07/08/2018
How is it that we presume to know the mind of God? We think that by reading through God’s Word a single time that we have understanding of Him, and yet each time we revisit scripture something new is revealed to us about Him. Even scripture we have read many times over becomes new to us if we keep our hearts and minds open to His voice. How presumptuous are you?
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
Isaiah 55:8-9 ESV
Great Bible scholars don’t stop reading the Bible; they read it continuously for their entire lives, and commentary is good, but only to open our eyes to what has been understood about scripture by that author, and at that time. The most enlightened seekers of God’s Word not only read the scripture, and commentary, but devotional material too. Why is this? It is because they realize that no matter how brilliant they think they are, and how adept they are at understanding, the Bible is beyond their lone ability, and that quite often God reveals a mystery in His truth to others. God’s truth is like an onion which has a new layer beneath the one we currently see, and as we read, study, and listen, we find that new level of understanding which has been just out of sight... waiting to be shown to us.
“At that time Jesus declared, "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.”
Matthew 11:25-26 ESV
Children ask questions... have you ever been reading a story to a child, and as your read they asked you a question that stopped you in your tracks? I’m referring to those questions that suddenly reveal an insight they are having into the story that takes your own understanding of it deeper? So often we trivialize the questions of children, and when we do we are robbing ourselves of a new perspective on things that we might have gained had we simply asked ourselves... “why did they ask this?”
The Bible scholar that feels he understands the Word of God, is like the adult who hears a child’s question and trivializes it... they are shutting their mind to what God is revealing... they are presuming they understand the mind of God. In fact, God is continuously leading us, and teaching us, and quite often in ways that we don’t expect. The apostle Paul gives us a glimmer of insight into this while writing to the Thessalonians:
“Now concerning brotherly love you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another,”
1 Thessalonians 4:9 ESV
He is talking about the common knowledge of faith, the things that are taught to us in the early days; those things that are in the first layer of understanding. Thomas Jefferson referred to such things in the second paragraph of the United States Declaration of Independence with these words “We hold these truths to be self evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights...” These are basic understandings that he is speaking of, but much more lies beneath them, and God continues to open our minds to to his thoughts in this manner.
So God reveals his knowledge, wisdom, and yes Himself to us if we keep seeking, and open our every sense to Him as we do so. When we bring ourselves to the point where we finally realize that our deepest and most guarded intellectual understanding of Him is but a simple thought, and that there can be untold truth yet to be mined from even the simple questions asked by the most innocent child, then we have unlocked a key door into What God would have us know. God teaches us today, and through eternity, about Himself with no regard for the size of the jar into which He pours His wisdom.
“Your testimonies are wonderful; therefore my soul keeps them. The unfolding of your words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple.”
Psalms 119:129-130 ESV
Prayer:
Father, I thank you for the revelations you give me into your Self, and the Holy Spirit that leads me to know your Word and your will. Thank you Holy Father for my desire to know you more, and the heart of a child that is ever open, and not yet sealed by what I believe to be irrefutable truth. I thank you for the understanding you give to the simple, and those who I don’t expect such things of. Help me Gracious Father to better understand that you come to all people, and reveal yourself equally to each of us; for you have made every one of us, and we suit your purposes equally. Help me to see your wisdom in all men and women despite their station in life, the intelligence you have given them, or any other manner in which I might come to hold myself separate from them. Don’t let my lowly station in life, my great wealth, my lack of intelligence, or my most advanced intellect close the door to the thoughts of others, because you come to each of us, and pour your selfsame understanding into every vessel... despite its shape. You divide the same good wine amongst all the vessels that would receive it. Great are you my God, and Perfect is your love for each of your children. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you who shares equally of your understanding, and of yourself.
Rich Forbes