Focus: Encountering God Through The Scriptures (Pt.2)

Text: Lk.24:32

"And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?"

The Scripture is said to be inspired of God and authored by the Holy Spirit. God exhaled or breathed out the Scriptures, and holy men spoke and wrote as they were moved by the Spirit of God. As such, the Scripture is the sure way of encountering God. God speaks loudly and clearly to us through the pages of the Holy Bible. In Daniel, it is called, "The Scripture of truth."

Our Lord Jesus Christ opened the Scriptures to His disciples, and it is also written that He opened their understanding to understand the Scriptures. Christ opens our eyes to see and our hearts to receive. The Spirit opens our eyes to see Jesus Christ in its holy pages and to know the mind of God from it.

The psalmist prays, "Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law" (Ps.119:18). The Spirit is the opener of our eyes, and with our eyes opened by Him, we are able to see not just wonderful truths of God, but also the glories of the Lord Jesus Christ. Luke states, "Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures" (Lk.24:45). The Scriptures need to be understood, and the Spirit makes sure of it.

John writes, "No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him" (Jh.1:18). 

No man has SEEN God at anytime in human history. Men only saw different forms of God - theophanic manifestations of God. But Christ is the true revealer of God.

The word 'declared' is exēgeomai in the Greek, and our word 'exegesis,' 'exegete,' or 'exegetical' is derived from it. The word basically means to lead out; it means to take the lead or cover out, so as to see the real thing inside. Christ makes known to us the reality of God. He takes out of the way everything that tends to block our view of God. Christ brings God out in the open. He gives us a sense of clarity and certainty. It's important to know that how we view God determines how we value Him. Christ has the advantage of proximity to and intimacy with God. He discloses God to us from a vantage point of nearness to His Father. Truly as John says, He is "in the bosom of the Father." 

There is nothing to know of God that He does not know. He is the Father's Exegete - the Unveiler of God and the Opener of the eyes of the heart and mind.

Philip asked the Eunuch from Ethiopia if he understood anything that he was reading from Isaiah's book, and his response was, "How can I, except some man should guide me?" (Act.8:31). We need a guide to understand the Scriptures. A guide here is someone who leads and shows the way. He does not point the way to us; He takes us by the hand along the right path. He shows us the way by leading the way. The word in the Greek is hodēgeō - a hodegete. We need an exegete and a hodegete. We need those who will help make sense of the Scripture, like the men who stood with Ezra as he unfolded the law. We read, "So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading" (Neh.8:8). We need interpreters of the Word - those who can cause us to understand it.

It is written of Paul that "When they had appointed him a day, there came many to him into his lodging; to whom he expounded and testified the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses, and out of the prophets, from morning till evening" (Act.28:23). That is our divine assignment - to expound the Scriptures and cause others to encounter God through them.

Mark writes, "But without a parable spake he not unto them: and when they were alone, he expounded all things to his disciples" (Mk.4:34). Luke says, "And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself" (Lk.24:27). Christ is the key that unlocks the Scriptures. He says to His Jewish audience, "Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me" (Jh.5:39). 

The life-giving force of the Scriptures is located in and connected to Jesus Christ. Every part of Scripture testifies of Christ, and by encountering Christ through the Scriptures we become recipients of the God-kind of life. Our whole being is enlivened by revelation and encounter of God.

by Bishop Moses E. Peter