Understanding the Bible is a Struggle

Thomas Merton’s words about the Bible in general apply to the Old Testament in particular: 

There is, in a word, nothing comfortable about the Bible — until we manage to get so used to it that we make it comfortable for ourselves. . . . Have we ceased to question the book and be questioned by it? Have we ceased to fight it? Then perhaps our reading is no longer serious. 

For most people, the understanding of the Bible is, and should be, a struggle: not merely to find…