, again, I'm not a hater of the NIV or anything.
11:52: Again, but I want closer to literal, so I would look more to the ESV or the NAS personally.
11:59: Then you get to the New Living Translation, the New International Reader's Version, which is more of a paraphrase of the NIV.
12:06: The Good News Translation, the Contemporary English Version.
12:09: The Living Bible, which was very popular in the 70s.
12:12: It was one of the first paraphrases to come out.
12:15: And then, of course, the Message.
12:17: You'll notice what's not on here.
12:19: The Passion Translation.
12:21: If you see the Passion Translation, that is a translation that has been put out by the New Apostolic Reformation, which has come out of California.
12:31: And there is an attempt in that translation to superimpose and interject Word-Faith teaching into the text.
12:40: So I wouldn't even consider that a good translation.
12:43: I would say that is an attempt to try to interject false teachings into the text.
12:48: Also, the New World Translation, if you ever see that.
12:52: That is the Jehovah Witnesses Translation, which they have changed many of the texts.
12:57: I could show you at another time some of the texts that they have changed specifically.
13:02: But, again, I would be careful of the New World Translation and the Passion Translation.
13:08: Okay.
13:09: Now, moving on.
13:11: I want to show you...
13:13: I gave you a Comparing Translations to the Original Language Note Sheet.
13:20: If you'll pull this sheet out, you'll notice there are...
13:25: And I put the Passion Translation here just to give you an example.
13:30: You'll notice the first, we have the Greek New Testament.
13:34: I don't expect you to be able to read it.
13:37: I just put it there to show you something.
13:40: Because the English Standard Version is almost exactly word for word.
13:50: The Passion Translation, however, is not.
13:54: The English Standard Bible says, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
14:03: All right.
14:04: Let's very quickly...
14:05: I have it on the board.
14:06: This is the same thing you have.
14:09: N-R-K.
14:10: N is your preposition.
14:12: R-K is the beginning.
14:15: It is the...
14:17: In the beginning.
14:18: So R-K, think of like an archbishop or something.
14:20: Something that's at the beginning or the top, at the beginning.
14:23: So this is in the beginning.
14:25: And was, ha-lagos, the Word.
14:30: Ha is your...
14:31: This is ha.
14:32: This is a definite article.
14:35: It is the Word.
14:37: Kai-ha-lagos.
14:38: So again, thinking of your ESV.
14:40: In the beginning was the Word.
14:41: Literally exactly as it reads in the ESV.
14:45: All right.
14:46: Kai-ha-lagos.
14:47: And the Word, ein pros tan theon, was with...
14:53: In Greek it says, the God.
14:56: But we drop the definite article in English because it is an unnecessary word.
15:03: It's a word that we would say in English is not needed to express the meaning.
15:08: So we would say simply, was God.
15:11: Was with God.
15:14: Kai-theos ein ha-lagos.
15:17: This just throws a lot of people off because this actually says, and God was the Word.
15:22: But we translate it, and the Word was God, because the predicate is actually theos.
15:30: Ein ha-lagos is the subject.
15:33: So ein ha-lagos in English comes first.
15:35: And the Word was God.
15:37: So we have the theos here becomes the predicate because of the way it's constructed.
15:42: So it's not wrong to say, and the Word was God.
15:45: But in Greek, the Word God comes first.
15:49: Either way, the idea is the same.
15:52: And we have here an almost exact, if you put the ESV up there, it would be almost exact word for word.
15:58: Now let's read the Passion translation.
16:01: In the very beginning, the living expression was already there, and the living expression was with God, yet fully God.
16:20: Okay? A few thoughts.
16:23: One, I don't see the need of adding the very to the beginning, especially when in the beginning is a call back to the first three words of the Old Testament.
16:36: In the beginning, God.
16:38: And then we have in John, in the beginning was the Word.
16:42: And so adding the word very adds an unnecessary addition.
16:47: It's the beginning, the very beginning, same thing.
16:51: You can't get any more very than the first.
16:55: And then the translation, the living expression.
16:58: I have thought about what they're trying to say, and I still don't quite understand it.
17:04: I know this.
17:06: I have studied the word logos for a long time, and I have never heard that as a translation or even an understanding of what John was trying to get across when he called Jesus the logos.
17:21: The living expression of what? Don't quite know.
17:25: Was already there.
17:27: It's not terrible.
17:28: It's actually okay.
17:30: And the living expression was with God.
17:32: Okay.
17:33: If you're taking living expression for logos, that's okay.
17:36: Yet fully God.
17:38: Yet is an adversative.
17:39: I don't understand why it's included.
17:42: That way, rather than and was fully God.
17:46: I don't quite understand why yet fully God is put this way.
17:51: But as I said, I don't trust this translation anyway.
17:53: So maybe I'm just being a little overly critical.
17:57: However, I want you to consider this.
18:00: I want to read this to you.
18:02: Imagine a person took the time to write a love letter.
18:05: He painstakingly considered every word until he was finished with his masterpiece.
18:10: It included poetic lyrics and exquisite language.
18:15: Now, imagine that letter had to be translated into another language for the recipient to be able to understand.
18:21: Would the original author want the person to get as close to his original words as possible? Or would he be satisfied with a loosely worded paraphrase? Consider, he wrote how his passion burned for his beloved with the blazing intensity of a thousand suns.
18:38: And yet, it was simply translated, he is hot for you.
18:45: Such would not only rob the recipient of experiencing the full orbed expression of his passion, but also could easily be misunderstood in a way not intended by the original author.
18:59: So, that's my thought.
19:01: And again, I wanted to share it with you because if we're going to invest in observation, we ought to be observing the very best that there is to offer.
