Sadly we can turn away from the effort of acquiring and maintaining the knowledge of truth. It is easier to let another tell us what truth is, like TV news or Facebook or the idle chatter of our acquaintances. We spend little time considering whether the source, whether TV news, our pastor, our friend or associate, is reliable. The result is blindness as is said in the following Bible quote:
(Isaiah 29:10-14:) - "For the LORD hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes: the prophets and your rulers, the seers hath he covered. And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I cannot; for it is sealed: And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I am not learned. Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honor me, but have removed their heart far from me, and : their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid."
When we don't read God's word -- when we don't regard it as important enough to spend some time with it -- God could make us dull as he has done in these Isaiah verses. When we rely too much on what men teach (v. 13 "their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men") we stupefy ourselves to what God has written to us. What man has said becomes all we know. We find it easy to say, "we can't understand the Bible, it is a 'book that is sealed” Therefore we will not put in the effort".
True, some a few passages are difficult. Some we understand only after years or reading and thinking about them. Some are never more than partially understood. Some we never understand.
However, the actual number of verses in the Bible that one cannot understand is exceedingly small. Almost all of them we can understand. Most all of them we can understand in English; we don't need to know Hebrew and Greek. We can understand them in Old English or New English or Slang English -- it's just not that hard.
There is one guarantee: if we don't read, we will not understand. If we let someone else tell us what it means we only know that that person understands. It may be correct, or just useful, or it may be plain wrong. To know what the Bible says we must READ the bible.
When men go long enough not making the effort to read the Bible the wisdom and knowledge dissipates or vanishes. The very "wise" ones they depend on to tell them what God says -- or even to tell them what is "right" -- lose their wisdom.
There is one fix, one bit of insurance: read the Bible. It’s not hard.
