Reading John Gill's Exposition is No Walk in the Park
I started reading John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible around November 2016. I started reading from Genesis and now I'm in the sixteenth chapter of Job. Reading through the massive exposition of the late Gill himself gives a lot of real insights. I may not agree with everything a commentator says but reading through the commentary is a lot of hard work. It's much bigger than my first read through Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary.
Reading through an exposition gives me an idea how hard it is to take Scriptures in context, to understand Scriptures in context and to prepare expository sermons. That's why I really get mad at pastors who trash expository preaching to be "lazy" and "cheating", let me tell them that they're the ones who are cheating and lazy. It's easy to take Scriptures out of context but it's difficult to take it in context.
Just reading through John Gill's verse by verse exposition gives me pleasure but it also makes me tired. Some of the chapters are pretty long. Reading through long expositions that flesh out the meaning of the verses make me feel like I've just eaten an entire delicious roast by myself. I've read it, I've enjoyed it and I want to eat more but I couldn't take another bite. So I have to put down the commentary and let my mind rest but I want to read more. But I do need to rest and let my mind rest because I couldn't outgrow the Scriptures.
Just reading through John Gill's verse by verse exposition gives me pleasure but it also makes me tired. Some of the chapters are pretty long. Reading through long expositions that flesh out the meaning of the verses make me feel like I've just eaten an entire delicious roast by myself. I've read it, I've enjoyed it and I want to eat more but I couldn't take another bite. So I have to put down the commentary and let my mind rest but I want to read more. But I do need to rest and let my mind rest because I couldn't outgrow the Scriptures.
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