On the occasion on this scripture, the disciples were plucking and eating corn. They were hungry – in fact they must have been very hungry. This was during the Passover season, and perhaps they were at the end of a period of fasting. Perhaps they had no breakfast and this was on the way to worship, or perhaps in the middle of the day. Maybe this just indicates how infrequently Jesus and His disciples had regular meals.
At this point let me digress for a moment: My message this afternoon is about the importance of Bible Study. It is a mistake to assume that simply because we understand an English word in our King James Bible, it means that we automatically know all that was in the mind of the Holy Spirit when the word was first penned in Aramaic, Greek or Hebrew. For example, a proper study of the Bible shows us that the word “corn” is a generic word for “grain.” Luke’s account of this same event says that the disciples, rubbed the corn in their hands, and the ripe grains fell out. That doesn’t sound like the corn that I remember growing in my backyard in Nebraska. That doesn’t sound like the corn Judy cooks for me to eat today. In an unrelated story found in John 12:24 Christ speaks specifically about a “corn of wheat.” I think that it is incorrect to picture the disciples walking through a corn field, and then watch them reach up over their heads to pluck big ears of sweet, yellow corn. What they were eating was more likely barley or wheat – and of course, they were eating it raw. Yes indeed, they were probably very hungry to be eating raw barley. I have chewed on wheat which I gleaned from a farmer’s field, just to see what it tasted like. It is interesting and tasty, but definitely not the sort of thing to make into a meal – raw. Something else we also notice here is that the Saviour had more self-discipline than His disciples. He was probably just as hungry as they were, but He was perfectly able to control that hunger.
As I suggested this morning, there were several Pharisees there with the disciples that day. Why? I can’t say for sure, but I think that they were there to test and question everything that Jesus said and did. And on this occasion, watching the disciples, they began to question and attack the disciples’ Master. Their quarrel was not with the eating of other people’s grain, because that was according to the law. The Pharisee’s problem was with the ridiculous matter of “harvesting” corn on the Sabbath day. According to the law, it was illegal for a stranger to take a combine or reaping machine into the field of another man in order to harvest and steal his grain. But hungry men could pluck a few handfuls and eat them. Sadly, according to the Pharisees’ extra-biblical rules, on the sabbath, it was unlawful to pick an apple from a tree, shine it on a person’s sleeve and then eat it. And to them it was unlawful to separate wheat from the chaff, even if it was only one head wheat.
But Jesus said to them, “Have you not read what David did, when he was an hungered, and they that were with him? Of course they had read I Samuel 21 – they were Pharisees. They knew the Old Testament dietary laws better than the average Seventh Day Adventist. In I Samuel 20 and 21 David began to realize the full impact of King Saul’s hatred towards him. After talking things over with Jonathan, David knew he needed to make an immediate escape. And he headed towards to the village of Nob, where the tabernacle of God had been set up. David was given the contents of the Table of Shewbread from inside the tabernacle. This was special bread for the Lord, which was supposed to be made and eaten by priests only. It was holy bread. Leviticus 24:9 says, “And it shall be Aaron’s and his sons; and they shall eat it in the holy place: for it is most holy unto him of the offerings of the Lord made by fire by a perpetual statue.” Despite the divine edict, on this occasion it was given to an hungry, common man. David was not judged for eating that special food, and although Ahimelech, the priest, was later murdered, I don’t believe that it was because of God’s anger against him. Of course the Pharisees had read this – many times – for they were well versed in the Old Testament Their eyes had seen, but their minds had failed to grasp it. And after their minds failed, their hearts followed, and faith didn’t have the nourishment needed to grow.
Grasping the Word of God involves our mind and our hearts. The words on the page must be understood before they can be believed. That may require concentration, meditation, and even divine intervention sometimes. The Bible uses four words in discussing our approach to Bible study: We notice here that Jesus spoke of “reading.” Let’s add to that: “searching,” “expounding” and eventually “knowing” and “understanding.”
Bible study begins with READING.
And it is at this point that even many Christians fail to study the Bible. Very simply, they don’t pick it up and read it. “Have you not read? Why have you not read?” Is the Lord ever going to ask this question of us?