19:11: So, find yourself a good translation.
19:15: Okay.
19:16: Now let's move on to our lecture.
19:19: Our outline tonight is this.
19:20: The value of observation.
19:23: And then we're going to look at ten strategies for reading.
19:26: Then we're going to take a break.
19:28: And then we'll come back and go over our workbook assignment.
19:31: So let's look first at the value of observation.
19:35: You should have read in your book some of this that I'm going to be mentioning, but this will be a reminder and a re-encouragement to you.
19:46: The value of observation.
19:47: The first step to Bible study is observation, which we began to discuss last time.
19:54: We are seeking to ask the question, what do I see? Too often, people go directly into the what does it mean? Or, how does it work? Those are questions of interpretation and application.
20:13: And they miss the vital step of observation if you jump right to those.
20:21: As we said, and I'm going to keep saying this, my Sherlock Holmes quote that I love, people see, but they do not observe.
20:29: In our textbook, Dr.
20:31: Hendricks recounts the following.
20:33: The ability to observe is a developed process.
20:37: Luis Agazes, the renowned 19th century naturalist, who I probably just pronounced his name wrong, of Harvard, was asked on one occasion, what was your greatest contribution scientifically? His answer, I have taught men and women how to observe.
20:58: It was my greatest contribution to science.
21:01: I taught men and women how to observe.
21:05: Often, I'll listen to pastors who are just starting out in expository preaching, expository preaching being verse by verse through a book of the Bible, and early on, they will rush through a book of the Bible, sometimes able to preach two or three whole books in a single year.
21:26: Not necessarily bad, but it's because they have not honed the skill of observation.
21:33: They're new.
21:34: And so, you'll notice as a man begins to become better at observing the text, his sermons will become less text-filled in the sense of, rather than preaching 20 verses, he may preach 10, or five, or like this Sunday, when I will preach one verse.
21:54: Because you will see in that verse more than you ever would have seen 10 years ago, or five years ago, because you are starting to see more in the Word of God.
22:07: And that is happening as the skills of observation are increasing.
22:16: The only way to get the most out of the text is to mind the text for all it is worth.
22:26: And that is what observation is all about.
22:28: I want to read again from our textbook.
22:31: Dr.
22:32: Hendricks tells the story of a young man and a fish.
22:35: How many of you remember the story of the young man with the fish? Okay.
22:38: The professor mentioned earlier the one that we mentioned from Harvard.
22:46: He put a fish on a tray, put it before his student, and asked him to write down everything that he saw.
22:53: The student returned a day later and he said, I found 37 things.
22:58: The teacher said, Good.
23:00: Go look some more.
23:02: And he did this to the student for a period of two weeks.
23:08: Go and look some more.
23:12: Well, that is going to be the motto of this class, and hopefully the motto of your study as you continue to grow as a Bible student.
23:20: Look and look and look and then go and look some more.
23:27: Dr.
23:28: Hendricks mentioned about a man who said something that he thought was amazing.
23:33: He said, The man said, You know, on the hundredth time I read this passage, something really jumped out to me.
23:41: And he said, The guy read a hundred times? What do you mean? A hundred times? And he said, Yes, but it was on the hundredth time that it really jumped out.
23:53: We too often think to ourselves, I got that.
23:57: And we move, especially with passages that we're familiar with.
24:02: You read John 3, you get to verse 16, jump right to verse 17, because you've heard John 3, 16 ever since you were small.
24:10: And so is there still nothing more that you can glean? Is there nothing more that you can see? In a passage that has changed so many lives, and yet we take those for granted every time Christmas comes around, those passages from Matthew and Luke come out and we read them and we read over them, but we do not read into them.
24:33: We do not invest an investigation.
24:37: We simply remind ourselves that yeah, there were some angels and yeah, there were some shepherds and yeah, there were some wise men and yeah, a baby was born.
24:47: But is there not more that we could learn if we were willing to really invest an observation? When Dr.
24:56: R.C.
24:56: Sproul was teaching, he told a story that when he had new students in his class, the first day, he would send them home with an assignment.
25:09: He would give them a passage of Scripture and say, bring me back 50 observations.
25:15: Now last week I asked you for 10.
25:18: He said, bring me back 50 observations.
25:21: So that week, he tells the story as such, he said they would go into their dorms or homes or wherever and they would dig and they would find and they'd pull and they would look and they'd call each other and they were allowed to talk to each other and so they all really invested in finding those 50 observations and they'd come in the very next week, they'd turn in their papers and the doctor would say, now go find 50 more.
25:50: He understood that the better your observation is, the better your interpretation and application will be.
26:00: Now, we're going to have some fun.
26:02: Some of you may think this is a little trite and if you do, it's okay.
26:06: I think it's fun.
26:08: I have before you a table.
26:13: On this table are several objects.
26:20: I'm going to take the purple cloth off.
26:22: I need you to have a piece of paper.
26:24: You can write on the back of one of your handouts if you don't have a piece of paper.
26:27: You have 60 seconds to observe and write as many observations as you can.
26:38: Ready? If you need to stand up, it's okay.
27:05: That helps.
27:06: You can even walk closer if you need to, Daisy.
27:13: I know you're a little further back.
27:21: About 30 seconds in.
27:34: About 15 seconds left.
27:46: 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1.
27:53: Okay, pencils down.
27:56: Now, when you're doing Bible study, you don't have to rush.
28:01: In fact, we're going to later talk about patience in reading.
28:04: For this, it was just a game.
28:07: We only have a limited time in class.
28:09: How many observations did you come up with? Somebody holler out.
28:13: It doesn't matter.
28:13: 9.
28:15: That's good.
