June 17 - Search The Scriptures.

John 5:39
“Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.”
 
Here we find Jesus in the temple rebuking the Jews that went to John the Baptist as he shined his light as the forerunner of Jesus Christ yet they did not believe. He was not the Light, but it was his task to bear witness of the Light of Christ in the darkness of the world around him. Is this not our job as well today? We can learn much from John the Baptist. He never pointed to himself, but he pointed people to Christ. He thought of himself lowly, so much so that he said he was not worthy to unloose the latchet of Christ’s shoes. He was humble.
 
The Jews of our text had witnessed the outcome of the man who was healed at the Pool of Bethesda. They saw him who had been unable to walk for thirty-eight years now walking carrying his bed on the Sabbath. They harassed him, saying he it was unlawful. They persecuted both the healed and the Healer.
 
Then the Preacher of all Preachers uses them as an example for all of us today. We read of Him telling them that the privilege of searching the Holy Scriptures is not limited to just one group or a few people. Jesus tells these Jews who did not believe John’s message that the Scriptures tell of how to obtain eternal life. These people had boasted of reading the Scriptures daily, yet they missed the message.
 
Matthew Henry said, “It is possible for men to be very studious in the letter of the Scripture, and yet to be strangers to the power and influence of it.”
 
There were men like this during the days that Christ walked on this earth, and there are still likeminded people within our churches today. They read, study and search the Word for their own glory – to prove how much they know. They glorify themselves instead of the only One worthy of glory, honour, and praise. Let us allow this group to be an example to us of what to avoid in our walk with the Lord.
 
James 1:22-26
“But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain.”
 
I Corinthians 2:9-10,14
“But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God…But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”
 
We can experience the power and influence of the Word of God through yielding to the Holy Spirit as we read, as we study, and as we search the Scriptures.
 
 
Bible Reading:
II Kings 11-12  |  Galatians 6  |  Psalm 138