Week 35 Matthew
Reading-through is a solitary exercise. I do it alone. But at the same time it’s a together-aloneness because lots of other people have read the bible. The apostles read the OT. Saint Augustine and Martin Luther and Catherine of Siena read the bible. Millions of people have.
Matthew four is a kind of unwelcome reminder to me that even though the bible-readers’ fraternity I belong to includes the Lord it also includes the devil. In the story of the temptation of Christ the devil tried tempting the Lord three times.
What I see first is that the Lord was very familiar with the bible because in each of the temptations he quoted OT passages to answer the devil.
What I see second is that the devil knew the bible too because he quoted a passage from Psalm 91.
There’s some general conclusions I come to:
a) good people read the bible;
b) evil people read the bible;
c) reading the bible doesn’t mean I’m a good guy;
d) there’s legitimate ways to use the bible;
e) there’s illegitimate ways to use the bible;
f) if I haven’t read the bible for myself I might get buffaloed by someone who has;
g) quoting what the bible says isn’t necessarily saying what the bible means.
But I think my big take-away is that the devil reads & knows the bible and (it looks like) he might be prepared to use it against me.