Why is the Bible So Boring?

Written by Pastor Phil Bray

Have you ever wondered, “Why is the Bible so boring?” I mean seriously, we have all felt that, right? We know that we should be reading the Bible, and every year about this time we are coming to the end of our stamina at keeping our New Year’s resolution to read the Bible through in a year. It is about this point that we are deep into Exodus, reading for the second time the exact layout and construction of the temple. Looming ahead of us like a mountain peak over which we must cross to see the lush valleys of paradise is Leviticus. We begin to skip days, we get behind, and before we know it we have gone a week or two without reading the Bible once. We look at it lying there next to the bed, feel the arrows of guilt embedding themselves into our hearts, and flip on the television to watch American Idol.

Why do we stop reading the Bible? Why is American Idol, or the latest John Grisham novel, more intriguing and alluring to us than the Word of God? Why do we dutifully read our chapter for the day to make the guilt go away so we can read something that doesn’t put us to sleep? Why do we not say like the Psalmist, “O how I love Thy law! It is my meditation all the day. . . . Thy testimonies are wonderful; therefore my soul observes them” (Ps. 119:97, 129)? It is because we are reading the Bible the wrong way, with the wrong goal.

Tell me, which of the following holds your attention the longest and which do you retain for the greater length of time: the instruction manual for a Windows 7 upgrade on your computer, or the biography of John F. Kennedy? If you had to choose a book that you had to read, would you be more apt to choose something like a novel, a biography, or a historical story, or would you choose the latest how-to book on relationships, mechanics, or gardening? For most people, the choice is a no-brainer. We go to the movies because we like a story. We watch 20/20 and 48 Hours because we are intrigued by the true stories of tragedy. National Geographic makes documentary after documentary about historical figures, archeological discoveries that show us our history. People love stories. People love to learn what really happened in history. That is why gossip is so popular—we want the inside scoop. That is why the news media is constantly looking for the next big story of tragedy, controversy, or cover-up. Learning about people, hearing their story is fascinating to us. It is the way we are wired.

The reason we are bored with the Bible is because we are reading it like it is a how-to manual for life instead of the story of God. It bores us because we sit down with it and pray, “God, show me what you want me to do today as a result of reading your Word.” We are constantly looking for a behavior, an attitude, a habit to apply in our daily life instead of reading it to get the inside scoop on who God is and what He is like! We are so focused on ourselves we are missing the glorious richness of Scripture! We are like a man standing on the brink of the Grand Canyon, looking into a pocket mirror, marveling at the beauty of his own nose and missing the grandeur of one of nature’s most mind-boggling beauties!
Every command in Scripture is given to us to reveal the character and nature of God. Every historical account or narrative in the Scripture is given to us to show us some attribute or characteristic of God. The Bible is about God. It is God making Himself known to us! The Bible is God speaking and telling us, “This is what I am like. This is who I am. This is what I do. This is how I love you.” Hebrews 1:1–3 teaches us that God has spoken, first of all, in many ways and in many amounts of revelations to the prophets. When the prophets wrote down what He said, what was their purpose in writing those accounts down? Why did God act, and why were those acts recorded? In 1 Samuel 17:45–47, David announces to Goliath that the Lord will give him into his hand in order that everyone present, as well as those who will hear and read of this event, will know “that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the Lord does not deliver by sword or by spear; for the battle is the Lord’s and He will give you into our hands” (vv. 46b–47). The purpose of this event, as well as the recording of this event, is so that all the earth may know something about the Lord! It is not a moral story to teach us to simply have faith when facing the giants of our lives. It is telling us about our Warrior God! Take a look at Isaiah 37:20, Ezekiel 36:20–36, and Leviticus 19. God is acting, speaking, and revealing in order to teach us about Himself!

If this is true of the Old Testament, then notice also what Hebrews 1:2 says: “In these last days [God] has spoken to us in His Son . . .” God has spoken definitively and finally in Jesus Christ. John 1:1–3 teaches us that Jesus is the Word of God, the self-revelation of God. Jesus is God defining Himself, revealing Himself completely. Jesus is God going on record as saying, “This is what I am like. This is who I am!” In the Old Testament, God forbade the people from making an image of Him, an idol of Him, because that would be a physical representation of God, a defining of who or what God was like. For them to define God would be blasphemous, for He is far more wonderful and glorious than they could possibly imagine! Yet now the Scripture says about Jesus that “He is the image (idol, physical manifestation) of the invisible God” (Col. 1:15). Jesus is God speaking and revealing Himself to us! Jesus taught His disciples, “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him.” Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how do you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works” (John 14:7–9). Jesus is the invisible God made visible. Jesus is God making Himself known to us! Do you want to know what God is like? Then read the Gospels and look at Christ. He is God made visible and knowable! God has spoken, and the purpose of this speech is not to give us rules—a list of do’s and don’ts. The purpose of this speech is to make Himself known to us so that we might stand in awe of Him and marvel at Him and love Him.
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Do you see it? The Bible is God speaking and making Himself known. The Bible is not a man-centered book of do’s and don’ts. It is not a roadmap for life, a handbook of how-to’s. The Bible is the Word of God. The Bible is God declaring, “This is who I am! This is what I am like! Look at Jesus and see Me in the flesh!” Brothers and sisters, if you are reading the Bible and you are bored, it is because you are reading it wrongly. Do not read the Bible in order to find out how or what you should do today. Read the Bible to discover more and more of what God is like! The more you see God in all of His glory, the more you will love Him, the more you will delight in Him, the more you will share Him! Do not stand on the Grand Canyon of God’s self-revelation and look at the pocket mirror of your own behavior! Take up the Bible today, sit down in your favorite chair with a fresh cup of coffee, and open it with this prayer on your lips: “Lord, show me Your glory!”