Hebrews 5:11

 

Hebrews 5:11

You no longer try to understand

There is a frustration voiced here that will be familiar to most Bible scholars and teachers.  Students of the Word of God who delve into its secrets for the blessing of others, constantly find themselves “banging their heads against a brick wall!” because there is so much truth, so much to be revealed. Every hour spent in digging deeper into the layers of revelation in the Word, only serves to uncover yet more mysteries and deeper strata of understanding and knowledge. This Book is infinite in its complexity and like the stars in the sky, its Creator just has more and more to reveal to us, we know we will never grasp it all in a single lifetime! Many of us look back and wonder how the attention we gave to Scripture in our younger years could have been so flippant and fleeting, now we can easily spend whole days uncovering its secrets. But the task is in some ways, thankless because we do not have the time or the ability to probe or fully comprehend the mind of God and that is what the Bible is, the full revelation of the Lord God to His people on earth, who are the crowning jewel of His creation. 

In the light of this, it is incredibly frustrating to commit to sharing the secrets of the Word with those who do not try to understand, who are content with their own shallow knowledge of the Truth and who show no desire to move on or to grasp some of the deeper riches of God’s revelation. The reasons are multiple; some are overwhelmed with other issues in their lives and simply cannot make time for study. Some are simply lazy and can’t be bothered. There are others whose minds cannot grasp the wonder of God’s Word because they do not have the faith to believe it! Some are so distracted with the world and all that it offers, even its knowledge, that they cannot grasp the supremacy of knowing the written heart and mind of God. 

Our journey with the Lord is always driven by and in tandem with faith. If our faith will not allow us to believe what God is saying, then we will find the journey tiresome and increasingly meaningless. The Lord has presented us with a volume of Scriptures that are His fullest revelation of how He thinks acts and speaks. Every word is up to date! It is impossible to grasp it all but there is no other book ever written that comes close and no other guide that will lighten our journey through this earthly life. We actually need no other books! The Word of God is a vast banqueting table where we are allowed to pick and choose and be nourished, where every human need is supplied and every scientific, philosophical, religious or intellectual question is answered but where we also need to establish a staple diet and the assistance of others to serve us some of the delights that are awaiting. Please do not let it be said of us, “they no longer try to understand!”

 

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