Watchtower 1985 June 15 page 12
Digging
Deeper16
Proverbs 2:4, 5 states: ‘If as for hid treasures you keep searching for it, you will find the very knowledge of God.’ The context of that passage speaks of the need to seek out Jehovah’s "sayings," "commandments," "wisdom," "discernment," and "understanding." Searching for treasures requires effort and perseverance. It calls for much digging. It is not different when searching for "the very knowledge of God," for "discernment," and for "understanding." This also requires much digging, or penetrating below the surface. Do not feel that it is sufficient to skim over the surface of God’s Word.
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A psalmist exclaimed: "How great your works are, O Jehovah! Very deep your thoughts are." (Psalm 92:5) The apostle Paul wrote admiringly: "O the depth of God’s riches and wisdom and knowledge!" (Romans 11:33) In another letter, he spoke of "the deep things of God." (1 Corinthians 2:10) True, as Paul explains, God reveals such deep things "through his spirit," which active force acts powerfully upon the anointed Christians appointed by Christ Jesus to provide spiritual food. We should be truly thankful for the spiritual digging that the "slave" class does to make clearer and clearer for us "the hidden depths of God’s purposes."—1 Corinthians 2:10,
Today’sEnglishVersion. 18
But that does not relieve
each individual Christian of the responsibility to dig deeper into God’s Word, for the purpose of getting the full depth of the thoughts explained. This involves looking up the scriptures cited. It means reading the footnotes in Watchtower articles, some of which refer the reader to an older publication that provides a fuller explanation of a certain passage or prophecy. It requires digging deeper, putting forth effort to locate that older publication and then studying the pages referred to. It consists of making full use of specialized Bible study aids that the "slave" class has made available over the years, such as indexes, concordances,
AidtoBibleUnderstanding, and
"AllScriptureIsInspiredofGodandBeneficial." Yes, Christians have been provided with excellent digging tools, the latest of which is the new English-language Reference Bible, which, in time, will be available in a number of other languages.
Let us use these digging tools to good advantage.
