Meaning

Try and read the following.  It is not a computer glitch and I have not suddenly become illiterate.  I ran across this in one of my files and I thought this was interesting:

I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulacity

uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg.  The phanonmneal

pweor of the hmuan mnid aoccdrnig to a

rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn’t

mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are,

the olny iprmoatant tihng is taht the frist and

lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae.  The rset can be

a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a

porbelm.  Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not

raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a

wlohe.  Amzanig huh?  yaeh and I awlyas thgougt

slpeling was ipmorantt

When we study Scripture, we often search for meaning through the original language, what the speaker said, and what the original hearers heard.  Yet, I often wonder if we are missing something.  The reason I ponder this is because centuries after Moses, the religious scholars were arguing over their interpretation of what God gave to Moses.  Then when Jesus showed up, they all had a problem with His interpretation.

I am not bashing scholarship because I think it is important, and we should not be ignorant (II Timothy 2:15).  (By the way, I appreciate my spell checker).  What I am pondering is that language and meaning can be incredibly challenging between natives, but how much more between God and man.

In the marriage seminars that I have attended, one of the biggest hurdles that a couple has to overcome is communication.  This is why I marvel at how incredibly brilliant God is in communicating His message.  He knew that the written and verbal word would be misunderstood, so He thought of a way to overcome this obstacle.  This is why John writes:

In the beginning was The Word, and The Word was with God, and The Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning…The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us…The One and Only Son, who is Himself God and is in closest relationship with The Father, has made Him known” (John 1:1, 2, 14, 18).

The writer of Hebrews adds, “In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days, He has spoken to us by His Son…[who is] the exact representation of His being…” (Hebrews 1:1-3).

Through the Biblical writers, I hear God saying, in case you don’t understand what I said, I will come and not only repeat what I said, but demonstrate what I mean in Person.  Then when Jesus came, He said, “I am He” (Matthew 5:17, my paraphrase).

Jesus’ interpretation of Scripture produced many conflicts.  Yet, I see no lack of clarity in Jesus.  Jesus claimed that He knew God and had a relationship with Him (John 10:30); Jesus knew scripture and embodied it (John 5:39); Jesus was confident in His interpretation of scripture (Matthew 5:21-22, 27-28, 31-34, 38-39, 43-44) and He understood it in the context of life (Matthew 7:24-27).

If we want to see God, scripture, and life clearly, and the biblical writers calls us to “fix our eyes and thoughts on Jesus” (Hebrews 3:1, 12:2).  Jesus Himself invites us to “come to Me and learn from Me, I will take away your stress, exhaustion, and confusion” (Matthew 11:28-31, my paraphrase again).

A couple of weeks ago John reminded us that God’s gift to us is Jesus.  He also reminded us of Paul’s words: “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ” (Ephesians 1:3).

If we are not blessed in every area of our lives, let us be like the wise men and continue to seek Him.