The Humility Required for Bible Study
This is an excerpt from How to Study the Bible (free), a message from Lance Lambert's Through the Bible series.
The fourth thing in the way we study God's word is the need of humility in our approach to the Bible. You see, God doesn't have to open up His word to us. And if there's any trace of arrogance, He won't.
There has got to be humility. And this is really what it means when a person gets on their knees like a little child and asks the Lord by His Holy Spirit to lead them into all the truth. We must have humility when we approach God. That this is God's word. And it's hidden. The vast part of God's word is hidden.
"These things are hidden from the wise, but they're revealed to babes and sucklings."
And we need to be very, very humble when we come to God's word.
A Lesson in Humility
When we come up against a problem where we don't understand, a difficulty in God's word in our reading, and after we've prayed about it, when we've asked the Lord, "Well, Lord, will you show me what this means?"—if the Lord doesn't show you what it means, be humble enough to let it go and leave it and concentrate on what you do understand. You can be absolutely sure that in the little portion you're reading there's something for you.
Concentrate on what God is saying and let go of what you don't understand. I learned this lesson in Egypt because I had a dreadful kind of mind which was like a dog worrying a bone or a cat watching a mouse. You know, the kind of thing that couldn't let go, couldn't let go. And I used to get hold of a problem, say something about the—for example, in the Book of Acts:
"And all those that were foreordained unto eternal life were saved."
Well, now I would get hold of that and I worry and worry myself. Then how can it say "whosoever will may come"? How can it say that? And I remember once I was in Port Said, I ruined one of the times these two dear old missionaries in the morning when we gathered round the table around an open Bible because I was worrying and worrying and worrying about this problem and I couldn't get an answer out of them, you see.
And so I said, "But it must—there must be some answer." And finally the oldest one of the two said to me, "You must be humble in your approach to God's word."
She said, "I have studied the Bible most of my life." And she said, "Look." And she showed me her Bible which had very wide margins and there were written all notes in her handwriting and against some was a question mark and the date and then underneath there was another date and it just had "understood" and she said, "Now, when I came up against that problem, I couldn't understand it. I said, 'Lord, are you going to show me this today?'"
And then she said, "I'd think about it and nothing would come to me. I didn't worry about it. I'd learned the lesson," she said, "to be humble in the approach to God's word. And I put a question mark in the margin and put the date."
And then she said, "Sometimes it so happened, I heard a word and I thought, 'That's it explained.' Or," she said, "I came to read it again and I read it and I saw the question mark and I thought, 'Whatever was wrong with me then? That's perfectly plain to me. Why ever did I put a question mark in there?'" See? So then she would put next to it, "understood" and put the date.
A Practical Method: When you encounter a passage you don't understand, mark it with a question mark and the date. Continue reading what you can understand. Later, when understanding comes—either through teaching or spiritual growth—note "understood" with the new date. This demonstrates humble patience with God's timing of revelation.
The Danger of Obsessing Over Difficulties
Now you see, this is what happens if you grow, if you're humble enough to leave things and grow. Of course, it doesn't mean to say that we must put up with all kinds of problems and mysteries in the word. But the thing to do is, when you come up against a problem in your reading or study of God's word, ask Him about it. And if He doesn't reveal it to you, don't bother. Go on like a child. Don't bother about what you can't understand. Go on to what you can understand.
If you bother like I used to, so much about what you can't understand, you won't get what you can understand. You see, you're so bothered about circling round and round like a whirlpool. You're sucked into it and you never get to the harbour.
So remember, humility is very important.
Key Warning: If you obsess over what you can't understand, you'll miss what you can understand. Circling round and round a difficulty is like being sucked into a whirlpool—you'll never reach the harbour. Go on like a child to what God is revealing now.
Continue Reading
- How to Study the Bible — The complete message
- What God Calls His Word: Eight Pictures of Scripture
- Why You Need the Holy Spirit to Understand the Bible
- Bible Studies Collection
This teaching is part of How the Bible Came to Be, Lance Lambert's foundational series on the authority, inspiration, and study of Scripture.
About Lance Lambert
Lance Lambert was one of the most distinguished Bible scholars and speakers in Israel in our day. He had an itinerant teaching ministry worldwide.
Born in 1931, Lance grew up in Richmond, Surrey and came to know the Lord at twelve years of age. In the early 1950's Lance served in the Royal Air Force in Egypt, where he learned many lessons about Bible study from experienced missionaries.
Lance became noted for his eschatological views, which placed him in the tradition of Watchman Nee and T. Austin-Sparks.