Welcome to 10 minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life in the time it takes to get to work.

I'm Keith Simon.

I think a lot of us read our Bibles like we're reading something out of Aesop's fables. You know Aesop's fables,

right? They're short stories that teach a moral lesson. For example, I'm sure you're familiar with the story of the tortoise and the hair.

The two animals agree to a raise that the hair should easily win.

So the hair speeds out to a lead but then gets distracted and lazy while the tortoise just keeps going until he crosses the finish line.

The moral of the story is slow and steady wins the race. Be like the tortoise.

Or consider the story about the mouse and the lion.

In that fable, the lion is getting ready to eat the mouse,

but the mouse begs for his life and says that the lion shouldn't eat him

because someday he might be able to help him out.

The lion laughs because that seems highly unlikely, but he agrees not to eat him.

Some time later, the lion is captured in a hunter's trap. The mouse walks by, sees the problem

and shoes through the rope holding the lion. The moral of the story is

be kind to everyone because you never know when you'll need help. Be like the

lion and the mouse. These are great stories with valuable lessons, but the Bible

isn't a collection of short stories

inculcating moral values. So we shouldn't read the Bible the same way we read

Aesop's fables. We read the Bible wrongly when we think the point is to be like Moses or be like Paul or be like Esther or be like Mary

One reason we read the Bible wrongly one reason we read it like aesop's fables is because we don't know the storyline of

the Bible. We don't understand how all the stories and books fit together to tell

one big story. Well today we start a new book on TMBT and that's the Old Testament book of Nehemiah.

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