How should the word of God be read? There are many ways to read. We can speed-read; we can skim-read; we can read while doing other things, like exercise. I sometime say that I’m reading a book, when in fact I am listening to it on a CD. We can read a book breaking it into parts and reading it over several weeks. We can read a book or an article all in one sitting. There are special things to keep in mind when we read our Bibles. For example, the Bible should be read as one book, not as an anthology of sixty-six books. It has one Author, despite having a number of penmen. It is not a product of literary evolution over hundreds of years; it is a single revelation from God. And it has one theme, although there may be a thousand sub-points and sub-sub-points. The Bible student needs to know how Genesis relates to the Gospel of John and Revelation. He must realize that the words of Moses and David are no less important or inspired of God than the words of Jesus himself. It has been said that in order to really understand the Gospel of Mark, the Book of Romans, or any other New Testament book, the entire Bible should be read from cover to cover at least a dozen times. The Book of Hebrews is confusing without some knowledge of Exodus, Leviticus and Deuteronomy. And in order to understand the Epistle of Jude it is important to know a little about Genesis. If a person studies the Book of James apart from the Book of Romans he may end up as eternally lost as Satan. But Romans takes on a more practical tone when studied in the light of James. We could describe dozens of relationships like this – all within the Word of God..
I’m not going to say that it’s easy to tie I Samuel to Matthew 12, but obviously, the more familiar with are with the entirety of the Bible, the more quickly we can tie those things together. And when the Lord Jesus says that two things are related, then the question should be settled. Perhaps, the Pharisees would not have had their problem with the disciples if they had read about David with more open minds. Those Pharisees had all kinds of difficulties with Jesus’ activities on the Sabbath. It was their practice to forbid just about everything – except worship – on that Day of Rest. But the Lord reminded them that even the priests in their Sabbath ministries were forced by necessity to do things which were forbidden to others. The teaching and preaching of the Word of God could be considered work by some people. “Have ye not read? And why haven’t you linked some of these things together?”
Of course in order to read the Bible completely through, it must be read one chapter at a time. In addition to an overall reading of the Bible, creating a synthesis of the whole….. There needs to be a more analytical reading and a study of the smaller parts of the Bible – the books. Not only do we need a birds-eye view of the entire Bible, but we need one of each entire book.
“Have ye not read? Why have ye not read?” If you can’t read, then learn to read, for the sake of your soul and for reading the Bible, if for nothing else. This question may very well be on the final test when we stand before our Saviour – “have you read my Word?”
A second word that deals with Bible study is “SEARCH” – John 5:39.
Once again the subject of the Lord’s ministry on the Sabbath was catalyst for more questions – Verse 10 – “The Jews therefore said unto him that was cured, It is the sabbath day; it is not lawful for thee carry thy bed.” And verse 16 – “Therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to slay him, because he had done these things on the sabbath day.” And again the Lord logically referred back to what they should have known from the scriptures. God the Father takes care of your needs each and every day including the Sabbath day – doesn’t He? Verse 17 – “As my father worketh hitherto, so do I.” From there the Lord began to expound the testimony that His miracles make to His deity and authority. Then we come to verse 36 – “But I have greater witness than that of John: for the works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me. And the Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me. Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape. And ye have not his word abiding in you: for whom he hath sent, him ye believe not. Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.”
The word “search” involves more than merely reading the Bible, as good and important as that is. To “search” is to investigate something with diligence. It is to go prospecting. Picture a miner dumping a little gravel from the stream into his pan, and swirling it around watching for the smallest speck of color. Or there’s another miner who swings a pick into a wall of rock and then picks up each chunk of quartz, diligently looking for the tell-tail signs of gold.
The Bible is filled with hundreds of things which indicate to me the Lord’s sense of humor. I can just picture God laughing out loud as He hears the Pharisees in John 7:45-53. Here the leaders of the Jews use the same word that our Lord used. “Investigate the scriptures, search and look, and you won’t find any prophesy that the Messiah would come from Galilee.” What is so funny is that they failed to do their own research into the Lord’s history and genealogy. Christ Jesus did come from Galilee. If the Pharisees had done their homework, they would have joined Nicodemus in his worship of Christ.
There are many tools to help us search the scriptures. The first, and primary tool ought to be our own mind – sanctified by the Holy Spirit. The more often we read the Bible the more of it we’ll remember and the more we should be able to bundle scriptures together when a particular question or theme is brought up. And then there are the various types of concordances. Do you want to know more about doctrine of “justification,” then look in “Strong’s Concordance” on page 558 or “Young’s Concordance” on page 559. If a man wants to determine if the Bible teaches baptism by sprinkling, he only needs to look up and read all the verses that use the word “baptism.” It’s a very simple search and a very simple Bible study to see that baptism is by immersion only. Similarly, it takes no great mind to find that a “church” is a local body, or that salvation is by sovereign grace.
