Week 29
Luke 24:45 “Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.”
We confess humbly our denseness of understanding, our dullness of biblical perception. How often do we read the Scriptures, and we draw little, if any, spiritual nourishment from them. This is not to suggest that the Scriptures hold no nourishment for the soul; rather, the Word of God is to be desired more than our daily bread, according to Jesus (Matthew 4:4). It is by the spiritual digestion of God’s precious truth that our hungry souls are fed. We find in the sacred pages of Scripture the precious Lord Jesus and all that He offers us as our faithful and loving Shepherd. He governs us by the Word of God, He feeds us by the Word of God, He corrects us by the Word of God, and He comforts and sustains us by the Word of God. Wise and happy is the Christian who seeks to prayerfully meditate on the Scriptures for the profit of his soul.
But our text reminds us of something we must come to understand as we seek to rightly perceive and feed on the Word of God: we need the Lord to open our understanding if we are to nourish our souls on truth in the Word of God.
The passage says that Jesus opened their minds that they might understand the Word of the Lord, the Scriptures, and that by understanding the Scriptures they might be able to bear witness with power the message of the gospel to the world that sinners would come to experience the forgiveness of sin (Luke 24:47-49).
One of the important characteristics and requirements for understanding the Scriptures and growing in truth is HUMILITY. There is nothing more distasteful and Pharisaical in a Christian’s life than to believe that he or she knows the Scripture better than anyone else. How ugly it is to find some Christians who elevate themselves above others as the ones who have the true truth of the Scripture. These think that everyone should sit at their feet and learn from their wisdom. The Lord hates this attitude! How much better it is to understand that we are dependent upon the Lord’s mercy to help us understand the Scriptures. Understanding does not simply involve rightly defining the words and syntax of the grammatical structure of the sentences in Scripture. A right understanding includes SEEING or PERCEIVING the message conveyed by the passage of Scripture. This requires prayer, meditation on the passage, and the blessing of the Lord to open the eyes of our hearts to rightly understand the truth.
Thus, we should PURSUE the Lord Jesus as we study His Word. We should SEEK His leadership and guidance that we might benefit spiritually in our souls from the reading and study of His Word. We do this by PRAYER and SUBMISSION to the Scriptures. As we do this, we are yielding to the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the essential nature of discipleship.
So, let us study our Bibles, and let us submit ourselves to Jesus as we study for His glory and will to be done.
Prayer: Dear Lord, help me to seek You in the Word of God, the Scriptures. And deliver me from pride and arrogance when I come to understand the truth. Rather, help me to praise You and give You the glory.
