Matthew 2:4 When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born.

Human vanity is incredible at times! King Herod figured out right away that only the Messiah would generate astrological signs at His birth, yet he thought he could somehow interfere with God’s plans. He had no idea that he was simply playing into those plans and fulfilling prophecy in the process. However, he was not alone in his attitude, because the “chief priests and scribes” mentioned here, though they knew the Scripture well enough to say where the Messiah was to be born, didn’t go to seek Him themselves. It does no good to know about God if you don’t seek to serve Him. Many Christians in America seek to apply one litmus test or another to see if people are ready to be baptized, and probably all of them have some validity. However, as the old English saying goes, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. You can have a thorough theological knowledge of God and still not be saved, if your heart isn’t committed to Jesus as Lord. At one time I read that one of the foremost experts on New Testament manuscripts at that point was a non-messianic Jew! He had all of the information in his head, but he hadn’t transferred it to his heart, just like the priests and scribes in this verse. Knowledge of Scripture is good, but it is no substitute for a commitment to obedience.

I am in greater danger of this trap than most, having grown up steeped in the Bible, and it has tripped me up numerous times. For much of my life I wasn’t nearly the Christian I thought I was! Even after God so graciously tapped me on the shoulder and showed me a mirror so that I could see my pride, I still persisted in vestiges of it for many years. Frankly, it still troubles me! I know well that knowing facts is no substitute for obedience, yet I still disobey all too often. The people I work with have a much shallower familiarity with the Bible, and in my teaching I have a tendency to presume too much prior knowledge. I am never to put anyone down for simple ignorance, but neither am I to let someone be satisfied to be ignorant. I need to encourage everyone to get into the Word, not as academic knowledge but as the Bread of Life, to be fed on and assimilated and applied in every detail of life.

Father, thank You for Your amazing grace to me. Thank You for choosing me, apart from any virtue on my part, to transmit Your Word to others. Help me apply that Word more and more fully in my own life, so that I may encourage and train others to do likewise. Help us all be fully open to Your Spirit, in joyful, humble obedience, so that You may be free to do in and through us all that You desire, for Your kingdom and Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!