Ask the Author!
“Do you understand what you are reading?”

Acts 8:30

An official from Ethiopia was reading from the book of Isaiah when Philip ran up next to his chariot and asked “Do you understand what you are reading?” It is one of those seven word sentences that are usually passed over as a set up for the meat of the story. The official admitted that he did not understand so Philip told him about Jesus and the man became a follower of Jesus himself. He was filled with joy.

I spent two years in Asia. Even though I studied the language of the country in which I resided I saw many written words for which I had no understanding at all. And then of course there were the idioms, a bunch of simple words, all of which I understood, but the combination was a mystery. We do it all the time in English. “He’s the bee’s knees” is a very old phrase. I may clearly know what bees are and of course I know what knees are, but what does it mean that a person is “the bee’s knees?”

There are literally thousands of such phrases: “Top of the morning,” “under the weather,” “crack of dawn,” “off his rocker,” and the list goes on and on.

The official from Ethiopia told Philip that the only way he could understand what he was reading from Isaiah was for someone to explain it to him. So Philip explained how Isaiah was talking about Jesus.

Today it is the same. The only way we can understand what we read from God’s Word is for someone to explain it to us. That someone is not a well known preacher. That someone is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit inspired every word written in the Bible and the Holy Spirit in you will explain what He meant by those words.

If the author of a book were sitting with you at dinner you would not go around the table asking everyone else what the writing really means. You would ask the author. That is simple enough.

When you go to the Word of God which is authored by His Spirit ask Him to explain His Word. The process is simple, but the implications are profound.