Lots of people, including many sincere Christians ask, "Why bother to read the whole Bible?  Isn't most of it just a lot of ancient history?"

And the answer is...well, yes. 

Ancient history is exactly what most of the Bible is.  And the "ancient history" portions of Scripture are just as valuable as the beautiful psalms and wise proverbs, the rich promises of God, the profound teachings of Jesus, and the predictive or prophetic portions. 

In some ways, the most ancient historical sections of Scripture are even more important.  They're the solid foundation on which all else rests.  Without the rich history, how would we know that God is faithful to do what He promises?  Without the ancient history, we would not be able to see how God's teachings really apply to human life on planet earth.

The ancient history in the Bible validates everything else we find in Scripture.  The ancient hopes of Israel and the promises God made to the people -- from the very beginning — also tell us who Jesus really was and why He came to earth as a human being.  And the Lord Jesus Himself points us back to the words — the promises and warnings — of the more ancient portions of Scripture.

And besides, we need the lessons.  As we become familiar with the ancient history of Scripture, we learn more about our own selves.  And we need to know the truth about who and what we are.  We need to know how bad we can become (and why we would even want to be bad), and how to recognize and develop the potential for good in each of our lives.  The ancient history of the Bible says a lot about human nature.

An old Chinese proverb says, "To know the road ahead, ask those coming back."  In other words, learn from those who've already experienced what we may soon be going through.  People in ancient times were ordinary people just like us.  When we see how real people faced the temptations, the failures, the challenges and successes they faced, we can better understand the road right in front of us.  It's been traveled before.

Another wise saying (by George Satayana?) goes like this: "Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it."

No wise person wants to follow the wrong path in life.  No one wants to experience needless pain and suffering, or bring harsh circumstances on those they love, if pain and bitterness can be avoided. 

For example, if we can avoid financial ruin, the needless loss of a limb, a premature death, or the devastations of war, wouldn't we?  We would not deliberately choose to watch our children starve to death, or to see our cities destroyed, or to lose all our freedoms as a society, would we? 

What the Bible shows us about human nature.

We see one recurring theme in the Bible, from the most ancient times all the way through to it's completion:  Human beings resent having to recognize God as their one and only God, and they too often resent having to obey God's will.  People want to choose and develop their own religious ideas and superstitious practices.  That’s why paganism and paganized forms of Christianity are so popular in every age.

This tendency in human nature becomes visible in the very first book of Scripture.  Adam and Eve had a very simple command from God.  But that one command was the one that broke them.

And it shows up again and again.  The Law of Moses exposed the problem better than any other method of testing.  Paganism was rampant in the ancient world, and people liked it because it was like a great shopping mall for religion.  Everyone could choose their favorite gods, and change them out whenever they wished.  There were all kinds of little gods and big gods to choose from.

But when the one real and living God chose the people of Israel (instead of them choosing Him) and then He told them how it was going to be... well, that's when the trouble really began.  And it got even worse when He told them that they were to forget all the false pagan gods they'd been celebrating. 

Through the ancient Law of Moses, and the human struggles that unfolded in the history of those days, we see this about our natural response to God:  Hearing, we will not listen, and listening, we will not do, because we have rejected the Spirit of our God who calls us to follow Him.

In the New Testament, we see that things have not really changed.  People still resent the truth about God and about themselves.  They still resist God's will.  We can see this in the ways people responded to Jesus and to those who were sent by God as prophets and teachers.

But we also see something wonderful:  Jesus Christ is the faithful Son who did all that the Father called Him to do.  Dying, He saved us, and rising, He rescues us -- forever -- from spiritual death and the eternal consequences of sin. 

And we see that God's way of saving human beings is the same as it was in the very earliest times.  We know that human nature is ruined.  We simply cannot rise above our own inherited sinfulness enough to save ourselves.  We are totally lost and totally ruined by sin.

But God has been saving human beings from the eternal consequences of sin since the first people walked on the earth.  When Adam and Eve saw their condition, their nakedness before God (innocent righteousness no longer cloaked them) they hid from God.  And then they played "pass the buck" when confronted by God with their sin.

But God did something very interesting.  In addition to banishing them from the Garden, He also took animal skins and covered them, so they would no longer be naked.  It was a picture of many things to come, including the eventual sacrifice of Jesus Christ that would truly take care of the problem, once and for all.  By His shed blood, Jesus provides us with perfectly white robes of righteousness, robes that are acceptable to God for eternity.

God's grace saves sinful human beings.  When a human submits to God in simple faith, God takes the sin away.  Even Moses, the giver of the Law, wrote about this in Genesis, chapter 15, verses 1 thru 6.  Note what it says in verse 6:

"And he (Abram) believed the LORD; and the LORD reckoned it (or accounted it) to him as righteousness."

A fascinating passage.  It would not stand out very much in the New Testament, where so much is said about God's grace and faith.  But God did not wait until Jesus had been crucified and raised again from the dead.  No, God started revealing this wonderful truth way back in the very first book of the Bible, way back in the days of Moses and the Law.

No wonder Satan works so hard to keep people from reading the Bible.  No wonder the devil tries so hard to make people doubt every single detail of Scripture.  No wonder the enemy of God (and of every human soul) does his best to shatter any faith that any human being might ever have in any portion of Scripture.

For we see that even in the most ancient portions, and in the earliest history of the Bible, we can see the awesome hand of God at work -- just as He still works today -- saving and helping and rescuing lost sinners.

We can often see our own selves in the people who go wrong in Scripture.  I can see my own foolishness in Adam, my own unbelief and unfaithfulness in Judas, my own sins in many of the men in Scripture.  But I can also see the same God, the God who saved lost sinners in the most ancient portions of Bible history, reaching down to rescue me.

And I can see that we're saved by faith in Jesus Christ today, just as the earliest human beings were also saved by believing the promises of God.  God promised Adam and Eve that the seed of the woman would one day crush the head of the serpent.  Who is the seed of the woman but Jesus Christ?  And the serpent whose head was crushed (by the shed blood of Jesus on the cross) is none other than Satan (see, for example, Revelation, 11:9).

Why read the Bible?  Why take the time to know the whole Book?

For those who truly desire to know the meaning of life, the ways of God, the truth that will set them free, the Bible is a rich text, a wealth of true knowledge and spiritual insights.  It addresses the down-to-earth issues of life we all must face every day.  It gives wisdom to those who take the time to know it well. 

And all its portions, all its predictions, prophecies and promises point to Jesus Christ.  The Bible tells us the truth about Jesus, the truth about ourselves, and the truth that sets us free.

That's why I read it.

Jim