Have you not read?
This phrase is used several times by Jesus
when someone was asking him a doctrinal question (Matthew 12:3, 19:4, 21:16, 21:42
Mark 12:26). Many times these questions were asked as traps to try to force him
into offending a particular audience or to make him look bad.
Yet Jesus answered this tough question with this
simple thought “Have You Not Read?”. In doing, so he makes the answer
not his alone. He places the burden of answering on another authority. It is not
because Jesus doesn’t have the authority to answer, but by doing so he shows
that the question isn’t a matter of coming up with your own personal take but
seeing the direction God has placed in his word.
Maybe we should do
the same. People oftentimes will question our beliefs and practices. They may
do so out of genuine curiosity but also may be doing so to pick an argument. Either
way, the best answer is often to turn them to the scriptures for the answer. If the Bible says it and we don’t like the
answer the argument isn’t’ with us, it is with God.
And it’s hard to
argue against God and be right.
Of course, to be able
to do that we will have to have read it ourselves. Bible study is just about
answering our questions but being ‘ready to make a defense’ of our faith.
We must ask
ourselves the same question, ‘Have you not read’?
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