The Bible and the Banquet

“He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love.” (Song of Solomon 2:4) Jesus reminds us: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” (Mt 4:4) We need to always take the time to read and study and learn God’s Word. God’s banqueting house is not a fast food restaurant. John F. Brand once said: “The Bible is meant to be bread for daily use, not cake for special occasions” We must live, not snack, on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.

When we open up God’s Word, it is as if we are sitting down at His table for a feast that He has prepared especially for us. It would be foolish and rude to just take one bite, then get up and leave. It would also be just as foolish and rude to stuff it all down our face as fast as we can. We need better manners at the banqueting table. Charles Haddon Spurgeon wrote: “Some people like to read so many [Bible] chapters every day. I would not dissuade them from the practice, but I would rather lay my soul asoak in half a dozen verses all day than rinse my hand in several chapters. Oh, to be bathed in a text of Scripture, and to let it be sucked up in your very soul, till it saturates your heart!” You see, reading the Bible without thinking about it and meditating on it is like trying to eat an entire meal without chewing and swallowing.

I once read the following illustration: "A man in Kansas City was severely injured in an explosion. Evangelist Robert L. Sumner tells about him in his book THE WONDERS OF THE WORD OF GOD. The victim's face was badly disfigured, and he lost his eyesight as well as both hands. He was just a new Christian, and one of his greatest disappointments was that he could no longer read the Bible. Then he heard about a lady in England who read Braille with her lips. Hoping to do the same, he sent for some books of the Bible in Braille. Much to his dismay, however, he discovered that the nerve endings in his lips had been destroyed by the explosion. One day, as he brought one of the Braille pages to his lips, his tongue happened to touch a few of the raised characters and he could feel them. Like a flash he thought, I can read the Bible using my tongue. At the time Robert Sumner wrote his book, the man had "read" through the entire Bible four times."

What’s our excuse? Can we, like John Bunyan, say "I was never out of my Bible"? Are we taking the time to enjoy the feast and fellowship at the banqueting house or are we just driving through?