28:16: 10.
28:17: 9.
28:18: 12.
28:18: Good.
28:19: 13.
28:20: Good.
28:21: Gary, give me one of your observations.
28:23: What did you notice? Four legs on the table.
28:26: That's a great observation.
28:30: That's actually really thoughtful.
28:32: He went off the table.
28:33: Anyone else? JP, what did you come up with? The sunglasses leaning on the community chair.
28:41: That's right.
28:42: That's actually not how I set it up.
28:44: That happened when I lifted up the purple thing.
28:46: It wasn't supposed to be leaning.
28:48: It was supposed to be sitting over there.
28:49: Anyone else have anything interesting that they observed? The stenciling on the table.
28:55: There's this? Yes.
28:57: The table still has the label.
29:00: We purchased it.
29:00: It's a white lifetime table.
29:02: Yes, it is.
29:04: They wouldn't know that because they're over here.
29:07: The label is over there.
29:09: What else? A little wooden upright piano with what looks to be either a song book or something.
29:17: Music book on it.
29:18: That's right.
29:19: I'll give you a dollar if you can tell me what it is.
29:21: I know it's a little piano.
29:22: I would think it was a hymn book or a music hymn book.
29:25: It's a communion holder.
29:27: It's meant to hold communion for somebody with a piano player.
29:30: They put a piece of bread and a cup in here for the lady playing the piano.
29:36: One of our guys at church built that for the piano player.
29:42: Anyone else have any interesting observations that you made? Did anybody write down how many objects are on the table? Did you? You can't see everything, but you wrote down all the ones you could see.
29:56: What else? Did anybody notice any categories on the table? That's right.
30:04: There are several of these things.
30:05: Duct tape, a circle square, a WD-40.
30:10: All these things are tools because I went into that room and got most of them.
30:16: But I got colorful ones to get everybody's attention.
30:19: But you see the purpose.
30:21: Just to show you that everybody is seeing something different.
30:24: I love this in the book.
30:26: I don't know how many of you noticed in the book.
30:27: I'm going to change this back to make sure you can see me.
30:32: Do you remember this? He said, can you use four lines to connect all the dots? Most people would have trouble with that because they're trying to stay in.
30:50: He said, but if you go outside the box, you can make four lines connect it all.
30:56: But you have to go outside the dots.
30:59: The idea behind that is simply when we're looking at the text, are we really thinking about all of the ins and outs of what's going on? Like I said, it's kind of fun.
31:11: Hopefully you enjoyed that.
31:13: I want to do another practical exercise if we can.
31:17: Again, I want to do.
31:18: Yes.
31:19: Is it cutting my head off? Thank you.
31:22: Yes.
31:22: You guys are my temporary cameramen.
31:24: I appreciate you.
31:26: Back it up a little bit.
31:30: I want you to open your Bibles.
31:32: We're going to actually look at a verse.
31:38: Make some observations.
31:39: Galatians chapter one, verse one.
31:55: Galatians chapter one, verse one.
32:01: Read from the ESV.
32:02: It may read slightly different than yours.
32:05: It says, Paul, an apostle, not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead.
32:21: Immediately, what are some observations that you see in this text? Paul is an apostle.
32:32: What else? Paul is the writer.
32:38: The form of writing a letter in the first century is different than ours.
32:44: Because in a modern letter, we would say, Dear Jennifer or whoever.
32:49: In the first century, the form of the letter was to begin with the writer.
32:54: Paul is always identifying himself at the beginning of his writing.
33:00: What else? I would want to know why the translators chose to put that into a parenthesis.
33:15: I would say because it is a parenthetical statement.
33:18: It's not necessarily connected to everything else.
33:22: It's an argument in a statement.
33:24: But again, I'd want to know why.
33:25: I'd want to look up why those translators made that choice.
33:29: Very good.
33:30: Good observation.
33:31: What else? Yes, not from men nor through man.
33:44: It's through Christ, not through man or man.
33:49: Anything else? He mentions Christ and God the Father, which is typical of Paul.
33:57: He often puts Christ and God the Father together, showing a form of equality.
34:03: Again, that's somewhat of an interpretive thing.
34:05: But I'm just adding an observation.
34:07: This is something that's very typical in Paul's writing.
34:11: What else? He mentions the resurrection of Christ.
34:16: He's basing his work and word on a historic event.
34:23: The resurrection.
34:24: What else? Yes, that's verse 2.
34:29: That's right.
34:30: He mentions the brothers who were with him.
34:34: What else? That's right.
34:49: Sort of what I was going to dig into is the idea of what we call the polemic or the argument.
34:56: He's positioning himself for an argument.
35:00: Galatians is a book which is highly argumentative.
35:04: It is all about Paul's position as an apostle and those who would challenge him.
35:11: See, there were those who came to Galatia to teach that Paul's gospel was incomplete.
35:17: That he did not teach that you should be circumcised or that you should keep the Jewish ritual laws.
35:24: And Paul is making an argument and he is producing his own pedigree.
35:29: I am an apostle not from men nor of man but from Jesus Christ and God who raised Christ from the dead.
35:40: You got a problem with it? That's not what he says but that's the basis of his polemic.
35:47: It's an argument.
35:48: And so we can see that in the very first words of the writing.
35:55: But it might take reading the whole book before we really see that.
36:02: So it might take reading through the book one time to go back and say oh that's why he said that.
36:09: I didn't understand before why he was so aggressive.
36:15: Do you know Galatians is one of the only epistles of Paul that doesn't have a thanksgiving? He doesn't say I thank my God for you.
36:23: He says I thank my God for the Corinthians as dastardly as they were.
