Thursday 30th April 2020
Third week of Easter
Acts 8:26-40, John 6:44-51
Have you ever read a book for a
long time without understanding it? It takes people different length of time to
comprehend what they read and many need a lot more explanation to grasp what
they read.
If this is the case with ordinary
writings, written by men, one can imagine how difficult it is to understand
that which has been inspired by God. Many people read the bible like a novel
and do not understand it. The bible is not what you understand after 6 months
or a year study. To understand the bible, one needs to first understand the
context in which it was written, the time and people it was written for as well
as what the author actually had in mind when writing. If this is not done, the
bible will just be like any other novel book.
In the first reading of today, we
see that the Eunuch had spent the whole day reading the prophecy of Isaiah, how
Jesus would come into the world and suffer and die without complaining or
resisting his adversaries. If you are not trained in Biblical Exegesis and
interpretation, like the Eunuch, you will need someone who has been trained
rightly to explain it to you. Many people have been led astray by half baked
bible interpreters who claim to know everything in the bible after 3 months in
a bible school.
It is encouraged that we read the
word of God daily, nevertheless, we should not read it like any other book and
we should not interpret it the way we want. Every single sentence in the
scriptures has it's own meaning. This is why the author of the letter to the
Hebrews says that "the word of God is alive and active, it cuts more
finely than any double edged sword " (Hebrews 4:12). May the word of God
continue to brighten our paths as we journey daily to our Lord and Saviour.
Amen. God help us.
Fr Michael Osatofoh Eninlejie MSP
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