Lessons Learned: What's the Goal of Bible Study?

We come for the community, but stay for the growth.

One of the fun parts about writing a book or Bible study is hearing from people doing the study or reading the book. I love hearing from you! A question I’ve gotten a few times from my study on the covenants (Promises Kept), is why I added an extra week on the exodus and Passover at the end. It’s marketed as a 6-week study, but it covers five Old Testament Covenants and one event.

Besides the fact that I think the exodus and Passover are really important (they are!), there is a biblical literacy reason for including this in the study. The Bible is one big story about one big God and his purposes in the world. We have a tendency to read each book of the Bible as a standalone, but God intends for them to go together. I once heard someone say that we should see each book of the Bible like a chapter in a book. Chapters advance the narrative. Pull one chapter out and you miss where you’re headed and where you’ve been.

In simple terms, we could see the entire Old Testament as before Christ and the entire New Testament as after Christ. Christ is the focal point of the entire scriptures, which is why Jesus spent so much time talking to the disciples on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24. He wanted them to see that every story “whispers his name” (as the Jesus Storybook Bible says).

When we read the Old Testament, we have signposts along the reading journey. These signposts are covenants and events. These are the primary ways that God anchors his people in his story. Each covenant or event unveils additional details in the story, and as I say in Promises Kept, if you miss one, you miss a crucial part of the story.

I included the exodus and Passover because you can’t have the Mosaic Covenant without what it took to get them to Mt. Sinai. They had to be delivered by the blood of the lamb before they could hear how they were supposed to live as God’s people, in God’s place, under God’s rule (another line from another great children’s bible). They had to walk through the waters of judgment before they could get to the promised land.

Do you see how their story is our story?

In the same way, but to an even greater degree, we’re delivered once and for all by the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29). We deserve the judgment and death, but we’re passed over because his blood is over our hearts. We don’t earn our salvation, but once we’re saved we are shown how to live as God’s children. We must walk in obedience to him. And Jesus walked through the waters of judgment for us so he could bring us safely into the promised land, our eternal home.

These ancient stories you heard in Sunday School as a child are your story. All of these covenants and events point forward to the perfect Savior to come. And our entire life is anchored on looking back on all he accomplished for us.

Some people do studies like this and say: “I’ve read the Bible my whole life and haven’t seen this.” If that’s you, don’t be discouraged! The Bible is a living book, and we are always growing. We will never exhaust the depths of what God has for us in the scriptures. We simply keep studying. There is educational evidence that it takes at least seven times hearing or reading something for it to stick. Sometimes it takes a lifetime to see things in the Bible, but the point is you get it now. Often women come to Bible study for the community, but stay for the growth. The goal of Bible study is literacy, so when we do a study we should be asking ourselves “does this lead to greater comprehension of the text and give me tools for me to keep doing this on my own?” I included the exodus and the Passover in this study for that purpose—literacy. My intent was to give you a framework for seeing the Old Testament with these signposts in view. When you read the Old Testament, the hope is that you have these anchoring you going forward. Depending on where you’re at in the narrative, you can use these signposts to help you understand what God is doing in the grand story of scripture. It’s not enough to just have a 6-week Bible study if the tools for continued study aren’t included, so keep going!

I’m cheering you on!

*I suppose I could/should have included the part about the exodus and Passover earlier in the study, but I can’t change it now!  But if you’re doing the study, this is why it’s in there. And if you’ve done the Promises Kept study, I’d love to hear how it encouraged, challenged, or helped you. Feel free to comment below or send me a message!