36:27: As bad as the Corinthians were he says I thank my God for you.
36:31: He doesn't say that to the Galatians.
36:34: Instead he says I am astonished that you have so quickly abandoned him who saved you.
36:43: That's the problem right? So Paul is arguing for his own apostleship.
36:53: Okay so those are just some things to observe from the text.
36:58: And it might take reading the whole book to begin to really observe those things.
37:03: But everyone did a great job just looking and picking out what do we see? What do we see? Not interpreting just what do we see? What do we see? Alright well we're going to move on now to ten strategies for reading.
37:14: Because the first step to good observation is to become a better reader.
37:25: To become a better reader.
37:28: According to, and I mentioned this last week, New Testament scholar Douglas Moo.
37:33: 30% of American adults read at or below a fifth grade level.
37:40: So I wanted to do a little test tonight.
37:43: Not for anyone's sake.
37:44: I'm not doing this test for me.
37:46: But this is something fun for you.
37:49: And I'm going to do it with you.
37:50: I have not looked at this before.
37:53: We are going to take out this sheet.
37:56: And we're going to have 90 seconds.
37:58: I need somebody with a phone.
38:01: Because mine is recording.
38:03: Can someone pull up 90 seconds? I'll read out what you're supposed to do.
38:12: Test your reading skills.
38:13: How sharp are your reading skills? Here's an exercise to test them.
38:17: In 90 seconds or less read the following material.
38:20: And circle true or false for each statement.
38:22: Without looking back at the article.
38:24: Set a timer.
38:26: Have someone call time exactly in 90 seconds.
38:28: So JP if you'll set it to where it will go off in 90 seconds.
38:31: We're going to read this and answer the questions.
38:34: And see how far we get in our minute and a half.
38:39: So JP you tell us when to go.
40:14: Alright 90 seconds has passed.
40:16: And for whoever was listening to this on audio.
40:18: I bet that was the best.
40:20: They just sat there for 90 seconds going.
40:22: What in the world are they doing? Okay.
40:25: Well.
40:28: Let's go over the answers.
40:30: Number one.
40:31: Dry ice is made from water.
40:33: But because it is specially treated it does not melt.
40:36: It's false.
40:37: It's not made from water.
40:38: It's made from carbon dioxide.
40:39: Remember that's what it said in the thing.
40:41: The first dry ice was manufactured in the 1950s.
40:44: False.
40:45: That's right.
40:46: It was made in 1925.
40:48: Dry ice has more uses than ordinary ice.
40:50: True.
40:51: Yeah I missed that one.
40:52: I put a question mark.
40:53: Because I couldn't remember if it said it did or not.
40:55: So I just put a question mark next to it.
40:58: Dry ice is not as cold as ordinary ice.
41:01: False.
41:02: It's 142 degrees colder.
41:05: Artificial fog can be made by passing steam over dry ice.
41:08: True.
41:09: Yes.
41:10: So there is just a little fun exercise.
41:15: And, again, whatever we can do to make ourselves a better reader that's good.
41:19: And, again, it's not about reading fast.
41:21: But I will tell you this.
41:23: In Mortimer Adler's book, How to Read a Book, he mentions the point about learning to read faster for comprehension's sake.
41:33: And he talks about the fact that whenever we are reading.
41:36: And actually what he says is that we should read at different paces depending on the book.
41:41: But oftentimes we mouth our words or we have an internal dialogue that's happening as we read.
41:50: And we either do it with.
41:51: You don't know you're doing it.
41:52: But you're doing it with your mouth or even with your mind.
41:55: And that's actually slowing you down.
41:57: And it's slowing your comprehension.
41:59: And so being able to stop that is.
42:02: And, again, I still battle with it myself.
42:04: So I'm not giving you something that doesn't apply to me.
42:07: But that's one of the first things that they teach you in speed reading courses is to stop the internal dialogue.
42:15: Because it's slowing you down as a reader.
42:17: And, ultimately, it's slowing your comprehension.
42:19: You don't read words.
42:21: You read groups of words.
42:22: And you do that by training yourself to do that.
42:26: And so that's part of just the process.
42:30: Imagine this.
42:30: If it took 30 minutes for you to read the book of Ephesians, which is six chapters long.
42:38: But you could train yourself to read it in 15 minutes.
42:41: You could read it twice in the time that it took you to read it once if it took you 30 minutes.
42:48: And thus you'd have an opportunity to read it a second time.
42:53: And so there is value in learning to read a little faster.
42:58: But you have to train yourself to do so.
43:00: There are techniques out there that can help you.
43:04: Any questions? Was your hand up, Michelle? Okay.
43:07: I didn't know if you were asking a question.
43:09: All right.
43:10: So, again, these are all exercises from the book.
43:13: There are others in the textbook.
43:15: I encourage you to go through.
43:16: Find ones that you think will help you.
43:19: And take a chance with those.
43:22: Now, Dr.
43:24: Hendricks mentions ten strategies to make us better readers.
43:31: Because of time, I cannot fully express all ten.
43:37: But hopefully you have taken the opportunity to read through the book and you've seen it.
43:41: I want to simply make a few comments about each one very briefly.
43:46: Ten strategies for becoming a better reader.
43:49: Number one, he says we ought to read thoughtfully.
43:56: That is, do not put your brain in neutral when you read.
44:00: How many of you have read and then stopped and realized you don't realize anything you just read? You allowed your mind to wander or you allowed yourself to go and think about something else.
44:13: Your eyes were following the words, but your mind was elsewhere.
44:17: And so the point of the first thing is engage your mind when you read.
44:24: A few years ago I read a book called Don't Check Your Brains at the Door.
44:28: I have a sermon with that same title.
