I don't mean we can't read the words and know their meaning. What I mean is that there are many techniques to reading. Some of those techniques we pick up on naturally. Others, we simply have to be taught.
In my first semester in seminary, we had to read a book called "How to Read a Book." Imagine that!
Here is a description of the book from Amazon.com:
You are told about the various levels of reading and how to achieve them -- from elementary reading, through systematic skimming and inspectional reading, to speed reading, you learn how to pigeonhole a book, X-ray it, extract the author's message, criticize. You are taught the different reading techniques for reading practical books, imaginative literature, plays, poetry, history, science and mathematics, philosophy and social science.
Why do I bring this up? Because many of us can get bogged down in the minutia of the Bible. I just picked up a Bible in my office. It's 1380 pages! That's a lot of pages.
Genesis 10 contains a lot of names - the genealogy of Shem, Ham, and Japheth (the sons of Noah.) They are foreign sounding names, for the most part. It's hard to know how to pronounce them. We can get bogged down into trying to sound out every single name. Or we can simply SKIM the names to get a general sense of the meaning of Chapter 10. What is the purpose of chapter 10? To show us how Noah's family (which survived the flood) grew and spread out to various places. It may not be important that we know who Assshur is in verse 22. And if it is important, we will know that when his names appears again.
If you are reading through the Bible for the first time, please be encouraged! Don't get bogged down. Don't give up!
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