I recently mentioned that I find the opening words of the book of Psalms inspiring and instructive:

Blessed is the man
    who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
  nor stands in the way of sinners,
    nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
  but his delight is in the law of the LORD,
    and on his law he meditates day and night.

Psalm 1:1–2 ESV

In that same post, I concluded with some thoughts on the ancient traditions represented by these words. Our faith is in Jesus of Nazareth, a man who lived thousands of years ago. Some of the earliest Psalms were written around a thousand years prior by David, and the “law” here actually refers to the Torah – the first five books of the bible, which were written thousands more years before the earliest Psalms.

We, as Christians, have inherited from the Psalmist a millennia old tradition. However, we have also inherited millennia of writings that came after David, from the prophets who saw Israel’s downfall and exile to the prolific letters of Paul. If the Psalmist could spend day and night meditating on five books because they are so rich, how much more time could and should we spend meditating on sixty-six?

I don’t have a prescription today – I’m not going to tell you to spend an hour a day doing a personal Bible study. Instead, I want to take you down a rabbit hole I recently fell down, and hopefully spark a desire to find a rabbit hole of your own.

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If you’re familiar with the book of Hebrews, it probably doesn’t surprise you to find this is where I found some tangents to go on – it has enough rabbit holes to be the setting for Watership Down. You may also know it by its associations to the Old Testament, either because it quotes Isaiah and Psalms so many times or because it’s about as dense as Leviticus. Personally, I’ve definitely done a one-year plan through the whole Bible, gotten to early November, and asked, “Who on earth is Melchizedek?”

If you have an app where you can search the Bible for his name, you’ll find it in two places other than Hebrews. In Genesis 14, he blesses Abraham (“Abram” at the time) during an odd episode in which Abraham rescued Lot, coincidentally helping a handful of kings with which Melchizedek was aligned. He then completely disappears from the narrative, never appearing again except in Psalm 110, which is quoted by Hebrews.

So back in Hebrews, what does the author have to say about him? That’s the question I asked myself, and this is the answer I got:

And being made perfect, [Jesus] became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.

About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food,

Hebrews 5:9–12 ESV

I, personally, was floored by how harsh these words were. We don’t know exactly who the letter was written by or to, but we can infer both parties were very familiar with the Hebrew scriptures (see above, Levitical density and quotations of prophets and Psalms). Obviously, they were both Christians as well. I had just read through the letters of Paul , and I was used to his admonishment regarding specific actions or patterns, but this seemed like a sweeping and foundational problem.

What has helped me out many times is recognizing that the Bible is a collection of historical documents, with a lot of context that’s not written down in the documents themselves. For example, I understood much more of letters like 1 Timothy after doing some research on Ephesian culture. Often, the simplest form of context is to look at the rest of the writing, which wasn’t divided into chapters and verses until scholars started translating it. So I kept reading into the next chapter:

Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.

Hebrews 6:1–2 ESV

So in quick succession, the author has laid out the following as basic doctrine:

• Repentance
• Faithfulness to God
• Baptism (ESV translates the Greek baptismos to “washings”)
• Prayer
• Resurrection of Christians
• Eternal judgment

Some of these are things I wrestled with for years. Baptism was something I didn’t fully understand until college, and the term “judgment” evokes such a web of interconnected topics in my mind that I struggle just to keep them straight.

To recap, this rabbit hole took me from “Who is Melchizedek?” to “What was the bigger picture for this church?”, and then to “What do you mean my questions about the day of the Lord and the fate of pre-messianic Jews are ‘elementary doctrine’?”

There was a time when questions like these would have, or even did, make me give up and gloss over the parts that confused me. I’d read through Hebrews before, but I’d never really wrestled with it and sat in the complexity.

Eventually, I went on to read chapter six, then seven, and found answers to some of my earlier questions. (I’m still working on the scope of elementary doctrine.) First, I found that chapter six was rather comforting – most of the chapter is dedicated to exhorting the readers to learn more and deepen their knowledge of the Christian faith. Considering some of them had likely read the Old Testament scriptures for years, I was not alone in feeling rather lost or feeling like I shouldn’t be. Second, I did find an answer to the question of Melchizedek specifically: he was a character who served as an anomaly to the readers. His role as a high priest who wasn’t even from the nation of God’s chosen people would have sounded wildly preposterous to them – and yet Abraham paid honor to him with a tithe, and in so doing set Melchizedek in a more honorable position than Levi and his tribe’s priesthood as Abraham’s descendants.

There’s much to be said on that topic. The letter itself goes on to discuss how this not only qualifies Jesus (from the tribe of Judah) as a high priest, but makes his priesthood higher than the Levites’. This discussion makes me think the community in question likely had been grappling with questions of lineage, either of Jesus or relating to who can be a Christian. And in some ways, I think that speculative question helps provide a new lens through which the focus of the letter makes sense.

And yet, I’m still left with more curiosity about the book, as well as other parts of the Bible. Being a little familiar with ancient Hebrew writing patterns, I’m suddenly wondering where there may be symmetrical sections, which may mirror the whole layout of the Torah. Chapters five and seven both discuss Melchizedek (if only briefly), which would put chapter six and the Abrahamic covenant at the center of that section. (Genesis 15 is itself a whole rabbit hole if you’ve never looked up what’s going on with the animals.) On the other hand, if I take the chapter divisions at face value, then the center of a thirteen-chapter book would be chapter seven – the same argument about lineage and honor. Does that mean the continuation of that argument in chapter eight may map onto the discussion of oaths in chapter six?

Call to Action: A Small Step

Like I said while we were standing at the start of this tour, I don’t have an eleventh commandment that thou shalt read the Bible for an hour every morning. My hope is that my writing today would inspire and encourage you to take a step in the direction of understanding God’s word at a deeper level.

I worry, sometimes, that we don’t always appreciate the richness and depth of the scriptures, or the true weight of the fact that they are inspired by God. Certainly, they are authoritative, and useful for practical applications as laid out in 2 Timothy 3:16-17. But our God is not a god of authority in a pantheon of other deities – He is our God, and He is one, of all good things – and we are made in His image. Much as we enjoy beauty in the creation around us, He also must surely enjoy beauty, and I belief the scriptures are chock full of it. Poems, literary paintings, themes, motifs, and deep connections abound. I think if you sit with it long enough, you may find joy, comfort, and dare I say even humor.

So this is my encouragement: take a step to try to really understand the Bible. Different people will almost certainly find different methods. Personally, I’ve mentioned I use a lot of “academic” resources through the Blue Letter Bible, as well as more accessible podcasts like The Bible Project. That’s my method, though, and I’m a firm believer that the right tool is the one you’ll use. If the resource you’ll use is books and taking notes, or reading groups, there are centuries of writings with deep insights into the scriptures. I know of groups that are more digitally oriented, such as the Theology in the Raw community, which could be a great resource for others. I’ve mentioned before that I think community is a critical part of Christian faith, and I think that’s fully applicable here – there’s likely no better counsel than a group of Christ-following individuals seeking God’s wisdom. That may be a local church or the bible study you’re already attending. For some of you, it may be an academic program. (If my writing does inspire you to get a degree, I would love to know!)

Seek out resources, and take the time to find the ones that are right for you. Understand that it’s a journey that will take time, and trust that the Holy Spirit will give you growth. In the meantime, I’ll be contacting Zondervan to see if they’re interested in publishing my notes as a commentary (that part’s a joke) and continuing to study the word of God and trying to share my love with others.