44:31: And it's an important thought that we engage our minds in this.
44:35: You remember when you were a kid, your teacher would tell you to put your thinking cap on? I used to go through this real elaborate thing of how my thinking cap fit.
44:43: I was a very imaginative, young, goofy child.
44:46: But I still think.
44:49: I sit down to read.
44:50: I want to think about what I'm reading.
44:52: And I want to engage my mind.
44:56: The second thing is to read repeatedly.
44:58: I mentioned earlier somebody who had read the text 100 times and finally had an illumination about the text.
45:05: An idea came to me after the 100th time.
45:08: Well, how many of us have invested reading that repetitively? Probably not very many.
45:13: A few years ago I found myself doing a project that Dr.
45:19: John MacArthur proposed.
45:21: And it was a way to learn the New Testament better.
45:25: And what he did was he encouraged the reading of the same seven chapters every day for 30 days.
45:34: And then read another seven chapters every day for 30 days.
45:37: And I forget, I think it's three years that it would take for you to get all the way through the New Testament.
45:43: And by the end of those three years, you will have read the whole New Testament seven times.
45:48: And you will probably know where most of the information in the New Testament is.
45:55: Because you've invested so much time in repetition.
45:58: I only made it to about 12 or 13 months.
46:01: And I moved on to a different program.
46:03: So I did not follow Dr.
46:05: MacArthur's program to a T.
46:07: But I will tell you this, I went through Romans that way.
46:12: And now I really do have a working knowledge of Romans where I know basically the entire outline of the book.
46:20: I can follow through even teaching it without having to have an outline.
46:24: I know where just about everything in the book is.
46:27: And so if you're interested in a repetitious exercise, read the same seven chapters.
46:34: And you can't do seven chapters a day.
46:36: Read the same three chapters a day or the same chapter.
46:40: One man tells a story of how he was told to read 2 Peter every day for a month.
46:48: The guy, he said, I just don't understand how the word of God can change my life.
46:50: He said, read 2 Peter every day for a month.
46:53: He said at the end of the month, the man was talking about nothing except 2 Peter.
46:59: It was just all he could talk about.
47:02: And it was so much a part of his mind that this small epistle in the back of your Bible would have so much information.
47:09: And how did he know it? Because he'd read it 30 times.
47:13: So there is great value in repetitious reading.
47:17: Alright, the next is patiently.
47:21: Now I just talked about the value of reading fast.
47:24: So I'm not, I am not trying to contradict.
47:29: I'm simply talking about if you're reading an overview of a book, like you want to read all of Matthew.
47:36: All of Matthew, you know, probably 45 minutes to an hour for an average reader.
47:42: Maybe a little less if you're a faster reader.
47:44: There's 28 chapters and depending on how fast you read and what you're trying to get out of it.
47:50: You're looking at a pretty, pretty good set, you know, to read the book of Matthew.
47:56: So you think about that.
47:59: You want to be patient in the sense that if you're really wanting to learn what's in Matthew, you read through that quick time.
48:09: But then go back and pace yourself as you look through the book and really make observations.
48:16: Your first read is your overview.
48:19: And then you go back, pace yourself.
48:21: I love this quote from the book.
48:23: You can't hurry holiness.
48:25: I just like that phrase.
48:27: You can't hurry holiness.
48:29: So pace yourself, especially on the second reading.
48:33: Now you're looking for the particulars.
48:37: The fourth of these strategies for reading better is to read selectively.
48:45: You said, oh, wait a minute, Pastor.
48:46: The whole Bible is the word of God.
48:48: I know the whole Bible is the word of God.
48:50: But when you are reading, you are reading, looking for things.
48:56: And in the book, in your textbook, it gives you those journalistic questions.
49:03: The who, the what, the where, the why, the when, and the wherefore.
49:08: Those six questions help you to identify what parts are moving and what parts matter in the narrative for your information.
49:18: So you're reading selectively in the sense that you're selecting the portions that stand out.
49:23: The who's, the what's, the where's, the why's, the when's, and the wherefore's.
49:29: So you're reading, but you're selecting what parts are really standing out.
49:33: I like to talk about, and we're going to talk about later, keywords and terms, looking for those things as you read.
49:41: Number five, reading prayerfully.
49:47: Reading prayerfully.
49:50: And there's really not a lot that I can say on this except read before, read after, read while.
49:59: I'm sorry, I said that wrong.
50:01: Pray before, pray after, pray while reading.
50:06: Because this is God's word.
50:09: It's God's book.
50:11: And so if you want to connect with the author, you can by prayer.
50:17: And often I think of, people often think of prayer and Bible study as two different disciplines.
50:23: You'll have people say, I'm going to prayer meeting.
50:26: Or I'm going to Bible study.
50:28: Right? On our Wednesday night, it literally is split in half.
50:32: We have our prayer time, which takes about 30 minutes.
50:35: And then we have our teaching, or our Bible study, which takes, depending on how long I go, another 30 to 45 minutes.
50:43: But it really is a time of prayer and study.
50:48: When we pray, we talk to God.
50:51: When we study, he speaks to us.
50:54: So it's a dual exercise.
50:57: We speak to God and ask that he speak to us through his word.
51:01: Not through a voice from heaven, but through a voice from the word.
51:09: Number six.
51:12: The text says to read imaginatively.
51:15: This is one of the areas where I love Dr.
51:19: Hendricks, but he and I would probably divide a little.
51:23: Not much, and probably doesn't even really worth saying, but I'm going to say it anyway.
51:29: I am not into creative arts type stuff.
51:35: I am a creative person, and I like to do drawing, and I like to do skits and things and acting.
