What do you do with scripture that you don’t understand or even worse scripture you struggle to believe is true? Does it shake your foundation of faith? Does it make you wonder if some scripture is not correct or has not been translated properly?
I think about Job and all he went through. The reason appears to be the God wanted to show Satan what real faith is. That’s hard teaching. Even harder to me is all 12 of his children were killed in this story. It is true that Job had other children later to replace them, but those 12 people were dead. That is harder teaching to me.
How about Moses. He leads thousands of whining, complaining people for 40 years in the dessert. When he went to the mountain to get the Ten Commandments even his brother Aaron build a golden calf for the people to worship. He lived under constant strain. When they were at the end of the journey Moses struck a rock against God’s direction. After 40 years of service that one act kept him out of the promise land and Joshua became their leader. That is hard teaching to me.
However, the Bible says that all scripture is true and to be used for teaching. I have learned that when I come across scripture that is hard for me to understand God has simply not given me the ability to understand at this time. After all He is God. His truth is His truth. He said His ways are not our ways. So, I have come to this; if I don’t understand it or actually disagree with it, the fact is it is God’s truth and when He feels I need to understand it He will give me the understanding.
People have asked me what my life verse is. It is John 6:68. In this chapter Jesus was giving a hard teaching. He told the crowd in John 6:48-51, “I am the bread of life…The bread that I will give you is my flesh, which I give so that the world may live”. The crowd responded, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” They did not understand what He meant. We look at scripture 2000 years after the events. We hear them over and over. We wonder why they don’t understand. They don’t understand because they haven’t been given “the eyes to see” at that point.
As this passage goes on many of His followers left because they could not understand. John 6:67 says, “So He asked the twelve disciples, ‘And you, would you also leave?” Then 6:68 (my life verse), “Simon Peter answered Him, ‘Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life. And now we believe and know that you are the Holy One who comes from God.”
To me that verse says it all; Lord, to whom would I go? He has given me the faith to “believe and know”. That is amazing to me; a faith that cannot be shaken by not understanding some detail. The “faith of a child” Jesus talked about. I am humbled and grateful.
I have been married for 51 years to a wonderful woman that is the polar opposite of me. I am structured and she is random. I am focused on detail and she is a visionary. Many times, both of us have struggled in this relationship. At this point, through many trials and deep valleys, we are closer to each other than ever, and better yet, closer to Him than ever. Only God could take two people so totally mismatched and make a ministry team out of them. He is truly amazing.
My point is when you don’t understand scripture, like God hates divorce, believe it is true. All scripture is there to teach us His ways, not our ways. The journey is amazing.
Christian Life Coach 