Rightly dividing the word

"Study to show yourself approved to God"

2 Timothy 2:15

August is rapidly winding up, which means the next school year is rapidly approaching, which means I'm rapidly running out of time to prep.   There's a lot that can't be done in advance, like record-keeping and the actual teaching, but there's a lot of reading I can do in advance.

But I also need to familiarize myself with the textbooks as much as possible.  I don't want to be looking at them for the first time along with my kids.  And in order to properly lesson plan, I need to know what's involved.

Awesome Girl has two different science books for the upcoming year, from two different publishers, and I'm not sure how much material is repeated.  But there's no time to read two high-school science textbooks in the next two weeks, so I need to do the next best thing.  My favorite thing.  I need to study them.

Studying is different from reading, although reading is often necessary for study.  You can read about dolphins, or you can learn from the dolphins themselves ~ study them.   But since I don't have time to read these books, I'm going to study them.  Look at them side by side.  Compare the tables of contents, and the setup - how many chapters, how many units.  What topics are covered, and in what order?  In what way?  Can I use one for the primary text, and one for a backup, or will we use them concurrently?

There's a lot to be said for studying ~ and it's exactly how we should approach Scripture.  The word "study" means "to look at closely to observe; investigate and analyze in detail," and it comes from the Latin for "zealous, painstaking application".  The Bible is not meant to just be read.  It's far too complex for that.  And there are countless details that will add to our understanding of what we are reading.  Details like the author of the specific book; the audience for whom it was written, and the time it was written.  Many Bibles ~ particularly study Bibles ~ have this information at the beginning of each book.  We can also gain from geographical information and biographical information on the people.  It can be very eye-opening, for instance, to learn that a king mentioned in one book is the grandfather of a king mentioned somewhere else.

You can't understand everything God has revealed to us unless you read the Bible.  And you can't understand everything in the Bible without studying what you have read.  Don't be content with what you have learned; there's always more to learn.

~ "Ezra had devoted himself to the study 

and observance of the Law of the Lord, 

and to teaching its degrees and laws in Israel" ~

Ezra 7:10