51:42: But when it comes to, he talked about a pastor who dressed up like Bible characters when he was preaching.
51:50: I'm not there with him.
51:51: I feel like when I'm preaching, I want to be preached.
51:56: I'm a little divided on that personally.
51:58: You may have read that part of the book and felt a little different.
52:01: That's fine.
52:02: We can have a little difference there.
52:04: But I do want to tell you that there is great value in reading.
52:12: He says the word imaginatively.
52:15: I use the word existentially.
52:18: Existentially.
52:20: Now, when I say existentially, I am not talking about existentialism.
52:27: Existentialism is a philosophical belief system about existence and how we exist and why we exist.
52:37: Really, that's not what I'm referring to.
52:40: When I say to read the Bible existentially, what I mean is to remember that the people that you are reading about truly existed at a point in time and thus try as best you can to see this from their perspective.
53:03: For instance, Genesis 22, verse 1, God spoke to Abraham and said, Take your son, your only son, whom you love, to the Mount of Moriah and offer him as a burnt offering.
53:27: Now, can I read that as if I were Abraham? That is a powerful way to examine the text.
53:37: I mentioned Dr.
53:38: R.C.
53:38: Sproul earlier.
53:39: One of the absolute best sermons I've ever heard in my life was when Dr.
53:44: R.C.
53:45: Sproul, preaching at a pastor's conference that I went to, preached Genesis 22.
53:51: And he spoke as if you were there.
53:54: And his whole narrative was reading as if you were standing next to Abraham, watching the knife come up, ready to plunge it into the chest of his son.
54:09: And I was just literally heard the story a thousand times, but had never really lived it until that sermon.
54:18: And so when you read, remember the reality of the existence of who you're reading about.
54:26: Jesus is not just a character on a page.
54:30: He is the God-man who was and is and is to come.
54:35: And so that is very important for reading.
54:38: The next one is read meditatively.
54:41: I'll simply point you to a verse of scripture, Psalm 1-2.
54:46: His delight is in the law of the Lord and on his law he meditates day and night.
54:51: Read the text and think on the text.
54:54: I love Alistair Begg.
54:56: Alistair Begg said whenever he is studying for his sermon, he says, I think myself empty.
55:05: Meaning I read the text and I think about the text until I have nothing more to think.
55:11: He said, then I read myself full.
55:13: Means he goes to the commentaries and he thinks himself empty.
55:16: He reads himself full.
55:17: He writes himself clear.
55:18: He preaches himself passionately.
55:20: That's the pattern of his preaching.
55:23: And he is a wonderful preacher.
55:25: But I just like that phrase, think myself empty.
55:27: Think as much as I can.
55:29: Meditate as much as I can on that word.
55:34: Purposefully is number eight.
55:39: Meaning that when we read, we read looking for things.
55:44: It kind of goes along with what we talked about earlier, selectively.
55:48: Which is to be investigative.
55:51: We want to be looking purposefully for things like structure.
55:55: Consider this.
55:57: The book of Romans.
55:59: The book of Romans has a structure.
56:01: Probably the most well structured of Paul's letters.
56:05: It is Paul's magnum opus.
56:08: It is his great work when it comes to Christian theology.
56:11: It can be broken into two parts.
56:14: Chapters 1-11 is Paul's theology.
56:16: And chapters 12-16 is the application of Paul's theology.
56:24: Chapters 1, 2, and 3 deal with the sin of mankind.
56:28: Chapters 4 and 5 deal with how man is justified before God.
56:32: Chapters 6 and 7 deal with man's sanctification.
56:36: And chapter 8 deals with his being certainly without condemnation.
56:43: That's what it says.
56:44: It begins chapter 8.
56:45: There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
56:49: Chapters 9, 10, and 11 deal with God's elective purpose.
56:52: And his role and relationship with Israel and the church.
56:55: And then again chapters 12-16 is his application of all of his theology.
57:00: There is the book of Romans.
57:02: And that is a way of looking at it purposefully.
57:05: Paul had a purpose in writing Romans 1 before he wrote Romans 2.
57:10: Now he didn't write it with 1's and 2's.
57:12: But he had a purpose in the structure.
57:14: And so looking for that, purposefully looking for that will help you understand it.
57:21: Number 9.
57:24: Read acquisitively.
57:27: Acquisitively.
57:28: Not inquisitively.
57:30: But acquisitively.
57:32: Meaning to acquire.
57:35: Read to remember.
57:38: Read to stake a claim.
57:41: Read to make the text yours.
57:45: Take ownership of it.
57:47: Don't just read to forget.
57:49: Read to remember.
57:51: And finally, telescopically.
57:54: And this is, I'll give you an example of how this is going to work for us as a church.
57:59: I've been preaching for 18 months through the book of 1 Corinthians.
58:02: I have 2 more sermons in chapter 16.
58:06: This Sunday I'm going to preach verse 22.
58:08: And then the Sunday after I'm going to preach verses 14 to 24.
58:12: And then I am going to do a sermon on the whole book.
58:17: And say, what have we learned? From a telescopic look, what is the theme? What is the main purpose? And that's reading telescopically.
58:28: Step back and say, what was Paul's point from beginning to the end? There was a theme that ran through this book.
58:36: Or several themes.
58:37: And how did those themes connect to one another? That's reading telescopically.
58:43: Now we're to our time for our break.
58:46: So I just want to say one quick thing and we will break.
58:50: And that is this.
58:52: If you haven't looked at Mortimer Adler's book, How to Read a Book.
58:55: I want to just mention one thing to you.
58:57: A phrase that he uses.
58:59: You've heard the phrase, coming to terms.
59:03: Coming to terms.
59:04: You know, we need to come to terms.
