Christians are supposed to read their Bibles. They are supposed to listen to Scriptures read in public worship by a minister called to speak to them for God, but they should also augment this by their own regular reading.
An advantage to hearing someone else read the text is that he might be able to explain it better than what you would get reading on your own.
Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is a desert place. And he rose and went. And there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah. And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and join this chariot.” So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him (Acts 8:26–31 ESV).
But when we’re reading alone we don’t have the option of getting an explanation from an expert.
Additionally, while Ministers and Teachers in the Church are God’s gracious gift, and while having an explanation of a passage is a step toward understanding it, that is not the goal. The eunuch learned from Phillip how Isaiah prophesied Jesus. But did he learn everything Isaiah’s words related to? I doubt that could be done in one lesson. Phillip’s teaching was conditioned by his calling and the official’s need.
I can teach from Genesis 17:7 how the infants of Christians should be baptized, how Israel was a blessed nation in covenant with God, how Christ became the covenant blessing for all who believe in Him, and how in the Church all nations are one single seed. Getting one of those explanations isn’t the same as understanding the passage.
To have a truly deep understanding of the Bible requires regular exposure to the Bible. We have to read it. And then read it some more.
But an obstacle to reading the Bible is the perceived need to understand it. We think our reading is useless unless we have an explanation at hand to instruct or inspire us.
Who is going to read through the Pentateuch if he believes he needs to understand the “import” of every passage he reads? No one.
People slow down and stop reading because they feel they haven’t read the Bible correctly unless they get an explanation.
The desire to understand the Bible becomes an obstacle to reading it.
But what if you didn’t do it that way? What if you came up with a simple reading strategy (as easy as this one) and refused to allow anything to interfere with it, including the desire to understand what you just read?
I submit that, after reading the Bible five or six or more times, you will understand it better than would by worrying about understanding it.
The Bible makes its own reader. You need to treat the Bible not as information, but as a culture into which you need to be assimilated. It is a language in which you must immerse yourself to really learn.