D9-6: The Reason Why People Are Afraid To The Study The Scriptures For Themselves

If you’re an American citizen, I want to ask you a question.

Have you ever read the US constitution in its entirety?

If you’re under the age of 50, I’m willing to bet the answer is a “No“.

The truth is few Americans have ever taken the time to sit down and read that fairly short document which serves as the foundation of our society in the United States. 

I’ve actually got a copy of our constitution and have read quite a bit of it

Admittedly, I haven’t read the whole thing but the parts I did read were actually quite straightforward and easy to understand.

If this is so, why is the constitution in our day and age treated as an ancient and unintelligible document whose interpretation is to be left up to our elected representatives and judges?

Isn’t it supposed to be a document by the people for the people?

This wasn’t always the case.

Talk with an elderly American and he or she will tell you that starting as early as elementary school, reading the constitution was mandatory and that they even had to take an examination on it.

This is quite a far cry from what goes on in our classrooms today.

I bring this point up because this is pretty much the way the Torah and its relationship to the Jewish people have evolved.

Rather than taking the time to sit down and study the Law of Moses directly, your average Jewish person relegates its interpretation and application up to the rulings of the sages and rabbis.

They much prefer to read what has been recorded in tradition rather than go directly to the instructions in the Scriptures themselves and be obedient to those.

The very same thing has happened in Christianity as well.

Quite honestly, the teachings and practices of Christianity as they exist today are nothing more nor less than a reflection of the doctrines established by its denomination’s founders rather than an accurate reflection of what’s really written in the Bible.

I honestly think a lot of people are afraid to study the Scriptures for themselves.

I think the reason for their fear is that deep down inside they know when they read the Bible for themselves, they’re going to discover that what is actually written is radically different from what they’ve been fed from the pulpit all of their lives and that disconnect may be too much for most folks to accept.

Let’s face it.

Your average congregation today is more of a social club whose members prefer eating cookies and drinking coffee while chatting about the mundane aspects of life like work and kids rather than a passionate deep dive into God’s Word.

As time goes by we tend to let life get in the way of what was once our burning passion for the things of the Lord.

In addition, we also know that as time passes by, history itself will get re-written and re-interpreted to the point where it it will become so distorted a nation can end up becoming totally disconnected from its foundations.

Keep this in mind as we continue through our study of Deuteronomy Chapter 9.

Moses is dealing with the 2nd generation of Israelites who have already begun to re-write their past history and adopt some weird ideas concerning their relationship to HASHEM.

In order to prevent this younger generation from going off the straight path, Moses is doing his utmost best to remind them of what their forefathers experienced by going over the original instructions God gave to their forefathers after their exodus from Egypt.