How to Understand the Bible (And Not Just Read It)

You remember from Sunday School that 1 Samuel was a book of many action scenes (The Philistines capture the Ark of the Covenant, Samuel acts as a prophet of the LORD, Saul reigns, David fights Goliath, David flees for his life, etc.) so you start in chapter 1 and work through the book. 

Now, you are on chapter 7 and still struggle to understand how this ancient text can apply to your life.  Or perhaps, we get stumped because cultures and languages have changed so much (this is especially true with our King James Bible's archaic English). This begs the question: 

How can we get the words on the page to be working in our lives?

Grow Thereby has compiled 5 questions to work through as you read through your passage for the day, to allow a deeper understanding of the text. 

I. What is Happening in This Passage? (Context)

The first question you must ask yourself is, "What is happening in this passage?" This is the foundation of Bible Study. This can be broken down even further with some preliminary questions:

• Who is speaking?
• Who is writing?
• Who is being addressed?
• What has happened in the chapters surrounding this one?

With these questions answered, we can have a good understanding of the context for our narrative. 

Let's work through 1 Samuel 7 as we answer these questions.

Who is speaking: 

Samuel is the primary speaker of this chapter. He is urging the Israelites to turn away from their idolatry and wickedness and turn back to the God who can save them. There are responses from the Israelites to Samuel as well, but no individuals were shown speaking. 

Who is writing:

Samuel is traditionally understood as the author of these chapters in the book of 1 Samuel. 

Who is being addressed:

Samuel, on behalf of the LORD, is addressing the children of Israel for their idolatrous ways, and to prepare for the battle at Mizpeh. 

What has happened in chapters surrounding this one:

The Israelites were in a large strife and battle with the Philistines, which ultimately ended in the Philistines taking the Ark of the Covenant to the temple of Dagon their god.  The true God afflicted these Philistines with emerods (the archaic word for hemorrhoids) for seven months, after those months they returned the Ark to the Israelites in Bethshemesh. However, the people of Bethshemesh didn't treat the Ark with the proper reverence it deserved, and suffered great affliction and slaughter due to their sin. The Bethshemites reached out to the people of Kirjathjearim to take the Ark from them. This brings us to chapter 7.

This short study of the context now gives us some insight to what is occurring in this passage. With this insight, we can move on to the second step in our 5 Bible Study Questions.

II. What is the Main Point of this passage? (Interpretation)

The main point of a passage (also known as the central theme) is the overall truth that we should understand from the text. There are two major questions we may ask ourselves when regarding this text to interpret it properly:

• What is the author wishing to communicate with the reader?
• If you had to summarize this text in one, concise, sentence, what would you say?
  

These questions, though simple, open the doorway to further study and understanding of the text. Let's continue our study in 1 Samuel 7, and work through our second step in Bible Study. 

What is the author wishing to communicate with the reader?

Samuel was trying to tell the people of Israel that the existence of the Ark of the Covenant does not necessitate worship or deserve it, but the God whose presence indwells in it deserves it. The Israelites should turn from their idolatry of Baalim and Ashtaroth, and trust in the God of Israel. Samuel, acting as a prophet, intercessor, and a judge; guides Israel from a wide-spread defeat into a national revival. Spiritual highs always accompany worship of the LORD God of Heaven, and ultimately there is no victory apart from God.

What is a one-sentence summary of this passage?

True victory (both physical and spiritual) comes from turning away from idols and devoting your heart to the LORD through confession, genuine repentance, and obedience to the will of God.

The answers to these two simple questions have given us a central truth to our passage of study. One that we can communicate universally to everyone when we speak of this text.  After we realize the interpretation of this text, we can move on to our third step in understanding our Bible.

III. What Does This Reveal About God? (Theology)

The Holy Bible is 66 books that serve one purpose: to teach us about the character of God, and to present Jesus Christ as the Savior and Redeemer of all creation. 

