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Stillness
One of the most ironic truths about the life of Jesus is that He was almost universally seen as a blasphemer by His contemporaries and yet…here is the ironic part…all He ever taught from was Scripture. Down through the previous centuries the Word of God had become so corrupted and thereby completely misunderstood that the Messiah that was clearly spoken of in God’s Word was executed by the very people He was so clearly sent to in God’s Word because they thought He was a blasphemer. It was all because they misunderstood Scripture. Now, some may think that such a thing would not be their fault. They can’t be blamed for improperly perceiving truth and I would agree with that to some degree. However, the real blame, as God also makes abundantly clear, rests on the shoulders of the leaders of the congregation and more specifically the religious leadership. But, let me say, fixing blame for the misunderstanding, misapplying and misappropriating of Scripture is not my intention. My intention here is to simply point out that we have the same problem today. People don’t properly understand their Bibles and the results have been disastrous, just as they were for those Israelites who called on Pilate to have Jesus executed.
The difference now, however, is that we have opportunity, ability and access to fix our ignorance. Certainly the task is not an easy one. The vast majority of us today know only translations of Scripture. A very small number of us can speak the original languages of the Bible and no one does so natively. Sure there are people who were born into a Greek speaking or Hebrew speaking culture but remember, these documents are many centuries old and, for the most part, these languages are different than they were when the ink was still drying on those original pages. The point is, we must work to find the full meaning of these Sacred Books. Admittedly, there are portions of Scripture whose meaning still escape even the experts but that should only drive us even harder. After all, we love the Man that is spoken of here and no amount of effort is excessive when compared to the joy of discovering Him.
For millennia, Psalm 37 has comforted many an anxious child of God. However, can I say that perhaps we in our time may have been robbed of some of its beauty. Many of us today don’t derive the same peace that those closer to the original language may have. Again, can I say, it’s no one’s fault but we can trace the source of the problem directly to a misunderstanding. “Rest in the Lord” seems like a very discomforting thing to do for us modern folk and then add in the next statement “and wait patiently for Him” and you have an all-out 21st Century meltdown. The last thing a present-day man or woman wants to do when in crisis is “rest”. Then try and include “wait” with a sprinkle of “patiently” and you no longer have a comforting Psalm, you have a frustrating command.
Now, normally I don’t go for placating the modern masses but this is so discordant it’s worth investigating and that’s what we try to do in today’s episode. If you love God’s Word and want to get the most out of it you can, might I suggest joining us for this podcast. Perhaps you’ll see that taking an extra step in investigating Scripture is a worthwhile endeavor in your overall pursuit of getting close to God.
However, before you do anything else, take a moment or two and go to God in prayer and ask Him to help you gain a greater understanding of what Scripture is saying to you. Let God know that all of this is important to you. Convince Him that you want to get to know Him better and ask Him to send His Spirit to guide you into ALL Truth.