Impressed and Embarrassed

I have read my Bible from lid to lid several times, and sometimes I fool myself into thinking that I know it pretty good. Then I read and am embarrassed by my paltry grasp of its contents.

What am I reading that causes this reaction? I admit, most of my reading is from the Church Fathers (and Reformation era folk). These guys predate computers and concordances, but they knew the Bible. I mean, they freely and regularly quote passages. I know books today do this, but I assume they do it like I do: start writing in your word processor, have a thought about a verse, look it up in your computer Bible (via a search, Where is that story about Jacob and his dream? Enter Jacob and dream and voila!), then place it in the appropriate place in your saved text etc. But these guys didn’t have this luxury, they just had it all on the front shelf and could pull it out anytime they needed it. I am constantly impressed! Blown away to be more precise. And embarrassed that with so many more tools, I don’t know it that well.

Happened again today in a little different way. I’m looking for a book that was written by The Venerable Bede. He was an Anglo-Saxon church leader who lived from 672 to 735. His most famous work is The Ecclesiastical History of the English People. I have read that one but he wrote many other books as well. The one I am looking for now is called, The Reckoning of Time (De temporum ratione). It appears to be a very difficult book to obtain, but Google has excerpts. So I checked it out.

I went to the chapter, The World’s First Day. This is a discussion of what day on the calendar the first day was. He sets forth the proposition that this must have occurred at the spring equinox because the day and night were of equal length, which only occurs at the equinox. But, the sun wasn’t created until the 4th day, so there couldn’t have been an equinox until then. So, since the equinox is March 21st, three days before that is March 18. “During the previous three days, as everyone can see, light and darkness weighed equally in the balance, for since the stars were not yet made, there was no measurement of hours. Not until the fourth morning did the sun, rising…inaugurate the equinox.” He goes on to speak of the creation of the moon: “The Moon, on the other hand, was full at sunset, for the Creator, Who is justice itself, would never make something in an imperfect state.”

I’m impressed! I’m excited - I really want this book now! I accept his explanation, but I’m not trying to promote that. The thing that impresses me is how thoroughly their thoughts were saturated with the Word of God! Everything was approached from the Bible and answered with an appeal to the Bible. And in the same context he explains how this all relates to salvation, Christ, and the Church.

I’m impressed at how saturated their thinking was with the Word of God and how it was all at the forefront of their thinking. They knew it thoroughly, they thought about it all the time, they applied it to every aspect of life. And I’m embarrassed that this is not so true of me. I mean, I know it pretty good, and as you can tell from my blog, I think about it and try to apply it, but I feel like I’m still in grade school compared to these guys. Now I’m not saying anything about anyone reading this, much less about my pastor friends – I’m sure they are up there with these early brethren. I’m talking about me – I’m impressed and embarrassed. And I will add, grateful that I have access to the works of men like Irenaeus and Tertullian and Bede and Wycliffe and Luther. They educate me, edify me, challenge me.

This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.

Joshua 1:8 - copied and pasted from my computer Bible :-)