The Bible was not written with us at the forefront. It is not 66 books written to us, but for our instruction (Romans 15:4). Every single page of the Bible shows us something about our Triune God. We can learn about our God in any passage by answering one simple question.

• What attributes and desires of God are shown in this text?

Continuing in our study of 1 Samuel 7, let's work through the text as we answer this question. 

What attributes and desires of God are shown in this passage?

1. God desires exclusive, inward worship (1 Samuel 7:3)
2. God is merciful and recognizes repentance (1 Samuel 7:6)
3. God responds to sacrificial intercession (1 Samuel 7:9)
4. God is Sovereign over all things (1 Samuel 7:10)
5. God is faithful and active, and willing to help us (1 Samuel 7:12)

These are all aspects of God's unchanging character. God is the fullness of all these attributes and desires. God doesn't "half" do something. He will always faithfully do whatever the task at hand is, to the fullest that it may be done. 

We can see that God's attributes and desires are standard throughout all of Scripture. This brings us to our fourth step in Bible study.

IV. How Does This Passage Align with the Rest of Scripture? (Correlation)

We must always compare Scripture with Scripture (1 Corinthians 2:13) so that we may fully understand the Truth in the fullness of the revelation we have been given. The best way to do this is to cross-reference verses with other verses we know of. (If you would like some resources to do so, check out a previous article from Grow Thereby, 5 Free Bible Study Resources.) 

Let's cross-reference 1 Samuel 7 with other passages in Scripture.

I Samuel 7:3

This verse speaks on turning away (repenting) from idols, and holding to God. Paul the Apostle speaks on this very topic to the church of Thessalonica. In 1 Thessalonians 1:9b, Paul writes "how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God." God has never allowed idolatry, and has always praised the devoted and faithful.

I Samuel 7:8-9

Samuel acts as a prophet and intercessor on behalf of the people of Israel before God. He offers a sacrificial lamb for their atonement. This is illustrates how Christ is our intercessory mediator (1 Timothy 2:5; Hebrews 7:25)  and our perfect Lamb (John 1:29).

I Samuel 7:10

This excerpt shows the order of Salvation. Grace must precede the moment of Salvation. And, in fact, it has! God's grace for us has been completed in Christ. Romans 5:8 says, "While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Christ died for us because we were sinners who deserved death, cleansing us through His righteousness. However, Christ did not die only for the sins prior to our Salvation, but also ex post facto. Just like the victory the Israelites would have over the Philistines through the grace of God, we have victory over death and sin through the grace of God, and not of ourselves (Ephesians 2:8-9). 

There is so much more in this passage that we can cross-reference with other parts of Scripture. I implore you to go to your Word, and search it for yourself as well. 

Why do we look through the Scripture? What would be the reason we need to learn all of this and study it out? Well, that brings us to step 5 in our understanding of Scripture. 

V. How Must I Respond to This Truth Today? (Application)

The entire purpose of studying our Scripture is to become more like God. The standard of God is to be perfectly Holy. We fail. As Christians we should strive to not only have a head knowledge of God's Word, but have an experiential knowledge of it as well. We should live out His Truth!

I am not going to tell you how exactly to apply our passage to your life today. I encourage you, however, to study this passage outside of the reading of this article. To learn more about God for your personal benefit. You can ask yourself a few questions to apply the Word to your life.

• What has this passage convicted you of?
  
• How can you become more like Christ?
  
• What, right now, can you do to become more like God?
  

I can't make those decisions for you. Your spouse cannot make them for you. Your pastor can't make them for you. Only you can, under the direction of the Holy Ghost. 

Studying the Bible is something every Christian should do. However, sometimes daily Bible reading is meaningless if we don't truly have a changed life from our reading. And, of course, following these 5 steps is not the only way to study the Scripture for understanding. 

Share this article with someone who you wish to assist in learning more of God's Word with, and pray that we may see revival in our modern-day cultures. So that we can turn-away from our idolatry and wickedness, and turn to God in all ways.