Understanding is an obedience issue . . .

 

 

In the beginning, sin quickly ruined the ability of people to UNDERSTAND one another. Ignoring God to make a name for themselves, they built a tower. Then God said, “Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.”

As I read two hundred plus references about understanding, it became abundantly clear that the lack of ability to understand is biblically tied to sin and disobedience. Since sin is ‘going our own way,’ any actions that are motivated and energized by what I want rather than what God says will mess with my ability to clearly know what’s what. Some examples:

Exodus 10:7. Then Pharaoh’s servants said to him, “How long shall this man be a snare to us? Let the men go, that they may serve the Lord their God. Do you not yet understand that Egypt is ruined?”

Deuteronomy 32:28–29. “For they are a nation void of counsel, and there is no understanding in them. If they were wise, they would understand this; they would discern their latter end!”

Proverbs 28:5. “Evil men do not understand justice, but those who seek the Lord understand it completely.”

Solomon did seek God and, “God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding beyond measure, and breadth of mind like the sand on the seashore.” This wise man said, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.” However, he was not the only one to figure that out:

Deuteronomy 4:5–6. See, I have taught you statutes and rules, as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should do them in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. Keep them and do them, for that will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’

While wisdom comes from God, we need His help to understand it. Deuteronomy 29:4 says, “But to this day the Lord has not given you a heart to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear.” This is why Solomon prayed, “Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to govern this your great people?”

It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. And God said to him, “Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches or the life of your enemies but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, behold, I now do according to your word. Behold, I give you a wise and discerning mind, so that none like you has been before you and none like you shall arise after you.”

One of Job’s friends got it right when he said, “But it is the spirit in man, the breath of the Almighty, that makes him understand. It is not the old who are wise, nor the aged who understand what is right.”

The psalmist also understood that fearing God was their gateway to wisdom and putting it to practice gave them “good understanding.” They also learned to pray for understanding so they could put God’s will into practice. This dependence is vital. As Isaiah says, “Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable” and we “know not, nor do (we) discern, for he has shut (our) eyes, so that (we) cannot see, and (our) hearts, so that (we) cannot understand” — our sin makes us blind to the things of God.

Daniel “set his heart to understand and humbled himself before God” and God heard him and came to him. As he said, “None of the wicked shall understand, but those who are wise shall understand.”

Even the disciples in the NT struggled with hardness of heart and lack of understanding. Jesus needed to “open their minds” and I know that He also must open my mind. Otherwise, I will not understand His will. Apart from His grace, as Romans 3:11 says, “No one understands; no one seeks for God.”  

The good news is in 1 Corinthians 2:12 and 14: “Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God . . . . The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.”

GAZE INTO HIS GLORY. Without grace and obedience, my “hardness of heart” alienates me from the life of God, but as 1 John 5:20 affirms, “(I) know that the Son of God has come and has given (me) understanding, so that (I) may know him who is true; and (I am) in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.” “Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.”