Getting to Know God’s Word, Part 8

Introduction

The apostle Paul wrote to Timothy, All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17) Everything that man needs can be found in scripture and yet some people complain that not ALL answers are given. Therefore, some believe, it is up to us to fill in those missing things ourselves. We’ll look at a few examples

What Was the Forbidden Fruit?

In the Garden of Eden, it was concluded by some that the fruit that Adam and Eve ate was an apple. But what does the Bible say? So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. (Genesis 3:6) Here, there’s no mention of the type of fruit. It’s mentioned in verse 3, that the fruit of this tree is not to be eaten not the tree to be touched.

The actual fruit is irrelevant because Adam and Eve disobeyed God by listening to the serpent and eating of the fruit that they were expressly told not to eat nor to touch. Had we known, would it make anything different? No! Our salvation is not contingent upon the identity of the fruit that was eaten.

How Many Wise Men?

Another example of the silence of the scriptures is the number of wise men that visited Jesus as seen in the book of Matthew. We know, for a fact, that they didn’t visit him in the stable as Matthew 2:11 states, And when they had come into the house, they saw the young Child with Mary His mother, and fell down and worshiped Him. And when they had opened their treasures, they presented gifts to Him: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Here, it shows, that Jesus was about two years old; being referred to as a child and not an infant. And the wise men came into a house not a stable.

At the end of verse 11, three gifts are mentioned which is where people conclude that it was three wise men. There is nothing to confirm that. It could have been six or, even two. We know it’s more than one as the plural of ‘man’ is ‘men’.

Let’s take this one step further. If I celebrate my birthday and report to a friend that my gifts were clothes and money, how many gifts did I receive? The answer is not that simple without knowing a breakdown of the gifts. The word gold is broad enough that more than one man could have brought gold to him.

Conclusion

Again, the reason for a lack of answers is that we don’t need to know them. Mose wrote, “The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.” (Deuteronomy 29:29) If they aren’t revealed, then we don’t need to know. It won’t change who we are one way or another. We need to accept what God has revealed as important and dwell on those things that haven’t been revealed.