Job 26:13-14
13 “By His breath the heavens are cleared;
His hand has pierced the fleeing serpent.
14 “Behold, these are the fringes of His ways;
And how faint a word we hear of Him!
But His mighty thunder, who can understand?”
I had a professor in college who insisted we study nothing but poetry in his class. No classic novels, no inspiring biographies, and certainly nothing written prior to the nineteenth century! My first essay garnered a low “C” grade and I soon discovered from fellow classmates that my grade was high.
So, I decided to find out what the prof wanted since obviously none of us students knew. I began by first keeping copious notes listing everything that he thought was important with the piece of poetry we were studying. Next, I highlighted every passage that he chose to camp on and wrote his key words and phrases regarding these passages in the margins. Finally, when the day came for the class to write another essay, I made sure to include the professor’s thoughts, I parroted his key words and phrases, and quoted the highlighted passages within the body of my essay. The result? I never received a grade lower than a “B” for the remainder of the class.
Of course my fellow students wanted to know how I turned things around. So, during one of our mid-class bathroom breaks I called them all together. “Listen”, I said, “This guy doesn’t care what you think. He wants you to know what he thinks. And, he wants to know, that you know. So give him what he wants and you’ll get what you need to pass the class.”
Like poetry, the bible can be tough to understand. But, that fact shouldn’t keep us from digging deeper. And it probably wouldn’t be a bad idea to find out what others have discovered when we’re not sure about a passage. There are so many commentaries and bible helps available these days that there is no excuse for any of us being tripped up or confused. And, sometimes, we may find that it’s OK to simply say, “I don’t know what that means.”
The point is this: Dig deeper. Your Professor wants you to know what He knows.
No comments:
Post a Comment