59:08: Or whatever you've heard that expression.
59:10: That phrase means that you understand one another.
59:18: And a term is not the same as a word.
59:25: Because a term is either a word or words.
59:31: That are being employed by an author to communicate an idea.
59:36: It's more than just a word.
59:39: If you were a carpenter, there would be certain terms that would be employed in your particular skills.
59:48: And those terms would be known to you and those who you work with.
59:52: But might not make sense to anyone else.
59:55: Finding out what terms the author is using will help you as you observe.
01:00:03: Look for the terms.
01:00:04: My son Cody, he worked for about six months for a carpenter who installed windows.
01:00:10: Every day he came home talking about wet flash.
01:00:16: Now, I know what wet is.
01:00:20: It ain't dry.
01:00:22: And I know what flash is.
01:00:24: It's what lightning does.
01:00:25: But wet flash is a thing apparently.
01:00:30: And it is a thing that if it gets on a good t-shirt, it's no longer a good t-shirt.
01:00:36: Wet flash is a tool used in installing doors and windows that keeps moisture out.
01:00:43: I didn't know that.
01:00:45: But Cody knew that.
01:00:47: Because that was a term that was used in the job that he had.
01:00:53: A Bible term that you might want to consider, the word saved.
01:00:59: Different times, different authors use the word saved differently.
01:01:05: Paul says, for by grace are ye saved through faith.
01:01:10: But then he also says, women are saved through childbearing.
01:01:16: Is it the same term being used in the same way? No.
01:01:20: Much different.
01:01:21: But it is a word.
01:01:24: And this is where word studies can be dangerous.
01:01:28: Well, this word means this over here.
01:01:30: It must mean that over there.
01:01:32: How is the author using the terms? He's setting his own terms.
01:01:38: How is he using them? That is key in observing the text.
01:01:44: What terms are being used and how.
01:01:48: Okay.
01:01:49: We'll take a five, seven-minute break and come back.
01:01:54: All right.
01:01:57: We will start up our quarter portion.
01:02:03: Everyone should have your notebooks.
01:02:11: And tonight's notebook assignment or today's notebook assignment was to look at page 15.
01:02:20: Did everyone get a chance to do that? All right.
01:02:24: Good.
01:02:25: Notice at the bottom, I like what this says.
01:02:28: It says you might want to make a copy of this page to place in each of the Bibles that you use.
01:02:33: I think that's smart.
01:02:35: It asks those probing questions.
01:02:37: Who is the author? Who is the author addressing? What is the most important term? Notice the word term.
01:02:43: Not word, but term or concept in the passage.
01:02:48: What are the main verbs? What are verbs? Things that show action.
01:02:54: In fact, next week, we're going to watch.
01:02:56: No, we're not.
01:02:57: I was going to say we're going to watch Conjunction Junction, but we're not.
01:03:01: I am going to give you.
01:03:03: I am going to give you a handout next week that is just a simple reminder of grammar.
01:03:10: What is a noun? What is a pronoun? What is a verb? These are things that most of you know, I'm sure, but it never hurts to be reminded.
01:03:18: And also, it doesn't hurt to understand that in the language that this came from, there are added ideas that we don't carry over into English.
01:03:29: Such as the tense we have in English.
01:03:32: The past, the present, the future tense.
01:03:35: And in the Greek, they have other tenses like the aorist tense, which we no longer use.
01:03:42: And so, understanding the minor differences can help you understand why certain words would be translated the way that they are.
01:03:51: So, we're going to talk about that some next week.
01:03:54: And then going on, it says, are there terms you need to define so that you can better understand the passage? Are there people or places you need to identify? And you say, well, how would I do that? Later on, we're going to talk about tools.
01:04:06: Remember I said a good tool is useful in Bible study.
01:04:10: Your first tool is your Bible.
01:04:12: Later in this study, later in the course, we're going to talk about other tools.
01:04:16: One of the tools that is good, and brother, we were just talking about this, is a Bible handbook.
01:04:23: A Bible handbook is designed to give you an overview of each of the books of the Bible, including an outline.
01:04:31: Sort of what I did with Romans earlier.
01:04:34: Give you some of the historical context of the book.
01:04:37: I'm going to tell you, if you're reading Obadiah and you don't understand when Obadiah spoke and who he was speaking to, then you will probably have a little bit of difficulty finding meaning in what he's saying.
01:04:53: And so, a Bible handbook can be a good tool for that.
01:04:58: Commentaries are the last thing you want.
01:05:01: I don't mean that meaning like it's the last thing you want, like you don't want them.
01:05:04: What I mean literally, it's the last step.
01:05:08: A lot of people go immediately from the text to the commentary.
01:05:12: They're cheating themselves, one, out of the blessing of doing the study for yourself.
01:05:20: But also, what they're doing is they're letting someone else be the interpreter.
01:05:25: I'm not saying commentaries are bad.
01:05:27: But even if you have a study Bible and at the bottom of the study Bible, there's those notes.
01:05:33: I always read it like this.
01:05:35: If I have a study Bible and I'm using it, I don't use study Bibles to study with.
01:05:39: But if I were, I would take and I would cover up the notes.
01:05:45: So that I wasn't tempted to look down and have it interpreted for me.
01:05:50: I want to read the word of God first and seek to understand it as best I can.
01:05:55: Think myself empty.
01:05:57: Read myself full.
01:05:59: Think myself empty.
01:06:00: I want to think about it myself first.
01:06:04: And the commentaries, again, the other thing you'll note is different commentaries have different opinions.
01:06:10: And sometimes you'll think, well hey, this commentary is right.
01:06:13: Then you read another one and now they disagree.
