Torah Discovery

God’s Enduring Word, Pt. 3

Posted on October 17, 2023

As they continue walking, Jesus listens to the men explain all of the details surrounding His death. Despite spending time with Jesus, witnessing His crucifixion, and being told of His resurrection, the men are perplexed, for they say to Jesus, “But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel”(24:21). These men knew the narrative, or at least they were versed enough to know that God was going to send a redeemer to Israel, but knowing does not always equate to seeing. The Messiah these men were hoping for was walking alongside them, yet they failed to recognize Him. Upon hearing their doubts, Jesus begins to awaken their senses: “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter His glory.” Following this, we are told that “beginning with Moses and all the prophets, He expounded to them IN ALL the Scriptures the things concerning Himself” (Luke 24:15-27). Jesus then begins to fill in the context of His story, beginning with Moses and the Prophets.

This is just beginning.

As they continue along, the men urge Jesus to eat and stay with them. When they sit at the table for the evening meal, Jesus takes the bread and breaks it, and when He gives it to them and,“their eyes were opened and they knew Him.” Immediately, the men reply to one another: “Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us”(Luke 24:30-32). Following this encounter, the two men rush off to Jerusalem and share the news with the other disciples. As they are speaking, Jesus appears to all of them, echoing the same words:

Luke 24:44-45

“‘These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me.’ And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the scriptures.”

Again, He takes them directly to the Scriptures, reminding them that all that has happened has been foretold–in Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms. These are the very scriptures that these men and women heard every week in the synagogues. Why, then, did they not recognize Him? Luke tells us again that He opened their understanding that they might comprehend the scriptures. Understanding the narrative and seeing it play out in front of us requires these two crucial elements: First, we must devote ourselves to reading the scriptures from beginning to end, from Genesis to Revelation. For in the scriptures we are given the details of what has happened, what is happening, and what is to come. Until Christ accomplishes all the work, not just on earth but in heaven as well, then the law will continue to bear witnesses of these coming events. To dismiss any of the scriptures–especially Moses, the Prophets, and the writings–because we believe them to be irrelevant, outdated, completely fulfilled, or too difficult to understand–could cause us to miss the story when it’s happening right in front of us. Every jot and tittle is important for us to know:

Matthew 5:18-19

“For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled… but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”

Second, we not only read the scriptures, but we diligently seek and ask God to open our eyes and our understanding to the scriptures. We pray that, like those whom Jesus conversed with on the road to Emmaus, God will continue to send His Spirit to open our understanding, and that our ears will be open to hear, our eyes open to see, and out hearts open to receive. This is understanding is what ties our knowledge together, helping us see how past, present, and future events are intertwined. Prior to teaching the crowds, Jesus told His disciples why it was that He spoke to them in parables: “Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given” (Matthew 13:11). Why, if many of these individuals knew the Torah–or at least possessed a very basic knowledge–did they not have a greater understanding of it? Because Jesus said it was not “given” to them. This tells us that we can possess the knowledge through our own seeking and pursuit, but it is God who unlocks the mysteries; it is God who opens the eyes and ears and helps us to see the beginning from end. It is God who grants the spiritual understanding.

This is why, in the Parable of the Sower, an individual’s ability to bear fruit is not only contingent upon whether he or she receives the word, but how he or she receives it. After sharing the parable, Jesus quotes the prophet Isaiah who provides a diagnosis for the people’s blindness, deafness, and lack of understanding: it is a heart issue. People are unable to see, hear, and understand because their hearts are dull. Dull, according to the Greek (bareos), seems to indicate that they have become heavy with difficulty, burdened. In Hebrew, the word dull (saman) means to become or grow fat. The people’s eyes and ears–our eyes and ears–remain impaired because our hearts have become dull and fat. In other words, they have become calloused and weighed down with sin, corruption, apathy, idleness, idolatry, contempt, pride, or anything that has produced an unwillingness and inability to understand the truth. Thus, the truth remains a mystery to many because of the dullness of their hearts.

Jesus shares an entire parable driving this point home. In three out of the four examples, the individual hears the word, but there were barriers in each of their hearts that prevented them from actually seeing, hearing, and understanding the word. These barriers are what caused their hearts to become dull, and they are the same conditions that keep our hearts in a similar state. The first individual hears the word, but he never receives it because he doesn’t have the capacity to understand it; there is no penetration into his heart. Thus it is easily snatched away by the evil one. The second individual hears the word and receives it with joy, but in time it is overcome by trouble and persecution on account of the word. Because this individual lacks depth, lacks a root (faith? continued knowledge? perseverance?), he is unable to move forward in his understanding. The third individual also hears the word, and perhaps receives it, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of wealth choke any sort of understanding or desire for understanding. It is only the fourth who hears the word and is said to understand it. Why? Because the soil of his heart was good soil, soil that had been tilled, weeded, watered, and thoroughly prepared to not only receive the seed, but to understand it, and ensure its growth. In other words, the truth was received by a heart that was no longer dull, but had been tenderized.

It’s vital for us to understand that it is not enough to just receive the word. Unless we ask God, give ourselves over to Him, and work with Him to prepare and continuously cultivate our hearts, then the word stands very little chance of surviving, and we risk shutting ourselves to receiving the mysteries of the kingdom. We must start with the acceptance that our hearts, in one way or another, have become dull. Yes, both Jesus and the prophet Isaiah are addressing us when they say that our hearts have become dull. Much of this dullness is a consequence of our decisions, but the prophet Isaiah also informs us that our state of dullness is also on account of God. Prior to being sent to the people, Isaiah is instructed by God to “make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and shut their eyes…”(6:10). By this time, Israel had already allowed the process to begin. Thus, God told Isaiah to go out and complete what was already happening. So, in Isaiah we read “make the heart of this people…,” and in Matthew, Jesus says, “the hearts of this people have grown dull.” From Isaiah to Christ, the people’s hearts had progressively become heavier, more calloused, and increasingly dull, so much so, that they were spiritually blind and deaf. From the time of Christ until now, the same process continues.

The central issue is our hearts… they have grown dull. The condition of our hearts determines our receptiveness to the word; even more, it affects the spiritual receptiveness of our eyes and ears. The more we allow our hearts to become dull (heavy with difficulty), the more we prevent ourselves from seeing and hearing the mysteries. It is when our hearts are softened that Isaiah says that our eyes become conditioned to see, our ears to hear, so that God can open our understanding. This is also why the Psalmist commands us: “Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts” (95:7). This is our prayer as we pursue the knowledge of His word, that we would be those who “receive the seed the good ground, who hears the word and understands it, and who bears fruit and produces” (Matthew 13:23).

Understanding God’s plan with Israel, with humanity, and with all creation begins with  the knowledge of His word. Jesus didn’t make up His own ideas when he walked and talked with the disciples. He went directly to the scriptures. He used all of them to make sense of what had just happened. Likewise, if we are to understand what will happen, then we, too, must turn to Moses, to the prophets, and to all of God’s word. Many today have dismissed large segments of the scriptures. In doing so, they have disregarded key details within God’s story, details that have yet to be fulfilled. There is no understanding God outside of diving into the entirety of His scriptures. With this knowledge, it’s imperative that we also seek the Spirit of God to unlock the mysteries of His story. As we continue to grow in the knowledge of His word–transitioning from milk to meat–we ask God to open our eyes, our ears, and our understanding. While being carried through this process, we grow in faith. This means that all we cling to and trust in all that He grants us. As the scales fall from our eyes, and as our understanding becomes more clear, we will begin to see the grand scheme of God’s work from beginning to end. For our purposes here, we will see God’s redemptive power through His people, His beloved, His chosen people Israel.