Isaiah 28:9–13

9 Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts.

10 For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:

11 For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people.

12 To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear.

13 But the word of the Lord was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.

Knowing the truth is one thing, but, being absolutely certain, that what we consider to be the truth is actually the truth is another.

In order to search the scriptures for the truth we must know how to search it to arrive at the truth. The beautiful thing is the Bible tells us how to do just that.

Understanding Isaiah 28:9–13

Isaiah tells us how to study God’s word. The question is asked, “Whom shall we teach knowledge?”, “and whom shall we make to understand doctrine?”

The answer comes quite clear, “them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts”, in other words, those that can reason for themselves and understand. Babies can’t do that; they are too young to, but as soon as they know themselves, they can be thought to study God’s Word.

Am I saying don’t speak the Word of God to your baby absolutely not, by all means, please do. What I am saying is, you may not be able at that time to teach your baby how to study the scriptures as they may not even be able to read or speak properly. You can read them Bible stories or sing them songs in preparation for their Christian journey in this life.

Bible Study is a conscious effort, it must be deliberate, not whimsical or careless. Therefore we must be old enough to reason and think things through. Little children can be thought to study their Bibles, in fact, it will give them stronger minds and sound intellect.

Here’s the How…

Isaiah tells us in the next verse the technique we must use to teach knowledge and understand doctrine.

Quick question, how do we get knowledge, wisdom, and understanding?

Proverbs 9:9-10

9 Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser: teach a just man, and he will increase in learning.

10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.

The answer, from God!

Therefore we must approach God’s Word in the manner that he has inspired and if we do that we will always arrive at the truth.

Line must be upon Line, precept must be upon precept, here a little, there a little. We must compare scripture with scripture. Believe it or not, the Bible is the only book that can interpret itself. The tools we use in Bible study are to help us search the scriptures faster and more thoroughly but they should not be the interpreter of scripture for us. Let the Spirit of God lead us as we search diligently and the truth will be revealed to us.

Many of us may hold onto a cherished view, based on one verse that seems to support it. This is a dangerous position to take, in that you will not know what is the Bible’s position on that particular issue. However, if you search the entire Bible and compare verse by verse on the topic, you can come to a better conclusion than just using one verse in isolation.

This is where the tools we use in our Bible Study shine. The Bible concordance can help us find many verses on a particular topic we might be interested in, for example, death.

We go through the concordance, we look for the word death, and get a list of all the verses that speak about death. We can then write them down and prayerfully write what it says next to each one. We can compare them for a better understanding. A center column in our Bible can also help us link verses with similar meanings together to better understand the verse we may be studying.

Declarations

There are some verses in the Bible that are declarative. I want to be clear on this. When studying God’s word always compare scripture with scripture, however, I am just highlighting the fact that I have found a few verses in the Bible to be declarative and so they present the absolute truth clearly and concisely. I will give an example.

Genesis 1:1

In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth.

Moses when he wrote this was making an emphatic statement. There is no context, situation, culture, or time when this will cease to be true.

I will give you another one.

1 John 4:8

He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.

This verse is the absolute truth stated plainly and it does not contradict the theme, message or authority of the Bible.

and another,

Romans 3:23

For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

Paul here is stating an absolute truth, which is plain. This is not up for questioning, it is just for us to accept. We can however search for a deeper understanding as to why this is so, but the verse is clear.

The Bible was inspired by God, however, God did not remove the individuality of the inspired authors. To understand God’s Word we must also understand the people through whom God chose to give his messages, the examples that they would have used, and their choice of words and expressions. All these would have been influenced by their culture and lifestyle. These things we must also understand, however, there are verses that are not affected by these ( context, situation, culture, or time ) and these verses are the most potent, in that they bring forth the truth plain and clear. These verses, when doubted, always lead to a distrust of God’s Word.

I do acknowledge that this can be a sore point as some may see this view as being subjective. Who decides what verses are declarative or not? I accept whatever criticism may come my way but I have seen these types of verses and I think they are powerful in Bible Study. As to who decides what verses are declarative, please pray and let God’s Spirit guide, and if it is clear and straight be ready to obey. Remember, you can still compare verses, for clarity.

Note — I am in no way stating that some verses are more important than others. Just that some verses bring the truth straight out. Thus they are pillars that your faith can easily grasp. Declarative verses do not contradict the theme, message or authority of the Bible. They are in harmony with the scriptures.

Context

As a rule of thumb, read the entire chapter in which the verse you are interested in is contained. You may even have to read the chapters before and after. The reason for this is simple, the Bible in its original form did not have chapters and verses, as it does today.

The translators were inspired to organize the Bible into chapters and verses, for easier searching of the scriptures, as a result, some thoughts and expressions were split between chapters and so to get the entire message you may have to read two or more chapters. One example is Isaiah 52 and 53. Isaiah 53 is a prophecy concerning Christ, however, the tone and content of Isaiah 53 starts in Isaiah 52, particularly vs 13–15.

When going through any chapter or verse in the Bible, ask three questions,

Who is speaking
To whom is the message directed
What is the issue being discussed?

After answering these questions the verses will come to life. These are just a few methods of study that I have found to be very effective. Let God inspire you as you search his word. Go bold to the throne of grace and ask God for understanding and wisdom to live his Word today.

I do hope that you would have found this helpful in your study of God’s Word. Please pray a lot and make God’s Word your daily food. As Job said,

Job 23:12

12 Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips; I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.

Let us be hungry for God’s Word. As we study to know him we will be a blessing to others.