09/12/2018
Do you lean on your own understanding when you read scripture? Do you try to discern the meaning of God’s Word by your own insufficient intellect? The apostles had Jesus right there with them, and yet they were so often confused by what He said, and had to have it repeated and explained. It was not until the Holy Spirit came into them that they were truly enlightened.
“Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."”
John 8:12 ESV
The meaning of this scripture sounds so apparent, yet when Jesus spoke these words to the Pharisees they didn’t understand and asked him a question that would be asked often of Him...
“They said to him therefore, "Where is your Father?" Jesus answered, "You know neither me nor my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father also."”
John 8:19 ESV
We understand this because we have the benefit of years of Spirit filled believers to reveal it to us, but even as the disciples heard Jesus say these words, His disciples did not understand. We know this because later in chapter fourteen we hear Thomas ask Him a question about where He is going... listen...
“Thomas said to him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?" Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him."”
John 14:5-7 ESV
And what was the disciple’s response to this? Well, Phillip asked Him yet again to explain Himself with this statement...
“Philip said to him, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us."”
John 14:8 ESV
And Jesus answered him once more, and wrapped His answer in a couple of questions that showed He was a bit put out by their inability to grasp what He was saying.
“Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'?”
John 14:9 ESV
Jesus told the Pharisees who He was, He told Thomas who He was, and now He is telling Phillip who He is. Three times He delivers the same message and yet they don’t grasp His meaning. Once we have accepted that Jesus and God are one and the same, then this appears to be so easily understood, but that understanding didn’t come to us by our own wisdom, but through generations of Spirit filled interpretation. I think Andrew Murray says this well when He writes...
“The written Word can be made void and ineffective when we trust human wisdom for its understanding. When it is accepted as the seed in which the life of the living Word is hidden - made alive by the Holy Spirit - it becomes the Word of life to us.” - Andrew Murray
So there are a couple of wonderful pieces of wisdom here that will help us study the Word of God. First, is that without the Holy Spirit to guide us we can stand right next to the Word of life and still not see it clearly. Jesus tells us this Himself...
“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”
John 14:26 ESV
The second piece of knowledge we can gain here is that scripture is not meant to be our superficial guide to living, but the very essence of our life. God’s Word IS LIFE!
Why does your mother’s cooking taste so good? If you have been married for a long time you can also ask yourself why it is that your wife’s cooking tastes so much better now than it did when you were first married. Some folks say that it is because of the love they put into it, and it is my belief that they aren’t far off. My wife makes a wonderful meatloaf, and my children get excited whenever they smell it cooking; even though they are grown now it is one of their favorite meals. On a couple of occasions I have attempted to make it when she was either sick, or out of the house for some reason. I get down her cookbook, turn to the recipe that she hand wrote into it as her mother dictated it to her, and put the ingredients together just as it says. Then I bake it at the exact temperature and for just the right amount of time... but when served it doesn’t taste the same. There is something missing... perhaps it is the love. When we read the Bible using only our intellect it is much the same as my making meatloaf... we lack something, it doesn’t taste the same, there is something missing.
We do our best to understand God’s Word with our own intellect, but it is like that meatloaf... it looks the same, smells the same, and our anticipation of it is the same, but when we put it in our mouth it lacks something. It lacks the understanding and inflection of the Holy Spirit. Here is one more example...
When I was in the sixth grade our teacher would reward the class if we completed all of our work for a day. She did this by opening her desk drawer, pulling out one of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books from the “Little House on the Prairie” series, and reading to us. She would sit on the front of her desk, turn to where she had last left off, and for thirty minutes or so she would transport us into another world. It was magic. Her voice, her inflection, her ability to convey the truth and the imagery was indescribable... and we hung on her every word. I lived another life each time she read to us. Since then, I have attempted to read these books on my own, but it was never the same, and eventually I would lose interest... I never completed a single volume again.
Scripture as it is revealed by the Holy Spirit is similar to my teacher’s reading... it conveys meaning and understand that mere words repeated by our mouths, by way of our minds, and our intellects, can’t draw from the type on the page. The Holy Spirit takes the black and red words on the page, and transforms them into the Living Word of God. What our minds were treating superficially, as if they were a slipping into a sweater, the Holy Spirit made into my wife’s meatloaf... something to be ingested, savored, and that would nourished us in our lives forever.
So how do you read the Bible, and will you continue to use your own intellect to navigate its pages? We should always begin our reading and study by calling the Holy Spirit to our side, and asking Him
To read to us. We should let Him sit on the desk of our mind and take us into the presence of Jesus, and God. Are you ready to be enthralled, amazed, brought into a state of wonder and awe? Are you prepared to taste my wife’s meatloaf with all the love baked into it?
Prayer:
Father, I thank you for your Word, and I thank you for your Holy Spirit that brings it to life in me. I thank you Father for taking my childish understanding and making it rich and full; for taking what I thought was truth, and revealing the unfathomable depth of it to me. Holy Father, you are the flavor and texture of my life that I can’t find by my own intellectual pursuit... you are made of more than the tangible, and can only be revealed through your Spirit within us. Speak into me Merciful Father, and fill this vessel with the perfect wine of your Holy Spirit. Empty me of myself, and pour your Word, your Life into the void. Help me Father to make you the focus of my life, and the essence of who I am. Help me to hear all of the inflection and wisdom in your Word as it does more than cover me, but fills me with its wonder. You are worthy of praise Lord, and my voice shall shout of your greatness and glory, even as my life lives it out. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you my God who pours Life into this empty vessel by the hand of Your Spirit.
Rich Forbes