The third word of Bible Study is “Expound” – Luke 24:27.
As the two Christian disciples from Emmaus sadly walked home after the events of the Passover, they were passed by the Lord Jesus – incognito. They were dejected because the hopes that they had in Christ had been dashed by the crucifixion. But as the risen Saviour caught up with them and chatted with them, He rebuked their unbelief. “And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.” Again we have to ask about the cause of their lack of faith. Could it be that “faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.” These good folks’ lack of faith was due to their lack of sufficient scripture. “And then beginning at Moses, and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.”
What the Lord did was to go through the scriptures in a topical Bible study, explaining and interpreting. The topic under discussion was that of the crucifixion and the sufferings of the Messiah. And what the Lord did was to make them to understand the meaning of those verses. He defined words which they might not have understood, and He showed them their context. My wife might shoot me, but I’d give away her grocery money for two weeks for a copy of that lesson. To “expound” is to explain and “interpret.” Please listen to I Corinthians 14:5 – “I would that ye all spake with tongues, but rather that ye prophesied: for greater is he that prophesieth than he that speaketh with tongues, except he interpret, that the church may receive edifying.” And verse 13 – “Wherefore let him that speaketh in an unknown tongue pray that he may interpret.” Verse 27 – “If any man speak in an unknown tongue, let it be by two, or at the most by three, and that by course; and let one interpret.” The Greek word “interpret” in these scriptures is the same that we find in Luke 24:27. To expound is to interpret.
So what is the difference between searching and expounding? Searching is the rooting out, correlating and bundling together the treasures of the scriptures. It might involve a topical study of some sort. We might use the chain of references in a “Thompson’s Bible.” We might use the “Treasury of Scripture Knowledge,” or “Nave’s Topical Bible.” A great many Bibles have scripture references beside or below important verses. Using these sorts of things we can search and study a subject throughout the entire Bible The expounding of those verses take us into another league of Bible study. Here we might need the help of experts in the original languages, like “Thayer’s Lexicon” or one of the better concordances – excellent sources for simple information about Greek and Hebrew. Sometimes, in order to understand something, we might need help from someone with knowledge about the social background involved in a certain passage. I think that it’s helpful to have at least one really good Bible commentary. I like Matthew Henry to provoke me to consider the scriptures devotionally, but for my money there is no better in-depth, whole-Bible commentary than John Gill. It isn’t as difficult or expensive as some people imagine to have a handful of really excellent tools to assist us in the exposition of the Word of God.
The forth word involved in Bible study is “Know” – Matthew 22:29.
Once again the word is given to us in the context of a controversy with Jesus’ enemies. And He said that they didn’t know the Word of God.. “Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.” Once again, it helps to know a little more than the black ink on this page. There are several Greek words which are translated “to know” in some form or other – about half a dozen. The most common is “gnosko” which John uses so very often in his First Epistle. But in this case the word is “oida.” I here is “Vines Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words” – an old reference book which I frequently use to help me to understand words in the New Testament. Vine has five pages on the various words “know,” “known,” “knowledge” and “unknown.” He begins with the most common Greek word, “gnosko” and then goes onto word number two – “oida.” Under “oida” he says, “The difference between gnosko and oida demand consideration.” And then he says “gnosko frequently suggest inception or progress in knowledge, while oida suggests fulness of knowledge.”
I think that when the Lord tells the Sadducees that they err not knowing the scriptures, it points out something that we all tend to forget – without constant reminding: A true knowledge of the Bible is as much a ministry of the Holy Spirit as it is a ministry of the mind. The knowledge to which Saviour refers here is one of insight, and it is related to spiritual wisdom. At this point Jesus is not talking about defining words and discerning which is the verb and which is the noun. He’s referring to the blessing that only God can give to someone dedicated to learning the Truth. He is talking about a fulness of knowledge which only the Holy Spirit can impart.
The first thing that we do in our Bible study, after seeking the Lord’s blessing…. Is to pick it up and to read what it says. Then if necessary we might add the work of our concordance to link other verses to the one in front of us. And then we may have to turn to our lexicons, Bible encyclopedia and other tools to help us understand what the words before us all mean. And during it all we are still absolutely dependent upon the Holy Spirit to feed us. The moment that we attempt to do this great work without His leadership, we are doomed to confusion and failure. The Pharisees were proof of that.
Read, search, expound and pray in order know what is the will and mind of God.