The Bible is an intimidating book. It carries with it the weight of history and the authority of God himself. It comes in several dozen translations, from the overbearing King James to the simplistic New International Reader's Version. The book sits on my shelf between my journal and a clip art book, the binding giving out and the corners bent and torn. Sometimes I try not to look at it. It sits there on my desk, the face of the binding staring back at me with its gold embossed letters.

I know what it's going to tell me, and I don't want to hear it. So I look away. Other times I sigh, and with a sense of duty pick up the book and drop it in my lap, turning to the book marked page and reading my required chapter. The words ring empty and hollow in my ear. I've heard them so many times before. Sometimes the words sound cryptic and mysterious, and I can't fathom their meaning. What was Jesus getting at? I shake my head and wonder how I'm supposed to understand.

It's a scary book to read. It drips with the truth, and even when I pause to think about what the point is, I have an inkling its speaking directly to me. Some days I refuse to read it because I know what it's going to say.

Yesterday I read it with a chuckle. For the first time in my life I saw the humor in a passage. Is the Bible allowed to be funny? What an oddly mysterious and wonderful book. Sometimes intimidating, other times enlightening--but why does it always have to be a crapshoot? I never know if I'm going to walk away nodding or scratching my head.

Why can't the Bible be like other books I read, the ones I curl up with before I go to bed. The ones that draw me in with their characters and roller coaster plot. The ones I read late into the night because I must know what happens.

The truth is the Bible is a book like that. It's a work of literature just like you'd read in any English class. The sad part is we often don't realize it. We've heard the stories too many times and heard too many interpretations to see the magic of the stories for ourselves. The Bible is rich with characters, plot, symbols, metaphor--the very stuff of literature. Understanding that the Bible is literature gives us the freedom to enjoy the stories as stories and it allows us to better comprehend God's word. It lets us struggle with the questions instead of glossing over the mystery.

Just look at the unending stories the Bible offers: David and Goliath, Jonah and the whale, Daniel in the lion's den, Saul's conversion, and the list goes on. The Bible is also more than stories. Poetry is found in much of the Old Testament, and poetic language even creeps into the letters of the New Testament. Jesus himself told stories, using parables to explain the kingdom of God or what it means to be a neighbor.

Take the story of Elijah for example. It's a story about God reclaiming his people and judging evil through His servant Elijah. It's not so much a historical account as it is a literary narrative. It's full of rich details and realistic characters. Leland Ryken tells us in his book How To Read the Bible As Literature that "the task of a historian is to record what happened; the task of the literary storyteller is to tell us what happens." The difference is that one is in the past and not necessarily relevant, while the other offers enduring importance. The story of Elijah still has importance for us today. Discovering that importance is the key. This is where we often get bogged down in what we think is historical narrative. But really understanding the story involves examining these elements and seeing how they affect the story.

So what's the point of the story of Elijah? At first glance it looks like a story of God proving himself as the one true god. If you want to read the story as a purely historical account, that's about where your interpretation ends: The Lord God is the one true god. But stories can have more than one meaning. That's what makes literature so powerful--there's a multitude of meaning. If you read the story of Elijah closely, there's a lot of questions that go unanswered. Why does Elijah taunt the prophets of Baal like some junior higher? And if that wasn't enough when his turn comes he showboats by soaking the altar in water. Why does the wicked Ahab, who himself worshipped Baal, escape the confrontation unscathed?

The Bible is full of questions like this. Questions that can't be answered with simple Sunday School answers. We have to wrestle with them, and in doing so we'll find more than one simple meaning and we'll come to a better understanding of who God is. God refuses to be kept in a box, and by grappling with the difficult questions inherent in the Bible we're not confining God to our limitations.

To answer some of these difficult questions, we need to understand the characters. So often I have this picture of Elijah as the perfect man of God. 1 Kings 17 reinforces that, showing us how Elijah faithfully obeys God. The words of the widow further back this up when she tells Elijah, "Now I know that you are a righteous man of God and that the word of the Lord from your mouth is the truth," (1 Kings 17:24 NIV). We're give an image of Elijah as a righteous man of God, which doesn't make me feel too great. If God uses super-righteous people like Elijah, why would he ever use a sinner like me? But read on, Elijah isn't so one dimensional.

