We have thousands of questions on dozens of issues the Bible never addresses. On other topics though, it seems it’s just the opposite. Scripture supplies liberal space to minutiae that seem trivial.
Let’s be honest. Have you wondered if we need all the Bible gives us?
These represent mere samples of what seem like a lopsided emphasis. I mean, if we only have so many verses in the Bible, could we not give a little less to the genealogies and more to, say, how to raise a teenager?
Amazingly, in spite of all the Bible doesn’t tell us, it still remains an inexhaustible book.
You’ll never find the bottom. Here’s why.
If you’ve ever studied a foreign language with all its quirks, you may have wondered why it doesn’t just work the way English does. After all, English makes much more sense. It even seems more right.
Our familiarity with our native language makes it seem best—whatever the language. Even though we know the problem lies with our ignorance of a new language’s grammar, syntax, and vocabulary, we still can’t shake the feeling that it’s the language that’s the problem—not us.
Strange how we think that, isn’t it?
Most of the significant learning we undertake in life begins with us scratching our heads.
So, of course, our most significant study—God’s Word—often finds us tilting our heads like a curious dog. We’ll struggle to grasp God’s lopsided emphases when our way of thinking makes so much more sense. Eventually we discover that our questions about the purpose of genealogies and temple dimensions all have answers—good ones.
Even our deeper questions about God and life (and teenagers) have answers, but we may lack the capacity to grasp those solutions this side of heaven.
Sometimes we wait on God for the answers. Sometimes He waits on us before we’re ready to hear them. And yet, even the small slice of the infinite that represents the Bible requires a lifetime of study.
It is an inexhaustible text.
Tell me what you think: What amazes you most about the Bible? To leave a comment, just click here.
This post is adapted from Wayne’s book, Waiting on God: What to Do When God Does Nothing.
• What do you do when the life God has promised you looks nothing like the life he has given you?
• If you find yourself waiting on God—or if you don’t know what God wants you to do next—this book offers a wise and practical guide to finding hope and peace in life’s difficult pauses.
You will discover what to do when it seems God does nothing.