As
I mentioned last week, this year I am taking a little different approach to my
daily reading, which has had more of an impact already than expected. My approach for the past few years has been
to focus on reading all the way through the Bible each year, and cutting
against that grain feels a little odd.
But I’m finding it is already paying some dividends.
This
year I am working through a reading plan that will have me reading the Old
Testament, with the New Testament my goal next year. This means that I am reading quite a bit less
than I’m accustomed to … and it feels a little odd, to be honest. With that said, what I’m finding is that it
affords me an ability to take my time reading through stuff and letting it soak
in a little more. This reading plan
includes a section of the historic books, a section of the poetic books, and a
section of the prophetic books each day.
That means this week I’ve read Genesis 1 – 5, Psalms 1 – 5, and Joshua 1
– 5 (through the first five days of 2014).
As
I reflected about my reading this week, a passage hit me that will be a great
reminder as I go through the Word this year in particular. Coupled with the series our senior pastor is
kicking off the next couple years, I felt God telling me something that I need
to remember … the passage is in Genesis 3.
Note that this is a section where Satan successfully tempts Adam and Eve
into directly disobeying God and eating the fruit from the forbidden tree. Check out what happens here (Genesis 3:1 – 3,
NLT) …
The serpent was the shrewdest
of all the wild animals the Lord God had made. One day he asked the woman, “Did
God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the
garden?” “Of course we may eat fruit
from the trees in the garden,” the woman replied. “It’s only the fruit from the tree in the
middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said, ‘You must not eat it or even touch
it; if you do, you will die.’”
There
are many, many very excellent commentaries on this passage, so I have no right
trying to take on far more educated individuals who have dissected it. But, what I find interesting is what Eve said
when Satan pushed on her and Adam. First
of all, remember that when God instructed Adam
about not eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, Eve wasn’t
there. She hadn’t been created just
yet. Genesis 2 points out in verses 15 –
17 …
The Lord God placed the man
in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it. But the Lord God warned him, “You may
freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden— except the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.”
In
the next verse, God says that it’s not good for man to be alone and then causes
a deep sleep to come upon Adam, at which time God creates Eve. So, Eve was responding but not from direct
knowledge. Even more interesting, look
at what Eve said in chapter 3 … “It’s only the fruit form the tree in the
middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said, ‘You must not eat it or even touch
it; if you do, you will die.’” Look back
at what God said in chapter 2 … God did NOT say “or even touch it.” He just told Adam (without Eve there, mind
you) that he wasn’t allowed to EAT the fruit from the tree.
Here
how these passages spoke to me. First,
it’s very dangerous for us to go through life as Christians supposing what God
said, without knowing directly. This is
another reason why we MUST read our Bibles regularly. Otherwise, we, like Eve, will get caught
unprepared for the inevitable attacks we get from the enemy. And … we will fail, and we will fall.
The
second thing that struck me really hit home.
Not only was Eve ill-prepared for the attack because of her lack of
direct knowledge, but she added to
God’s very direct instructions. This is
a very, very dangerous act, and one, I’m afraid, we’re subject to fairly often
as well. How? Well, anytime that we add to God’s Word, we
teeter on a very dangerous edge. It
could be via adding words or concepts that don’t exist, twisting together
concepts that shouldn’t be comingled, or adding practices or traditions to
God’s Word. Those are all ways that
cults have arisen over the centuries and, sadly, many have been led to hell.
Another
danger is in looking at what IS NOT in God’s Word, rather than what IS in God’s
Word. This can be a source of a great
deal of disagreement or division. In
fact, just a couple weeks ago I had a pretty terse argument with a couple
buddies because of what the Bible doesn’t say in terms of the creation
account. Instead of us focusing on what
the Bible does say, and rejoicing in the love, power, creativity and joy of
God’s creation, we bumped heads on whether or not it all happened in six
literal days or six periods of time. At
the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter … and we were arguing over
something God didn’t see fit to specify in His Word. He is certainly able and capable of doing so,
but for whatever reason, He chose not to.
There
are a great many such topics that we humans get stuck on. We look between the lines and try to figure
out things God didn’t intend for us to figure out. Instead of honing in on what He did say, and
as the Bible instructs us being “doers of the word, and not hearers of the word
only” (my paraphrase of James 1:22), we try to nitpick what the word says. Worse still, we try to hold other people
accountable to these between-the-lines concepts rather than holding ourselves
accountable to what the lines actually do say.
As
we set off this year into whatever journey into God’s Word we choose to take,
let’s be sure to really take care to know what it says, accurately, and
directly. Let’s not rely on what others
tell us or what we think it says. Let’s
dig into the Word directly ourselves so we can know. God promises we will if we diligently seek
to. Let’s also focus on what the Bible
says, not pursue conjecture about what it doesn’t say. If God didn’t say something, there’s just as
much a reason as there was a reason He did say what He said. (boy that’s a rough sentence) Let’s keep it simple … that’s how He intended
it.
Praying
for you this week … that our Father will speak to you powerfully and plainly
through His Word.
In
the strong love of Jesus, the living, breathing Word of God,
MR
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