A friend recently asked me, “Can you tell me why the book of Ezekiel is so long?” He has a point. Have you read Ezekiel lately? The prophet does go on and on – and in some rather bizarre directions.
My first response was to ask if the same question could be asked about quite a few other books of the Bible. Do we really need 150 Psalms? Doesn’t the book of Proverbs repeat itself a lot? Couldn’t the message of Job be conveyed more concisely?
My second line of thought was that maybe a book is supposed to do more than just convey content. Maybe a book is supposed to have an effect as well as a message. Perhaps there are some “lessons” that need to be “learned” in experiential ways as well as intellectual ones. And that takes time. That would fit with our life purpose of “loving the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind.” Loving God involves far more than knowing things about him.
Please hear me carefully. I never want to downplay the importance of sound doctrine and the priority of contending for the truth. I read systematic theology texts for fun! But I have to acknowledge that God inspired a Bible with long books that mix a variety of genres for a multitude of effects. The scriptures compare themselves to a two-edged sword (Hebrews 4:12), food (Jeremiah 15:16), a lamp (Psalms 119:105), and many other images that imply something other than an encyclopedia.
Am I endorsing what some scholars call “speech-act” theory, where words can inflict pain as well as communicate ideas? I don’t know. Most of what I’ve heard from that perspective sounds rather negative. I’m talking more about the shape of books. I’m considering how books say things, not just what they say.
I believe a case can be made for this idea from 2 Timothy 3:16-17, where God’s word tells us, “all scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” I’m camping out on the words “training” and “equipped.” Of course God’s word tells us what is true (teaching) and contrasts truth from error (rebuking and correcting). But it also trains us or shapes us or makes us into different people as a result of our reading it. We become equipped, not just informed.
So we need to ask all the standard Bible study questions of books of the Bible – What does the text say? What does it mean? How does it cohere with other parts of the Bible? How should we then live? But we also need to ask what this particular book is doing in me as I read it? At bare minimum, it’s perfectly justified to ask, “Why is this book so long?” We could also rightly wonder why a book is comprised of poems, or fantastic images or narrative detail.
I’ll offer a few answers for some of the books of the Bible as I’ve dug into them and watched God “train” me through reading them. I need 150 Psalms because I don’t, by nature (fallen nature!) praise God as my default mode. I don’t just need exhortations to praise God, rejoice always, exalt him, and bless his name. I need the experience of doing so, modeled by inspired writers who craft sentences that seem alien to me. I don’t just need a dictionary to learn a foreign language. I need hours of conversation with native speakers.
Job needs to be as long as it is because I need preparation for times of suffering, not just theological answers to the why questions. I need to process the emotions of pain by eavesdropping on Job as he cries out to God. I need to grow tired of his foolish friends’ moralistic drivel so I’m not tempted to believe such nonsense when I go through the tough times. I have to work my way through such a long book so the experiential effect will be putting my hand over my mouth when facing God in the midst of difficult times. That can only come after wrestling through dozens of chapters of poetry and hearing God ask me over seventy rhetorical questions about my strategic role in creating the universe.
And what about Ezekiel? Why did he go on so long? I’m not sure just yet. I’m going to read the book again before I attempt an answer in the next blog. But that’ll take some time.
