The confusion ends here. Why your modern perspective is the biggest barrier to biblical clarity.
- Thad DeBuhr
- Nov 16
- 6 min read
Day 1 of 11: STOP Reading the Bible Wrong: Use the 6 Keys to Unlock Context
Imagine you’ve been invited to the most important family dinner of the year. The table is set, the meal is spectacular, and the conversation is lively. You’re sitting there, smiling and nodding, but there’s a problem: everyone is speaking a language you only sort of know.
You catch key phrases—Grandma’s name, a mention of the big trip, a joke about Uncle Bob—but you miss the history. You miss the context. You miss the inside joke that makes everyone erupt in laughter. You know you’re sitting at the table, but you feel completely left out of the conversation.
This is the exact pain many of us feel when we open the Bible. We’re in the right place, we see the words, and we know we’re reading something important, but we are missing the history and the insider cues. We feel like we're just pretending to understand a truth that everyone else seems to grasp easily.
The Question is: How do we move from nodding politely at the table to joining the conversation?
Before you dig into the story in this lesson, I would encourage you to read through the passage in two different bible translations from this list: NIV, NLT, NASB, ESV, NKJV
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Setting the Scene: The Man Who Saw Trees Walking
The Problem: Eyes Wide Shut
The reason the Bible feels foggy is that we commit one primary mistake: We read an ancient, contextual text with modern, Western eyes.
The people who wrote and first read the Bible were living in a world completely foreign to ours. They worried about shame and honor, relied on subsistence farming, walked everywhere, and feared local rulers who claimed to be gods. We worry about our 401k, social media reputation, and rush hour traffic. When we fail to apply the context of their world, we inevitably misapply the meaning to ours. This is why the journey to understanding requires a "second touch"—the touch of context.
The Scripture: Mark chapter 8, verses 22 through 26 (NLT)
We are looking at one of the strangest healing stories in the Gospels, which perfectly illustrates the feeling of reading the Bible without the proper context:
When they arrived at Bethsaida, some people brought a blind man to Jesus and begged him to touch him. Jesus took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village. Then, spitting on the man’s eyes, he laid his hands on him and asked, “Can you see anything now?”The man looked around and said, “Yes, I see people, but I can’t tell who they are. They look like trees walking around.”Then Jesus placed his hands on the man’s eyes again, and his eyes were opened. His sight was completely restored, and he could see everything clearly.
Contextual Insights (Jewish Details We Miss)
Bethsaida’s Significance (The Setting): Jesus takes the man out of the village to heal him. Bethsaida was a place where Jesus had already performed many miracles, yet the people had remained hard-hearted and refused to believe (Matthew chapter 11, verse 21). By healing the man outside the village, Jesus is making a statement about their lack of spiritual sight. The man’s physical blindness mirrored the town’s spiritual blindness.
The Two Touches (The Process): Jesus often healed instantly with a single command (e.g., “Get up and walk!”). Why did this healing require two touches? The two stages of healing beautifully illustrate the process of spiritual clarity. The first touch (seeing "trees walking") is the vague, general knowledge we gain from simply reading the words. The second touch (seeing "everything clearly") is the work of applying context—it requires a deeper engagement to fully understand. This story validates the idea that seeing clearly is a gradual process, not an instant one.
Applying It Today: Moving from Vague to Clear
The goal of this series is not to make the Bible easier, but to give you the vision—the keys—to see it clearly. Today’s application is centered on simply acknowledging the problem and committing to the process of seeking a second touch of context.
1. Acknowledge the Barrier
This is the commitment to pause when the text feels too easy or too simple, and recognize that a cultural barrier likely exists.
🛑 Doing it WRONG (The Default): You're reading the call of Abram in Genesis chapter 12, verse 1 (NLT) where God says, “Leave your country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you.” You assume this is like a modern-day short road trip or moving across town to a new job—a bit inconvenient, but mostly safe.
✅ Doing it RIGHT (The Commitment): You pause and say: "Wait, leaving his clan/family/homeland in that era was an act of complete cultural and economic suicide. Safety, security, and inheritance were tied to his family. I need to understand that level of sacrifice." You stop imposing your modern ease onto their ancient difficulty.
2. Accept the Two Touches
This is the commitment to be patient with the text, knowing that clarity often requires a second layer of context.
🛑 Doing it WRONG (The Default): You encounter a confusing passage (maybe a strange law in Leviticus or a difficult line in Revelation), you gloss over the parts you don't understand, and tell yourself, "It's the Bible, I just have to have more faith. I'll ask the pastor later," effectively giving up on true clarity.
✅ Doing it RIGHT (The Commitment): You read the confusing passage and recognize it as a First Touch moment. You commit to coming back to it later with one of the Six Keys to achieve the Second Touch of clarity. You accept that comprehension is a process.
3. Commit to Clarity
This is the commitment to re-orient your focus away from yourself and toward the original world of the Bible.
🛑 Doing it WRONG (The Default): You start the day's devotion by immediately asking, "What does this verse mean for me today? What can I apply to my life right now?"
✅ Doing it RIGHT (The Commitment): You start the day by asking: "I know I lack the full vision of this world. I commit to seeking the original context so I don't confuse the trees for the people." You prioritize what it meant to them before asking what it means to you.
Questions to Chew on and Discuss:
What is one area of the Bible (Old Testament Law, prophecy, Paul’s letters, etc.) where you most often feel like you only see "trees walking around"?
Think about the analogy of being at the family dinner but not speaking the language. What modern cultural cue (like "401k" or "social media") is often misunderstood or projected onto a biblical passage?
The final verses of the passage say the man saw "everything clearly." What would seeing the Bible "clearly" mean for your personal life and spiritual confidence?
Journey Group Discussion Starter:
We all agree that reading the Bible feels foggy. If you had to choose, what is your biggest frustration with the Bible right now?
Do you wish I better understood:
THE CULTURE (how they thought and lived)
THE SETTING (where the story unfolded)
HOW IT ALL FITS TOGETHER (the big picture)? Why did you choose that one?
BE SURE TO WATCH THE VIDEO PODCAST THAT GOES WITH THIS STUDY GUIDE
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MORE RESOURCES TO HELP YOU GROW AS A CHRISTIAN
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