Well for one this wasn't my first time reading through the bible. It was also not the longest time I've dedicated to the bible.
Nevertheless, I believe the Bible is to be approached as a source of secrets which are revealed only after study and understanding. I don't mean that by simply reading it slowly that secrets will leap out of the page. More that one has to look for keywords encoded in the text whose letters are equidistant from each other (known as ELS).
As an example, when I studied just the book of Genesis, I found a large collection of words encoded in there that were all related by a theme. That theme was the "First Key" by Basillius Valentinus.
I recommend using a website like divinecoders.com. Here you can search for keywords that are encoded in the books of the Bible. Of course you can find many many individual words in almost any book encoded this way. However, your chances of finding say 5 words in say the book of Genesis that are ALL RELATED is very very low. For example, let us say that you wanted to search for names of flowers. You might easily find ONE example, say Rose, encoded in Genesis, but your chances of also finding Pansy, Lily, Daffodil and Daisy are almost nil.
Yet through diligent study of other works I have been able to find some 12+ words that are all key words associated with the "First Key" of Basillius Valentinus. That is statistically incredible. It confirms to me that which I already understand, which is the true meaning of the opening passages of Genesis (which is not about the creation of the universe as such).
The answers are all there for those who seek but the journey is, at least for me, slow and hard and only snippets of secrets are revealed at a time. The entirety of them is found collectively in many many works I believe which is why I have studied 100s of texts and treatises of the sages and philosophers and the tomes of other religions such as the Rig Vedas.
Seek and you WILL find imo.
