Dear Reader, if you are reading this, it may be because you are accepting the grace and God's invitation to come closer to Him by reading his inspired Word in the Bible, the Old Testament which is the Jewish Scriptures, and the New Testament, which is the writings of the Apostles whom Jesus commissioned to go out to all the world and proclaim the Good News.
I'm also glad that you are reading the Word of God in the whole Bible, but you need to remember a few things. You already know that reading the Word of God is not like picking up a book published a few years ago. The oldest parts of the Bible were written down in their earliest versions around 4,000 years ago in other languages - Hebrew, Aramaic - which was Jesus' dialect of Hebrew, and Greek, not modern Greek, but ancient Greek.
You may not have the opportunity or means of taking Scripture courses, although at some point later in life you may, but I can tell you a few things that you will find very helpful.
All of human history and all of Creation is in God's hands. He inspired various people to understand and tell things to others and eventually to write them down. The long term view of it all is that, after the "fall" or "rebellion" of the angels and then of Adam and Eve, the first human beings, God needed to find ways to "bring them back" to communion with Him. The big problem was that in preferring our own thoughts, or in believing the words of the "stranger" - the "serpent" - we turned our back on what God had said to us about what is real, what is good, and what is deadly.
The strict condemnation of the use of statues and images in the Torah related directly to other religions and the fertility cults of the nations and peoples surrounding God's Chosen People, which put them at risk of being affected and drawn in by the rituals and idol worship of their neighbors' religions and cults, such as the fertility cults... God made it clear that we are to worship only God and Him alone. That was and is the teaching of the Old Testament, the Jewish Scriptures.
Jesus of Nazareth, Son of God and son of Mary, conceived in her by the Holy Spirit, is the Living Image of God the Father. Jesus said that if we have seen Him we have seen the Father. Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies and inaugurated the New Covenant and the Kingdom of God. Since then, we worship only Jesus and the Father and the Holy Spirit, the one God and Creator of all that is.
When we Christians make use of icons, statues, and other images of God the Holy Trinity, the Father, Jesus the Son of God, and the Holy Spirit, these material representations bring to mind and heart whom they represent, and our use of them helps us to remember that God is present always, and so they help us to pray and worship the Lord. We don't worship the images, but seeing them, we worship God whom they represent. We thank God for these aids to our faith, prayer, and worship.
As for images and statues of the saints, again these help us to remember these heroes of the faith, and as we revere or show reverence before these images and statues, it is whom they represent that we honor - we don't worship them but God alone - and in honoring them, we also ask them to pray for us.
So, the whole of the Old Testament is all about the trouble God had to take to gradually bring humanity back to himself, beginning with those who were open and willing to "hear" Him and obey Him: Noah, Abraham and his son Isaac and grandson Jacob, to whom God gave the nickname "Israel", which means, "he who is strong with God".
Inspired, told, written, edited and re-edited, and passed on over a period of at least 2,000 years, the Old Testament consists of the "Torah" or "Law", the first 5 books. Then follow the continuation of the history in what is called the "historical books": Joshua, Judges, Ruth, the prophet Samuel, the Kings, Chronicles, Ezra and Nehemiah, Tobit, Judith, Esther, and Maccabees.
Then there are the "religious" books or "wisdom" books: Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, Wisdom, and Sirach or Ecclesiasticus.
The final section of the O.T. is the prophets, divided into the "great" prophets: Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, and then the 12 "minor" prophets. Basically, their "books" are much shorter than those of the other 3. The prophets all were called by God and sent to his people before, during and shortly after the "exile" when Israel, the "northern kingdom" and Juda, the "southern kingdom" were conquered and the leaders, the skilled laborers, and the rich people were enslaved and brought into exile in Babylon, which is today Iraq.
So, as you read, ponder, and pray with the Word of God, keep in mind the kind of book you're getting into - Torah, historical, wisdom, or prophetical - and keep in mind what God seems to be saying to his people AT THAT TIME. God kept insisting on the people avoiding "idols" because they were surrounded by people following "fertility cults" where the rituals often included getting drunk and having sexual orgies.
What bothered God the most was the way people were showing contempt for others, especially exploiting the poor. Those sins against charity brought God's most severe condemnations and punishments.
Now, in Jeremiah 31:31-34 God promised a "new covenant" and Jesus is the fulfillment of this promise. Under this new covenant, God could "change" his approach to his people who, after 2,000 years were beginning to be ready to hear what God really wanted to say to them and wanted to say to them all along, but they weren't ready or willing yet.
The N.T. is just that, what God has always wanted to say to his people, but before, they were so depraved that they couldn't or wouldn't hear it. Even in Jesus' time, only some people "got it" and accepted Him, but many still refused.
God has always been love, but authentic love requires a minimum of justice; otherwise, without justice, there can be no love, not really. The "Law" and the O.T. with the 10 commandments are simply the MINIMUM required for human beings to become truly human and avoid becoming perverse and no better than animals.
The N.T. goes much further, way beyond the minimum, to the point of forgiving everyone, loving even our enemies, and surrendering our whole life to God with absolute trust in Him for everything. Jesus lay down his life to show us what a truly loving human life looks like, a life putting all its trust in the Father and his love and mercy. Jesus offered his life in order to now make it possible for the Holy Spirit to bring about in us the authentic love that was in Jesus.
So, there you have a workable "framework" to guide you in reading the Word of God. I recommend that each time you reach for the Bible to read it, first ask the Holy Spirit, who is ever with you and within you, to enlighten you and guide you as you read. Then, when you are ready to stop, thank the Holy Spirit for being with you, guiding you, enlightening you, and ask Him to help you through the day to ponder, like Mary did, and "absorb" what you have read, and for the grace to "give God permission" to do all that He wants to do in your life, within you, and through you for others.
Peace to you and your family,
Fr. Gilles
© 2004-2022 All rights reserved Fr. Gilles Surprenant, Associate Priest of Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montreal QC
© 2004-2022 Tous droits réservés Abbé Gilles Surprenant, Prêtre Associé de Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montréal QC
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