How can you say, “We are wise,
Jeremiah 8:8 NIV
for we have the law of the LORD,”
when actually the lying pen of the scribes
has handled it falsely?
What is the Bible? There are a variety of answers you may get to that question, depending on who you ask. For many of us, it is the inspired word of God and is truthful in what it teaches and authoritative in matters related to doctrine and life as a believer. The Bible helps us to know God and how to live for him.
But how well do we use God’s word? Does it sit on a shelf collecting dust? Do we break it out when we need to find a passage to support or defend a position we hold? Do we view it as too difficult to understand and depend on others to teach us what they think we need to know? Or do we invest the time and effort in getting to know what it says and then applying it to our lives? Not just isolated passages, but the whole thing?
Israel was accused in this passage of considering themselves wise just because they had God’s law given to them years before at Sinai. Yet it was not really a part of their daily lives. And their teachers were mishandling it, twisting it to suit their purposes. And God did not take kindly to that.
There is a warning to modern-day believers in this. We have the word of God. But just having it does not make us special. Any more than having a hammer and saw makes us a carpenter. We need to learn to handle God’s word well. To know what it teaches. Not just isolated passages, but the whole thing.
It is much easier to let someone else teach us what it says. Or to focus on a few isolated, favorite passages. But if you want to grow in the Lord, and hopefully you do, there is no substitute for spending quality time in the Bible. And, as you do, you will learn true wisdom.
