I think we need to read the Bible more.
Everyone, I'm sure, will agree. But in spite of our good intentions, we struggle with Bible reading. Here's what happens to me. I get convicted that I'm not reading the Bible as much as I should, especially devotionally. So I start with one of the many "read the Bible in a year" plans. Some have you read straight through in canonical order. Others, mercifully, break the canon up into four parallel tracks so that you are reading from various portions of Scripture, both OT and NT any given day or at least throughout the week.
But the problem is I always get stuck somewhere in Deuteronomy.
I think that we just have to admit to ourselves that not all of the Bible is equally helpful spiritually. I'm not suggesting that we shouldn't read the entire Bible. It's a Christian duty to be familiar with it all, including the dry historical parts. Every Christian should read the entire Bible at least once, and hopefully much more than once, in their lifetime.
My point is there is a difference between reading the entire Bible in order to get the whole story and reading the Bible for daily spiritual nourishment. We tend to confuse the two goals or tasks. I'll call them "canonical Bible reading" and "devotional Bible reading." Canonical Bible reading is very often dry, historical, and close to academic in the sense that we are trying to learn the contents of Scripture. Devotional Bible reading has a different agenda -- the goal is not learning so much as being spiritually nourished and encouraged. The goal is the daily strengthening of our faith, hope and love. We do devotional Bible reading, not to learn the list of the kings of Israel and Judah, but to be convicted of sin and brought to repentance, to be spurred on to greater conformity to Christ, and to commune with the Father through the Mediator by his Spirit.
If this is the case, then we should focus our devotional Bible reading on the books of the Bible that are most suited to spiritual nourishment. Of course, I know Paul says that "all Scripture" is profitable, and I'm not denying that. But even Paul quoted certain books more than others, and rarely or never quoted others. I have recently grown in my appreciation for that gem, the Book of Esther. It has some lovely things to teach us about the providential care of God for his people. But neither Paul nor any other NT writer quotes it or alludes to it.
The early Christians seemed to have had a similar practice of emphasizing certain books of the Bible.
Larry Hurtado, Professor of NT Language, Literature and Theology at the University of Edinburgh, has provided some interesting information about the earliest Christian manuscripts, that is, those which appear to have been copied and used within Christian communities (as opposed to Jewish, pagan, or Gnostic groups) prior to AD 300. Although there were other texts copied and used besides Scripture (e.g., the Shepherd of Hermas was very popular), the following are the top eleven texts based on the number of manuscripts (or surviving portions of manuscripts) that we have for that Scriptural book. Again this is for manuscripts dated pre-300, that is, the first two centuries of post-apostolic church history (ca. 100-300):
Psalms (18)
John (16)
Matthew (12)
Genesis (8)
Exodus (8)
Luke (7)
Acts (7)
Isaiah (6)
Revelation (5)
Romans (4)
Hebrews (4)
Professor Hurtado comments:
"The popularity of the Psalms surely occasions no surprise. Other evidence indicates that the Psalms were cherished and pondered by Christians from earliest days. Importantly, the Psalms are the most frequently cited portion of the Old Testament in the New Testament" (p. 28).
"It occasions no real surprise ... that witnesses to Matthew and John outnumber those for any other Christian writing .... These two seem always to have been the favorite Gospels in Christian usage, both liturgically and in private devotion" (p. 30).
Larry W. Hurtado, The Earliest Christian Artifacts: Manuscripts and Christian Origins (Eerdmans, 2006).
The rest of the books listed above -- Genesis, Exodus, Luke and Acts, Isaiah, Revelation, Romans, and Hebrews -- are also foundational for Christian belief, worship, and practice. Of course, the manuscript counts are in no small measure influenced by the historical accidents of manuscript preservation and discovery. Nevertheless, it is not a bad list of the top books that we as Christians should read most often, meditate on, and become most familiar with. In particular, I wonder how it would help us spiritually if we made the top three -- Psalms, John, Matthew -- the focus of our devotional reading.
The spiritual benefit of the Psalms is pretty obvious -- it provides us with language for prayer, lament, confession of sin, thanksgiving and praise. The Gospels of John and Matthew are also very helpful spiritually in focusing our attention on the person of Christ, his words and deeds, and ultimately the passion narrative. The Gospel of Matthew has much valuable teaching for disciples of Jesus organized in large chunks but interspersed throughout the narrative of the life and ministry of Jesus. The Gospel of John has a mystical quality to it that draws us into a sense of union with Christ, the one who came down from heaven, sent by the Father, to reveal the Father and give us eternal life. Both Gospels have a strong emphasis on the deity of Christ, not merely in terms of proof-texts, but in terms of the way they attempt to persuade us that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that we must follow him in faith, trust and commitment.
I have personally found it helpful to listen to the Bible on my iPod during my daily commute. I use the ESV Hear the Word Audio Bible read by David Cochran Heath and produced by Crossway Bibles. It is helpful to listen to large portions of Scripture at a time, e.g., I listened to Matthew 1-8 on my way home from work a couple of days ago. The Sermon on the Mount is magnificent, but it takes on added meaning when heard in its broader narrative context.
However you choose to do it, "let the word of Christ dwell in you richly." And don't feel guilty if you make certain books more central to your devotional Bible reading than others. The book of Leviticus is terribly important theologically for understanding the New Testament, due to its foundational theology of atonement, so you should definitely read it, but it is not so crucial for your growth in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ that you must read it once a year.