The following is an excerpt from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz:

“We cannot be far from the road of yellow brick, now,” remarked the Scarecrow, as he stood beside the girl, “for we have come nearly as far as the river carried us away.”

The Tin Woodman was about to reply when he heard a low growl, and turning his head (which worked beautifully on hinges) he saw a strange beast come bounding over the grass toward them. It was, indeed, a great yellow Wildcat, and the Woodman thought it must be chasing something, for its ears were lying close to its head and its mouth was wide open, showing two rows of ugly teeth, while its red eyes glowed like balls of fire. As it came nearer the Tin Woodman saw that running before the beast was a little gray field mouse, and although he had no heart he knew it was wrong for the Wildcat to try to kill such a pretty, harmless creature.

For many people, if they have ever tried to read the Bible, the experience is like this exercise of reading a random excerpt from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. They pick a random place in the Bible and start reading, expecting it to make complete sense. Sometimes they even ask the wrong questions about what they are reading, hoping to find an answer where there is none, like asking about the ending of the Harry Potter story in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Ultimately, to read the Bible effectively, we must first know how to read it. That is no easy task. The Bible is unlike any book that has ever been written. With The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, you can simply start at the beginning and read to the end and get the complete story. Not so with the Bible. The Bible is more accurately understood as a library of books rather than a single book to be read from cover to cover. In fact, the word Bible comes from the Latin word biblia which means “a collection of books.” Therefore, in order to find answers to the right questions about the Bible, we have to know how to read it properly.