John 10:6: “Jesus used this illustration, but they did not understand the things which He spoke to them.”

March 17th, 2022 by Pastor Ed in devotional

It should be encouraging to us that even though Jesus clearly spoke great truths about Himself to His Disciples, they often did not immediately understand His meaning. This still happens to us today when we read Jesus’ words, which are so clear and simple. At first we think we understand them, but later find they contain deeper truths that we completely missed. Sometimes we even find that we missed the most significant point in His entire lesson. The reality is that Scripture is stacked with layers upon layers of truth. Some have said the Bible is like an onion. You can carefully examine the outer layer and think you completely understand it, but if you look a little longer, lifting up the edge, you find yet another layer beneath it. Careful students go deeper and deeper through all of God’s word.

In the early days of the 1849 California gold rush, men and women panned for tiny gold fragments that drifted down into the streambeds around Sacramento. But soon, wiser minds thought of heading upstream to find where the gold was originating from, and uncovered rich veins of the precious metal in the near-by mountainsides. We should approach the riches of the Word of God in a similar way. Rather that being satisfied with bits of truth, gathered here and there through the casual reading of the Scripture, we should make a more careful and diligent study, because that is how the great treasures troves of godly truth and wisdom are opened up to us. The Lord wants us to carefully study His word so that the Holy Spirit can reveal new, deeper truths hidden for us. His promise still holds true: if we seek Him, we will find Him.

“LORD, we choose to seek You in Your word this day. Word of God, please speak to us.”