01:06:15: And you read a third one and he disagrees with both of them or he has a totally different idea.
01:06:19: What you will find, and Dr.
01:06:21: Jerry Powers told me this when I was in seminary.
01:06:23: He said what you will find is that most of the places you have difficulty with in the text, the commentator has difficulty with in the commentary.
01:06:33: Most of the places you have difficulty with in the text, the commentator will have difficulty with in the commentary.
01:06:40: The commentator will have difficulty with the commentary because it's a difficult part.
01:06:44: The whole reason why you're having a problem with it is because it's a hard part of the text.
01:06:49: And it takes some thought.
01:06:52: It takes some decision making.
01:06:53: take some digging so again nothing wrong with a good commentary but I would say before you go to the commentary a good Bible handbook is good because it's less than a commentary it doesn't tell you what the text means it tells you the general background of the text and the structure of it and the who what where and why of the text which is what you need to know when you're trying to understand it if you have a study Bible that has in the beginning of each book a little outline of the book and a little overview like the John MacArthur study Bible has that the English Standard Version study Bible has that you have basically a Bible handbook built into your study Bible that's what that is now something like Hallie's Bible handbook or another tool is much more robust but you have that information already if you have a good study Bible so so use it if you especially if you think you need it again like I said I wouldn't go read on Amos I might read it first just to just to try to read it but I wouldn't think that I was understanding it well if I didn't have the who and the what and the where that he was talking to and that you're not going to know this is why I read something this week guy you know people who are not born again can't understand the Bible and people who are born again understand it immediately basically was what he said and I said well both of those are kind of incorrect I said unbelievers can understand it they can't they can't accept it they can't receive it they can't apply it they reject it it's not the same as understanding it they can understand it but they reject it and and somebody says oh they don't understand it well they don't understand it fully but they understand what a verb and a noun is so let's keep that in mind they can put it together they know Jesus died on the cross they just don't believe it but the other half of that's untrue too people say well once you're born again you just it's you just automatically know because you're now a spiritual person you have the Holy Spirit inside you're gonna know everything just because you have the Holy Spirit inside of you does not mean you know who Amos was talking to I'm just saying he doesn't come in and say all right start at chapter 1 verse 1 this is who you know whatever you do have to dig and you have to find these things out I did a series a few years ago called 66 weeks through the Bible where each week I took every book of the Bible and simply gave an overview of that book one book it took a little over a year 66 weeks and I think it was one of the most helpful things we've ever done as a church because a lot of the books people understood you know Genesis they understood Exodus they understated it but when we got to Amos Obadiah those books of the minor prophets do you know what it means to be a pre-exilic prophet or a post-exilic prophet it means whether they were preaching before the exile to Babylon or after and that matters as to what they would say so these are part of understanding who they are next week I'm going to give you an outline that shows you where they fall in the timeline that's one step right away if you know that the person's preaching before the exile then it gives you some idea about what he's saying okay all right so that's that now let's look at page 17 page 17 how many of you wrote out your answers got a few good okay it says here we're going to observe Psalm 93 1 the Lord reigns he hath clothed he is clothed with majesty the Lord has clothed and girded himself with strength indeed the world is firmly established it will not be moved begin by going through the questions on the observing a passage of scripture sheet page 15 not all of them will apply of course but note the present tense verbs if the psalmist wrote in present tense does that mean the verse is now in present tense it's a good question look at it the Lord reigns that is the verb reigns and it is in the present tense is it still true is he still reigning yes so that's one of the things that you could observe there is a verb here that is in the present tense that is still in the present tense the Lord is still reigning did anyone else note anything of note from that section yes sir he is clothed all right the Lord has clothed and girded himself with strength and is oh I'm sorry I went ahead of you he is clothed with majesty that's right yes and the is is present tense that's right all right well to move on what would you say is the main theme of this verse you say something I didn't God is in control okay okay anyone else have anything different all this is good I mean it's all right and again this is what you're observing okay forget about religious language for a moment what then comes to mind when you think about a Lord authority all of those are good answers going over to the next page in addition to the questions already provided here a few additional things to observe what words are repeated what is emphasized they may note anything there what do you have miss Cindy four times yeah okay all right the next one's oh did you have something closed okay so again repetition here what does it mean to be clothed in Scripture covered yeah okay all right so going on God is described by the terms majesty and strength what connection if any do these terms have does one necessarily suggest the other they're both statements of greatness if we say that's a strong man that says something to his his his strength and his greatness yeah you can be strong and not majestic yeah yeah yes why did the author suddenly move from describing the Lord to writing about the world absolutely absolutely the world is the evidence very good yeah we all know that the earth is turning on its axis so what does it mean the world will not be moved that's a interesting question any flat earthers here sure I'm have that conversation another time yes okay all right anyone else and that's yes that's good I don't yes absolutely okay it's moving but not we don't know it's moving yeah yeah what I mean is it's it's from our perspective the earth is fixed yeah anyone else a simple thought also the Bible uses don't write this I don't say don't write it because it's a long word the Bible uses what is known as phenomenological language phenomenological means the language of appearance and when you look at a mountain it don't move when you look at the ground beneath you it don't move the Bible does not use what we would call scientific language in every instance talks about the Sun making a circuit across the sky well scientifically we would say the earth is making a circuit around the Sun right but what do we see we see the Sun rise we see the Sun going across the sky we see the Sun fall right and so from our perspective it looks as if it's making a circuit in the sky that's called phenomenological language we still use it today because when you got up and watch the news this morning the newscaster said this morning the earth will tilt toward the Sun at 7 a.m.
01:16:34: now he didn't he said the Sun will rise at 7 a.m.