Elijah challenges the prophets of Baal and the people agree to let each side build an altar to their respective god, and then both sides will call out to their god. Whoever answers with fire is the one true god. Sounds like a fair test. Elijah lets the prophets of Baal go first and as they're calling out to their god, Elijah says, "Shout louder! Surely he is god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy, or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened," (1 Kings 18:27 NIV). He's taunting them like a spoiled kid. This doesn't seem like the behavior of a perfect man. And then I realize that Elijah isn't perfect--but God is using him in spite of his shortcomings. That means there's still hope for me.

The prophets of Baal called and they called, but no one answered. So it was Elijah's turn. He prepares his altar and calls on the people of Israel to dowse it with water. Not only is he going to call down fire from heaven, he's going to soak the altar first. Now maybe Elijah's just trying to really prove that his God is the one true god. After all, you wouldn't want anyone to think he tossed a match on the altar when no one was looking. But that seems kind of juvenile. Water on the altar doesn't make God that much more powerful. I think everyone would agree that He's God if fire came down from heaven. I think Elijah was just showboating, as if to say, "Watch this. Not only is God going to reign down fire from heaven, the fire has to burn a soaking wet altar." It's like the stunt man capping it off by putting on a blindfold. Once again, I think to myself that this Elijah doesn't sound like the flannel board Elijah I heard about in Sunday School. Maybe Elijah wasn't so perfect. But through God's grace he was used anyway.

Another thing that troubles me in this story is the bad guy, Ahab. We're introduced to Ahab in 1 Kings 16, "Ahab son of Omri did more evil in the eyes of the Lord than any of those before him," (1 Kings 16:31 NIV). It goes on to tell us that he started to serve and worship Baal and that Ahab "did more to provoke the Lord, the God of Israel, to anger than did all the kings of Israel before him," (1 Kings 16:33 NIV). Doesn't sound like God is too happy with this guy. It probably doesn't help that he's the king of Israel and an example for the entire nation.

What I don't understand is what happens to this guy after Elijah's little confrontation with Baal. God reigns down fire from heaven and it's pretty obvious to all of Israel that Baal isn't the one true god. God has Elijah administer justice by slaughtering the prophets of Baal--which in itself is an issue that raises questions. Isn't God a god of love? Yes, but he's also a God of justice. There's a lot of death in the Old Testament that we have to come to terms with--there's a lot of death in life that we have to come to terms with. But that's another article (or a book).

What I don't understand is how Ahab walks off alive after this whole ordeal. The prophets of Baal were all killed, yet the evil king lives? Maybe he lived because he was the king of Israel, I don't know. But what I do see here is God's grace. God has just proven himself to all of Israel and now the wicked king has a chance to change his ways. The king described as more evil than any other king in Israel's history gets a second chance? I don't understand God sometimes. And maybe that's the way it's supposed to be. God's grace is so unfathomable to us that He'll give even the worst of sinners a second chance. He did it with Paul, and Paul took the chance and became an integral part of the early church. Once again, God refuses to fit into our box of expectations.

The Bible is an amazing book. It gives us a glimpse of a God so far above us that we can't even pin him down. It's a book that doesn't come with easy answers. Like reading any work of literature you have to ask questions. Why doesn't Huckleberry Finn turn in the runaway slave? If you don't ask questions, if you just accept things as they're thrown at you, you'll never understand the message behind the words.

Don't read the Bible like a self-help book, looking for comforting advice in every verse. Read the stories of the Bible--even if that means reading beyond your standard chapter-a-day--and experience them. Get into them and understand what's going on. The stories will come to life and you'll see things you didn't notice before. Some things will stump you and you might have to put the Bible back on the shelf and let the question nag at you for the rest of the day. It might nag at you for the rest of the month. That's part of the beauty of the God we serve. He doesn't lay it out and make it easy for us. Sometimes I wish He would, but really, what good is something when it comes easy?

"'For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,' declares the Lord," (Psalm 55:8 NIV). God won't be put in our box. Our answers are not His answers. Jesus got angry in the temple--behavior that would shock most of us. And that's exactly what God does--shock us.

"For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart." (Hebrews 4:12 NIV)