Rushdoony on the Bible

"Too often, the modern theologian and churchman goes to the Bible seeking insight, not orders.  Indeed, I may go to Calvin, Luther, Augustine, and others, to scholars Christian and non-Christian, for insights, for data, and for learned studies, but when I go to the Bible I must go to hear God's marching orders for my life.  I cannot treat the Bible as a devotional manual designed to give me peace of mind or a 'higher plane' of living: it is a command book which can disturb my peace with its orders, and it tells me that I can only find peace in obeying the Almighty.  The Bible is not an inspirational book for my personal edification, nor a book of beautiful thoughts and insights for my pleasure.  It is the word of the sovereign and Almighty God: I must hear and obey, I must believe and be faithful, because God requires it. I am his property, and His absolute possession.  There can be nothing better than that.  To be my own property and possession in a meaningless world is the ultimate in misery and grief.  But when the great and high God, possessor of heaven and earth (Gen. 14:19, 22), makes me His elect possession by the adoption of grace through Jesus Christ, I must answer to His every enscriptured word, "Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth" (I Sam. 3:9-10). This is God's calling and requirement of me, and it is my privilege to hear and obey, for His word is life, and it is health (Ps. 119)."--pgs. 691-692, Institutes of Biblical Law, volume 2, by R. J. Rushdoony