With an Open Mind....Realize it was written years ago, filled with timeless wisdom on how to best live This Life.
As such it is written on many levels and each level conveys it own meaning...one story has many levels of meaning
What is This Life...Primarily This Life is Subjective therefore Mental but Life itself is eternal thereby Spiritual - Consciousness.
Thought we be mental in the here and now we mostly recognize and give attention to our physical existence...and that is the level on which we perceive the bible starts. Our Physical existence is set in a Social Context which is Objective where in we have to deal with other physical beings.
When we begin This Life our first contact is usually with Mother/Father/Parental figures and Siblings or others that play that role as the case maybe from the Mental to the personal to the familial to the tribal to the national etc, in other words the Objective view of Life is reinforce and valued above the Subjective life - The Fall. On the purely Physical level the bible can seem cruel archaic and capricious but one must strive to find the moral or ethic hidden within each law story or tradition that the bible tells - warns of or recommends. If we find the commonality which runs through each and every story the we have reach the sublime the beginning of the Divine.
Always remember that the physical (meanings) is temporary and subject to Time and Place whilst the Mental and Spiritual (meaning) is Eternal and Omnipresent. One must strive to find the Spirit within every story, law, tradition and prophecy.
Bon Voyage it is one of the greatest journeys you will undertake - be unafraid to challenged common assertions.