The Bible - the most misunderstood book in the world

Jo Crivellaro | Jan 22, 2014

Chances are you know someone who is going through a really rough time, and if not just check out the news. Of course we’re trying to escape reality; it’s a crazy, crazy world we live in. Nice planet. Strange beings. There’s an awful lot of unnecessary destruction and suffering going on at the hands of a few bullies.

When I’m at the end of my rope, as I am right now, due to a serious health issue and the stress of discovering the incompetence of our health care system, I think of Job. He’s the guy in the book of ‘Job’, somewhere around the middle of the Bible. Job had it bad. Job wanted to die. But Job knew that all things are in God’s hands, so he never gave up faith that somehow all would come right in the end. I’ve read it enough times now, that I just tend to read the beginning and the end. In the middle of the book, Job and his friends call each other ‘long winded’, and they certainly are. But the beginning and the end of the book answers that all important question of ‘Why do bad things happen to good people?’, with unparalleled events. Like C.S. Lewis’s ‘Narnia series, and J.K. Rowling’s, ‘Harry Potter’ series, the books of the Bible are there to inspire us to continue on the path of good, believe the unbelievable, and to accept our trials, knowing that there’s a magical force always at hand, to come to our aid when we most need it. Unlike the other two series though, the Bible has many readers believing as I do, that these stories actually happened, which makes them far more exciting.

The Bible is made up of 66 books. I have it on good authority that you will not be cursed if you fail to start at the beginning and read every word to the end. I personally skim through quite a number of chapters in the Old Testament, which although they contain significant historical data, make for some pretty dry reading.

Be of stout heart, brave in the challenges you face, comforted in the stories of others like Job who have conquered, and remembering you are never alone.

Jo Crivellaro