It’s the Saturday Do It Yourself edition of Scripture for Students. Grab your Bible for some hands-on.
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This is Scripture for Students. I’m Steve Whitacre, president of Trinity College and a pastor at Sovereign Grace Church of Louisville. I want to help students build a daily habit for life-long Bible reading. Today is December 14, 2024 and this is a special Saturday DIY episode, so grab your Bible and get a pen and your journal or some paper.
DIY means Do It Yourself. Think of Saturday DIY as a workshop: time for some hands on with some Bible study of your own.
I’m going to give you a few ideas to get you started and then it is over to you, to spend some time with your Bible and see what you can learn.
When this episode is over, I’d like to have you read the Advent story in Matthew’s gospel, Matthew 1:18–2:23. Today, we’ve got a choose-your-own adventure. Two options. Option 1 is pretty straightforward. Read the passage then try to answer the four questions we learned from Dr. Harmon last week: What do we learn about God? What do we learn about people? What do we learn about relating to God? What do we learn about relating to others? That would be really fruitful.
Or, if you’ve got a little more time and you would like to dig a little deeper, Option 2 is to print out a portion of this story, maybe just one paragraph, like Matthew 2:1–12. Read it through, and as you do, look closely at the details of the sentences. I teach a hermeneutics class for freshmen at Trinity College and we use a textbook called Grasping God’s Word, by Scott Duvall and Daniel Hays. They suggest 9 things to look for (and I’ll include this list in the episode notes so you don’t have to scribble furiously):
- Repetition of words—Look for words and phrases that repeat.
- Contrasts—Look for ideas, individuals, and/or items that are contrasted with each other. Look for differences.
- Comparisons—Look for ideas, individuals, and/or items that are compared with each other. Look also for similarities.
- Lists—Note where the text mentions more than two items.
- Cause and effect—There may be more than one effect from a single cause mentioned in the text.
- Figures of speech—Look for expressions that convey an image, using words in a sense other than the literal sense.
- Conjunctions—Notice terms that join units, like and, but, for. Note what they are connecting.
- Verbs—Note whether a verb is past, present, or future; active or passive; also look for imperatives.
- Pronouns—Identify the antecedent for each pronoun.
Get your colored pens and highlighters and mark these categories in different ways. Let’s look for a couple of things.
- Repetition. Maybe circle these in blue. “King” in 2:1, 2, 3 → 6 = ruler and shepherd.
- Contrasts. Maybe underline these in red. When Herod hears about the star, what happens? 3 – He was troubled. When the wise men say in v10 – rejoiced exceedingly with great joy? Why do you think Herod and his followers had such a different response from the wise men?
- Comparisons. Maybe draw a green box around these. Here’s one: v.6 And you, …by no means least among the rulers of Judah. Why compare the town of Bethlehem to the rulers of Judah?
- Lists. The only list I see is in verse 11: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. What these mean…
- Conjunctions. Maybe highlight these in blue. 1 now; 3 when; 7 then; 9 After, 10 When, 11 and ; 12 and. Gives you an idea of the sequence.
- Verbs. My favorite! Ask my Greek students sometime about my favorite superhero, Verb Man! Verbs are where the action is. What do we learn about the action of this passage from the verbs? V. 2. Came. How did they come? Did they walk? Ride a donkey? How long? How fast? “We saw this star when it rose…” The star rose? What do you think that meant? It says in v 9 that it rested over the place where the child was. That’s an interesting way to describe it. 11 They “fell down and worshipped him.”
Hopefully that’s enough to get you started. I want to warn you, though: this can be addictive. The more time I spend studying God’s word like this, the more I want to do it. But I know you’ll find it well worth your time.
That’s all for today. If you enjoyed this episode please share it with a friend and follow us on Apple Podcasts.
This content is sponsored by Trinity College of Louisville. We shape young men and young women for Christ and for the church. Learn more at TrinityCollegeLou.com. Until next time, keep growing!
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