I was thinking about how much information one has to assimilate in order to properly understand the Bible and frankly I started to get a bit depressed. You have to know the original languages, you have to know historical information, you need to understand literary techniques, and that is just to name a few! So, if that is the case what hope does a "normal" person have? We all can't be seminary students or textual critics, so surely God made a way for the "lay person" to understand all that He has said through the Bible. My simple answer to that lies in one word...FAITH!
In Isaiah 7, we read the story of Ahaz. He was king of Judah and Isaiah went to him with some encouragement from God when Ahaz was facing war with his enemies. God (through Isaiah) tells Ahaz to ask for a sign from God, to which Ahaz responds, "No, I won't test God. I don't need any signs that we will be victorious." Good answer, right? After all Jesus himself when faced with a similar situation said, "Do not test the Lord your God" quoting from Deuteronomy 6. But it turns out that Ahaz's response was wrong! Not because he didn't understand the command, but because his heart wasn't truly right. Deep down he wanted that assurance but didn't want to seem unsure. We all have a tendency to put up this "super-spiritual" front at times but God has asked us to get rid of this tendency. Jesus spent much of his ministry trying to get the Pharisees to do just that! God gives us a warning regarding a lack of faith.
"If your faith is not strong, you will not have the strength to stand for very long." (NCV)
Hebrews 11 is a great read to encourage us to faith when the "mysteries" of Christianity seem to become more of an obstacle than an encouragement. But perhaps our greatest strength would be to realize that we don't have all the answers and that God has called us to trust in Him more than our own worldly knowledge.
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