God brought this verse to my attention while going through a recent Bible study. Then, further in the study He challenged me to question whether or not God's Word was really sufficient for me. Is It (the Bible) enough to teach me or do I rely God speaking to other people to teach me about Him? I am not in any way suggesting that doing Bible studies or listening to sermons or reading Christian books is sinful or harmful. However, I think that lately I've been using it as a crutch, especially as a "new" tired mother. So many days I find myself sitting down and doing my quiet time out of obedience and not necessarily desire. I get lazy because I'm tired. I feel like the life is literally being sucked out of me from so many different angles. So rather than ask God to open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in His law, I open a Christian book or Bible study and rely on them to do the hard work of studying the Bible for me. There are many times when I think that this is perfectly okay. This is just my opinion, but there are times in life when you need those resources to guide you or you need the encouragement from someone who has been there. God gives spiritual gifts such as teaching and preaching to equip Christians. If He didn't want us to take full advantage of those people's insights from the Holy Spirit than He wouldn't have given them in the first place.
However, I shouldn't just be growing in His Word when I am in a Bible study. Yes, there are times when I may be spiritually dry and I am just not finding the meat in the Bible. I don't want to use that as an excuse though to pick up another Bible study.
"For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart." ~Hebrews 4:12
"All (emphasis mine) Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." ~2 Tim. 3:16
God is challenging me to dig a little deeper and allow His Holy Spirit to teach my directly through His Word. That is difficult to do because I just finished Exodus and the end of Exodus is full of God's instructions to Moses about all of the measurements and specifications of how the Tabernacle is to be built. It's kinda hard for me to read through that stuff. I can't say that it's exactly my favorite part of the Bible. However, this morning I started Leviticus. Another book not often cited, but I want to read through the Old Testament. The first 3 chapters are about how the Israelites were to make offerings. I won't say that my revelation this morning was anything life-changing, but definitely a reminder of what a true sacrificial offering is. This may be weird, but the following was honestly my conversation with God this morning as I was reading the first 3 chapters of Leviticus:
"God, I don't understand why these poor innocent animals had to be slaughtered because of the sin of humans. It just seems kind of unfair." (side note here: Yes, I could never survive on a farm, even though my husband is trying to convincing me that we should have farm animals.)
"Lauren, isn't that the same that happened with you? Didn't you really deserve to be slaughtered on that altar because of your sin? Wasn't it the Lamb of God who took your place on the cross?"
"I guess so, Lord. I deserve the punishment of sin, not your Son. Your Son was blameless, without defect, and Jesus was the only acceptable sacrifice to you."
That is what you call a Holy Spirit blow to my spiritual gut. Once again proving that God's Word is sufficient to teach me. The original point of the text in Leviticus was to provide instruction to the Israelites about bringing an acceptable sacrifice, not necessarily to teach them about Christ. It was written hundreds of years before Christ walked the earth. Yet, God's Word is living and active and He can use His Holy Spirit through His Word to teach me whatever He wants me to get that day.
Lord, open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in Your law.
And my eyes Too!
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