Do you struggle to stay engaged when you read your Bible? You want to hear God’s voice and be captivated by scripture, but honestly, the dimensions of the Tabernacle and how its bowls, lampstands, and altars were made in Exodus is not terribly exciting reading material.
What about the other stories?
Moses parted the Red Sea. (Wow *yawn*). Two thousand pigs raced to their death. (Interesting—is it time to eat yet?) Jesus walked on water. (I s’pose that might’ve been a sight to see, if you were there to see it.)
Before you know it, you’ve diminished every story to the level of a good inside joke: I guess you just had to be there.
And that’s the problem. None of us were. I wasn’t there when water flooded the whole earth and lifted the ark. I didn’t see Jesus heal the servant of the high priest after Peter cut off his ear. And I certainly didn’t stand at the foot of the cross to witness Jesus’s torment as he died in my place.
But I was there when my neighbor’s house burned to the ground on the frigid, dangerously cold night of December 18, 2005.
Hi, I’m Lauren Thell, author of Christian YA fiction and blogger for teens who are ready to exceed the world’s expectations.
In This Article
A Personal Eyewitness Account
I remember that awful incident with the same chilling clarity of the cloudless, subzero night. My family and I had just settled in for bed when the frantic call came. I ran outside to the end of our driveway and there, down the road, the neighbor’s house looked like a burning ship on a black sea, the angry flames reaching high into the night sky like the fires of hell.
Its occupants raced to our house with only the clothes on their backs. No coats despite the dangerous temps. One boy didn’t even have shoes or socks to protect his bare feet against the snow-covered ground. The air was so cold the water from the firemen’s hoses froze in thick, lumpy layers on the bushes outside the house while the inside burned like an incinerator.
And I saw the baby.
This is a true story, and I was there.
Her grandmother pulled her from the fire just seconds before it would’ve taken her life. I heard her cries, saw her burns and the way half the hair on her head was missing. I’ll never forget the hysterical screams of her mother.
The next day, I stood in stunned silence in front of the charred, smoking remains of the home, a sinking pirate ship after a deadly battle. The axe the grandmother used to bust through the window and save the baby was still leaning against the burnt-out shell.
This is a true story, and I was there. Words could never fully capture what I saw that night. But I bet you’re feeling more now than you would after reading a secondhand account in a newspaper.
The Value of An Eyewitness
If you weren’t there, the next best thing is an eyewitness account—and guess what? There are tons of eyewitness accounts in scripture. We’ve been given the gift of a whole collection of stories written by people who were there. People who walked with Jesus, who saw his miracles, who heard him speak.
People who saw God. And see how they reacted . . .
Eyewitness Accounts in Scripture: Reactions to Encounters With God
During Jesus’s transfiguration in Matthew 17:1-13:
“When the disciples heard this, they fell facedown to the ground, terrified.”
When Jesus walked on water in Matthew 14:22-32:
“‘It’s a ghost,’ they said, and cried out in fear.”
After Jesus’ sermon in Matthew 7:
“When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching…”
After Jesus’ death in Matthew 27:45-54:
“When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, ‘Surely he was the Son of God!’”
After Jesus healed the paralytic in Matthew 9:1-8:
“When the crowd saw this, they were filled with awe; and they praised God…”
Do you see a theme here? Words like terrified, amazed, and awed imply a stronger reaction than just being scared, surprised, and intrigued. We can safely assume that if we saw God act, we would be terrified, amazed, and awed, too.
How do we know the gospels are eyewitness accounts? Check out Cold Case Christianity by J. Warner Wallace, a former atheist who uncovered the evidence using the same step-by-step investigative process he utilized as a homicide detective.
Appreciate the Blessing
We are blessed to have these eyewitness accounts, and technology is such that almost anyone can afford to own a Bible. But you have to read it with your eyes wide open. Don’t just skim over it and call it a day.
Stop and think about every verse.
Consider how the people in each story must have felt when they encountered Jesus and his healing power.
Be captivated by Scripture. Take time to truly think about the significance of each event. What would it be like to witness someone being cured of a disease that had plagued her body for twelve years? How might you have reacted if you’d been the one to walk into the empty tomb and find an angel sitting there?
When read this way, even the specifications for the Tabernacle in Exodus 26 and the long lists of genealogies in Chronicles can inspire awe and amazement.
Keep your eyes and your heart open when you read the eyewitness accounts in your Bible, and let yourself experience the awe, amazement, and terror of each story!
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Oh dear Lauren, I will confess to sometimes reading the Bible with glazed eyes as well. Sometimes the familiarity of the story causes me to gloss over the magnitude and majesty of it all. Sometimes the details get the best of me and I think Why, Lord? Why do I need to know the “numbers” in the book of Numbers or as you noted, every dimension and overlay in the temple. And then I remind myself that the the Bible is the inspired and inerrant word of God and if he thought it was important enough to include it, well I better pay attention and appreciate it. Thankfully we have a patient and loving God who forgives my glazed and glossed over readings and allows and provides me with the endless opportunities to read it all again with open eyes and heart. Thank you for your insights and honesty.
That was very intuitive and gave me a New way to read, learn, and study God’s Word! Thank you!
Wow! You are so right! Now I will put thought into all the words I read! Thank you for opening my eyes. You are truley a gift.
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