Section 2: The Bible
Week 2: The Bible Is Clear
Day `2: God Want Us to Understand Him
Deut. 6:1-7
The Bible Wasn’t Written in Code
Most of us have purchased something online. Hopefully you made those purchases over a secure network. When you make a purchase using an unsecure network, all of the data passes over the network unencrypted. That means anyone armed with the proper technology could get their hands on the information and read your credit card number, passwords, etc. Many websites, however, add a layer of security that encrypts all of the data. That means someone would need to know the key in order to decipher it. Without that key, your credit card number and passwords are just useless jumbles of letters and numbers.
Some think the Bible works the same way. We need to know the code in order to decipher the hidden message. That’s why there are books with titles like: The Bible Code, Bible Code Bombshell, and Cracking the Bible Code.
But, when you think about it, that doesn’t make any sense. You use encryption and codes to keep people from understanding the message. That’s the exact opposite of what God wants to do. As we said yesterday, God specifically wants to communicate with us. So it only makes sense that he would ensure the Bible was written is such a way that we could actually understand it.
You Don’t Need a Seminary Degree to Understand the Bible
Most of us realize the Bible wasn’t written in code. Nevertheless, many of us still assume we can’t understand it. A book on quantum physics may not be written in code. That doesn’t mean I’m going to understand it, though. I’d need to know a whole lot more about physics to get anything out of it. And since I’m not going back to school to become a physicist any time soon, I’m better off leaving books like that to the experts.
In a similar way, many of us assume we need a seminary degree to understand the Bible. But that’s not true. The Bible was written to ordinary people. Take Paul’s letters (Romans, Ephesians, Philippians, etc.), for example. They were written to specific churches and were intended to be read and understood by everyone in the church, not just the pastors and theologians. Why? Because God wanted the entire church to understand him.
The same is true today. God wants you to understand him. That’s why he made sure the Bible was written in such a way that you can understand it.
Challenge:
Read Philippians 2:1-11.
Reflection Questions:
How would you summarize that passage? Do you have questions about certain parts? Despite those questions, were you able understand the basic point? Did you need a code or seminary degree? Why not?
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