The Lesson from The History Of The Jews
SCRIPTURE: \’It is the Spirit that quickens; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I
have spoken unto you are Spirit and are life. Lord, to whom shall we go? I Thou hast the
words of eternal life.\’–John 6: 63, 68.
This is one of the awfully solemn lessons which the history of the Jews in the time of Christ
teaches us. They were exceeding zealous, as they thought, for God\’s word and honour, and
yet it turned out that all their zeal was for their human interpretation of God\’s word. Jesus
said to them: \’Ye search the Scriptures, because ye think that in them ye have eternal life; and
these are they which testify of me: and ye will not come to me that ye may have life.\’ They
did indeed trust to the Scriptures to lead them to eternal life; and yet they never saw that they
testified of Christ, and so they would not come to Him. They studied and accepted Scripture
in the light and in the power of their human understanding, and not in the light and power of
God\’s Spirit as their life. The feebleness of the life of so many believers who read and know
Scripture much has no other cause; they know not that it is the Spirit that quickeneth that
the flesh, that the human understanding, however intelligent, however earnest, profiteth
nothing. They think that in the Scriptures they have eternal life, but the living Christ, in the
power of the Spirit, as their life, they know but little.
What is needed is very simple: the determined refusal to attempt to deal with the written word without the quickening Spirit. Let us never take Scripture into our hand, or mind, or mouth, without realizing the need and the promise of the Spirit. First, in a quiet act of worship, look to God to give and renew the workings of His Spirit within you; then, in a quiet act of faith, yield yourself to the power that dwells in you, and wait on Him, that not the mind alone, but the life in you, may be opened to receive the Word. Let the Holy Spirit be your life. To the Spirit and the Life coming out from within to meet the Word from without as its food, the words of Christ are indeed Spirit and Life.
PRAYER: Pray that you and you household will not be denied the supply of this food. It
is absolutely suicidal to do without it.