You've probably heard people
make the comment, "I've read the Bible
but I just don't understand
it." The word of God tells us how God says to understand the
Bible. There is a very important starting position that we
need to have first. First, we need to be humble enough
to know that we will never understand everything! But, more
importantly it is to understand that, "without faith it is impossible to please God, for he that
comes to Him must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of
them that diligently seek him." Hebrews 11:6
This explains to us that there has to be some faith
involved.
There is another aspect as well.
Some say that they understand 99% of what is in the Bible!
Obviously, that is untrue and impossible. The real starting place if you want to
understand the Bible is in Isaiah
66:2. "For all those things my hand has made, and all things
exist says the eternal. But on this one will I look, on him
who is poor and of a contrite spirit and who trembles at my word."
If you seriously want to understand the Bible, you need to have a
healthy respect for God. You
also need to understand that God is an individual being with an
individual will with an individual personality and that He has a
real plan for human beings.
DO YOU WANT TO
UNDERSTAND TRUTH?
But most importantly, Isaiah 28:9 tells us from the mouth of God
what we need to know.
"Whom shall He teach knowledge, and whom shall He make to understand
doctrine? (teaching) Them that are weaned from the milk and drawn
from the breast. (In other words, you can't be a novice) For precept
must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line
upon line, here a little and there a little...
For example if you wanted to
understand what the Bible
teaches about death, you would find every
place that a word or concept is mentioned in the Bible. Just take a
concordance (from a bookstore, online or even right here on
our website) and you can look up every
place in the Bible
where the word death is mentioned or any term
even related to death. Then you can see what the Bible
says
about it as a whole. That is how you reach the proper
consensus about what the work of God teaches about death.
That is what Isaiah 28 is telling us
to do. "For with stammering lips and
with another tongue (language) will I speak to this people.
Today we have many translations of the Bible. There may be
mistakes and errors in the translations, but if you look at the
Bible
as a whole using the principle of "precept on precept"
mistranslation will not trip you up if you look at
it as a whole. "With a stammering lip and in another language
will I speak to this people." Languages evolve. Even the
English language has evolved over the centuries. When the Bible
was
written, obviously it was not written in English. The old
testament was written primarily in Hebrew. The book of Daniel
was written in Chaldean. The New Testament was originally written in
Hebrew and we only have the transcribed Aramaic and Greek
copies, which were translated into Latin later. All
this is a proof of the Bible. A fulfillment of prophecy.
"For with stammering lips and with another tongue
(language) will I speak to this people." The
point being that some things are hidden in
translation.
PRECEPT ON
PRECEPT...how to understand the Bible!
"To whom He said is this rest which He
may cause the weary to rest, and this is the refreshing, yet, they
would not hear, yet the word of the Eternal was to them precept upon
precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little and there a
little that they might go backwards and might be caught broken and
snared and caught."
God has actually hidden His truth in
the Bible
to a certain extent from anyone that is a novice. In
Hebrews the 5th chapter, it talks about the fact that everyone who
uses milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness, for he is a
baby, but strong meat belongs to them that are of full age, even
those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil."
They learn to judge good and evil by reading their Bibles.
2 Timothy 2:15 says that
we should
study to show ourselves approved unto God, a workman that needs
not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth."
But, we
have to remember, that if we
can rightly divide the truth, then we can
also divide it wrong. This scripture mentions discerning
between good and evil. The "tree of the knowledge of good and
evil" from the book of Genesis, is really about the tremendous
amount of information that man has been given by Satan. Some
of it is actually good, and a lot of bad is mixed in too.
Satan has given men much information,
but it has caused us great confusion about what is really right and wrong.
The true purpose of the Bible, is to help us discern good from bad,
and right from wrong...how to grow up spiritually. How to go
on to completion or maturity.
For example, the 6th chapter of Hebrews
gives
us the basic doctrines of Christ and says that we are "to go on to
perfection" which means completion. Going on to
perfection or completion is the strong meat that the writer of Hebrews mentioned.
Strong meat is not the simple things that a novice would do.
The doctrines of Christ in Hebrews 6 are the first steps
that we take on our journey to maturity as a Christian. But, the fifth chapter tells us
when we have really come to true perfection or completion. It
says, "Strong meat belongs to them that are of full age,
even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil."