The majority of the Bible is written in narrative form.  This simply means that God has told us a bunch of stories to teach us lessons on a variety of levels.  For this reason, using simple reading techniques for understanding stories is the best way to dig into the spiritual lessons that God is trying to teach you through these stories.  The most basic reading technique is to simply identify the elements that comprise any narrative:  characters, setting, and plot.  Another way to state this idea is through questions that ask about who, what, when and where.  The next higher level of reading technique is to find connections between the text and ourselves, the world, and other texts.  These connections assist the reader in gaining a fuller understanding of the depths of meaning within the narrative.  The aforementioned text connections are standard practice for secular reading, but there is one more connection that should never be overlooked in your Bible study—the connection between the narrative and God.  In other words, what does the story reveal about God? 

Questions:

Character: Who is this story about?  List all of the people in the story and what you know about them.  In addition, there may be animal, plant, and supernatural characters in the story.  Of course, every story will include God as a main character.  Sometimes, His presence is obvious, but sometimes, you must look deeper to find Him in the story.

Setting:

a. Where is this happening?  Check out maps to understand the relationship of ancient places to modern countries.  How is this place connected to other places that you have read about? Is this place different from the locations just before this story started. Where will the characters go after this story is finished? Does this place have any spiritual significance?

b. When is this happening?  Part of the answer to his question might be a specific date and time of day, but a more important answer looks at what events happened before, what events happened after, and most importantly, what other events are occurring simultaneously.  It is important to compare the events of the Bible with other historical events that were happening at the same time, but it is even more important to compare various Bible stories and events with each other.  For example, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel all provide differing perspectives on what was happening during one specific time period, so the other two books can provide a lot of insight to explain the situations occurring in a story from one of the other books.

Plot:

a. Problem–What is the problem happening in the story?  Why is the problem happening?  Could the problem have been avoided?  What are the consequences that result from the problem?

b. Solution–Was the problem resolved?  If so, how was the problem resolved?  What was God’s preferred solution?  What solutions did humans try that were not in alignment with God’s way of handling situations?

Text-to-Text:  Does anything remind you of other verses that you have read in the Bible?  Do you want to search deeper for more texts that speak about this subject?  If so, what is the consensus of the texts that you found, i.e., what lessons were communicated by the majority of the texts and were they different from the story that you are studying?

Text-to-World:  What general lessons about life are in the text?  What similarities do you see between the story and our modern world?  What differences are there between the story and today’s world?

Text-to-Self:  What specific application can you find for your own life, i.e., what message is the Holy Spirit trying to give you from this story?  Have you ever experienced any situation similar to the story?  Would you have reacted differently than the characters?  If so, why?

Text-to-God: What does this story reveal about God and the way that He interacts with humans? Did God approve or disapprove? How do you know? Is there anything confusing about God in this story?

Conclusion

Remember, the depth of your Bible study will depend on how far you want to delve into these connections.  It is fine to only answer the questions based on your present knowledge and to leave blank any information that you do not know at this time.  It is also great to drag out the commentaries, spiritual books, concordances, Internet resources, and Bible dictionaries to find more and more information that relates to the story.  These questions can help you understand a narrative passage at the level that you need, whether your own personal experiences and knowledge are the only sources of information or whether you use multiple resources written by professors with doctorates. In other words, if you are a beginner, just start out by identifying the characters, setting, and basic plot of the story. Then ask yourself about connections to other Bible verses that you know, connections between the story and your own life, and what you have learned about God from the story.