Between the Lines

Ever wonder why the Bible is so cryptic sometimes?  I mean really, why couldn't it just be a straight forward, do this-don't do that kind of manual? 

Well let's see what scripture has to say about that.

Matthew 16:8-12(NKJV)

8But Jesus, being aware of it, said to them, “O you of little faith, why do you reason among yourselves because you £have brought no bread? 

9Do you not yet understand, or remember the five loaves of the five thousand and how many baskets you took up? 

10Nor the seven loaves of the four thousand and how many large baskets you took up? 

11How is it you do not understand that I did not speak to you concerning bread?—but to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” 

12Then they understood that He did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

Here we have an example of the disciples taking a parable too literally.  And what does Jesus essentially tell them to do?  Read between the lines.  Think it through.  Don't take everything so literally.

But again why is it like that?  Now I'm not going to presume to speak for God so I am just going to give you my guess.  It has to do with diligently seeking.  The Bible in general and Proverbs in particular are filled with exhortations for us to diligently seek Gods will for our lives and we do that through prayer and being in the Word. 

And as we have looked at before, the word diligent indicates that our seeking will take some work.  We are expected to dig and search.  I believe  that this is one of the ways that God uses to judge our hearts as to how much we truly seek and treasure His word.  The more we seek, the more that is revealed to us. 

Think about it.  Someone who spends 5 hours a week in the Word is going to understand God at a much deeper level than someone who is only in the Word  on Sunday at church.  Now there are some that would say that isn't fair but I think it is entirely fair, and Biblical.  There are many scriptures that tells us the rewards in life are generally going to be in proportion to what you put into life.  It's no different in our study of God's word.

So in short, it's part of God's great plan.  He knew how important the diligent struggle is to growth.  He could have just laid it all out but that would have eliminated the struggle which would have made us weaker, not stronger.  And that's just not how God operates.