What is the Bible For?

By Pastor Art Barton
November 9, 2008

Years ago in high school, I got into a car belonging to a classmate, and we drove off to somewhere. Just sitting there on the dashboard, jammed up against the windshield, was a Bible. It was covered with as much dust and fallout as the dashboard was, telling the tale of how long it had been left there. The guy driving the car didn’t go to church, and had never done or said anything to indicate that he was a Christian, so I asked him what the Bible was for. He told me that his mom made him keep it there because she figured it would keep him safe. It was a holy “rabbit’s foot”, so to speak.

I once heard of an antique coffee table that was auctioned for a huge price. Oddly, the table was sold with an old Bible stuck to it. The Bible had been sitting for 40 years without being picked up, and had physically bonded to the varnish. God’s word had become a mere decoration, and no doubt had been a great conversation piece in the middle of tea and cookies.

So, what is the Bible for? To state what should be obvious, it is for reading. Isaiah 34:16 says: “Seek ye out of the book of the LORD, and read.” God makes that statement to the prophet Isaiah not as a suggestion, but as a command. When the apostle Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, he said: “I charge you by the Lord that this epistle be read unto all the holy brethren” (I Thessalonians 5:27). What good would Paul’s letter of scripture have been to the Christians in Thessalonica if they had just stuck it in a cubbyhole and let it sit until it disintegrated from age? When Jesus Christ was at the temple in Jerusalem healing the blind and the lame, there were children that were glorifying and praising him. This displeased the chief priests and the scribes, who were used to grabbing glory for themselves. They griped to Jesus in Matthew 21:16: “And said unto him, Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?” Jesus rebukes the spiritual leadership in Israel for their lack of understanding of something that should have been plain to them if they would only READ God’s word.

II Timothy 2:15 says: “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, righty dividing the word of truth.” Do you know why heresies, bad doctrine, and false teachers abound? Because of professing Christians who refuse to study and read God’s word, and are deceived. Do you spend more time reading about the sordid scandals in Hollywood that you do reading the Bible? Are you more familiar with yesterday’s NYSE reports that with the verses about money in the book of Proverbs? Have you got more MLB batting averages memorized that scripture verses? What have you been reading anyway?

You live in a day and age when people will turn everywhere but to the Bible for help and sustenance. They look to the government, to psychology, to meditation, to self-help studies, to fortune tellers, to drugs, to alcohol, to all manner of false gods, to ANYTHING—anything but the BOOK.

Psalm 119:130 says: “The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple.” Are you confused and befuddled by the almost insane world that we live in, and you can’t understand what’s going on? Then READ the BOOK. Psalm 119:105 says: “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” Do you need some light to shine away the darkness that is closing in? Then READ the BOOK. Psalm 119:140 says: “Thy word is very pure, therefore thy servant loveth it.” Do you profess to know Jesus Christ and to love his word? Then READ!