Lots of books have been written to help us understand scripture and read the Bible helpfully. Few, I think, are as straightforward as Matthew Harmon’s Asking the Right Questions. He helpfully boils down reading the Bible to two sets of questions. The first set concern understanding a passage while the second set address how to draw applications from the passage.
In total, he offers eight questions:
Understanding the Bible
- 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?
Applying the Bible
- What does God want me to understand?
- What does God want me to believe?
- What does God want me to desire?
- What does God want me to do?
I think, armed with those eight questions, anybody could lead a fairly credible Bible study. That would lead you to ask the right questions of the text and get to the heart of whatever it is God wants us to understand.
You can buy a copy of Asking the Right Questions here.
I bought a copy of that book a couple of years ago ( on your recommendation, as I recall). I read it once; refer to it regularly, and use the questions frequently. It’s been an enormous help. First class resource.