(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Alright, so the sermon I'm going to preach this morning is actually going to be a little bit more like a Bible study and I'm going to ask you just to follow along and it may not be the most exciting or dynamic sermon you've ever heard in your life, but it is important and it's going to teach a few different things and hopefully we can walk away from this sermon having learned something a little bit and also especially being mindful of reading the Bible carefully when you're reading the Bible, when you're studying, when you're learning on your own and the story that we started off reading about here is in Exodus chapter 17. I'm going to focus on the first part of the story where basically it's a, you know, if you've read your Bible a few times or whatever, you probably realize, remember how the children of Israel are always complaining, you know, that God's bringing them out of Egypt, he's performing all his miracles and they complain like, oh, there's no food here, there's no water here, right, and this happens multiple times. Well, there's an incident that happens, what we read about here, where, you know, the children of Israel are complaining, there's no water here, why did you bring us out of Egypt just to die here in this desert, we can't drink, there's nothing for us to drink here and God commands Moses, look down at verse number five, the Bible says, and the Lord said unto Moses, go on before the people and take with thee of the elders of Israel and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thine hand and go, behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb and thou shalt smite the rock and there shall come water out of it that the people may drink and Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. So, what happens is, is that God commands Moses to go and hit the rock with his staff and then water is going to come out. Now, turn if you would, now keep your place here in Exodus 17, we're going to come back to that, so you put a bookmark there, put your bullets in there, whatever, go to Numbers chapter 20, because there's another event that happens and if you're just reading casually, there's enough similarities here that would make you think that these are the exact same story, because for one, you're going to see duplication of stories throughout, you know, as you're reading different books of the Bible, you're going to see the same events brought up oftentimes in different books, so Numbers and Exodus can have duplication in the stories that are being told, that are being transmitted, you know, there's multiple books that are like that, you know, we have four Gospels that all kind of go over a lot of the same events, so this is not new in Scripture, it's something that you're going to find and because of that, you may, again, casually just kind of assume that these are the same things and how often are you seeing water come out of rocks when a child of Israel complaining about it, but actually, what I'm going to prove to you this morning is that what happens in Exodus 17 is actually a different event than what happens in Numbers chapter 20, but let's read here in Numbers chapter 20, verse number 1, the Bible reads, then came the children of Israel, even the whole congregation, into the desert of Zin in the first month and the people abode in Kadesh and Miriam died there and was buried there and there was no water for the congregation and they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron and the people chode with Moses and spake saying, would God that we had died when our brethren died before the Lord and why have we brought up the congregation of the Lord into this wilderness that we and our cattle should die there and wherefore have you made us to come up out of Egypt to bring us in unto this evil place, it is no place of seed or of figs or of vines or of pomegranates, neither is there any water to drink and Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation and they fell upon their faces and the glory of the Lord appeared unto them and the Lord spake unto Moses saying, take thy rod, take the rod, excuse me, and gather you the assembly together, thou and Aaron thy brother and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes and it shall give forth his water and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock, so thou shalt give the congregation and their beasts drink and definitely up to this point you're going like, yeah, what's the difference, it sounds exactly the same, they're complaining, they want water, there's no water here, you know, they're getting water out of a rock but let's keep reading, the Bible says in verse 9, and Moses took the rod from before the Lord as he commanded him and Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock and he said unto them, here now ye rebels, must we fetch you water out of this rock and Moses lifted up his hand and with his rod he smote the rock twice and the water came out abundantly and the congregation drank and their beasts also and the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron because he believed me not to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them, this is the water of Meribah because the children of Israel strove with the Lord and he was sanctified in them. Now this was a very serious transgression actually by Moses and Aaron, this one event causes them not to go into the Promised Land when God is giving that to them but Joshua ends up leading the children of Israel into the Promised Land. Jump down to verse number 23, the Bible says, and the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron in Mount Hor by the coast of the land of Edom saying, Aaron shall be gathered unto his people for he shall not enter into the land which I have given unto the children of Israel because ye rebelled against my word at the water of Meribah. And Moses and Aaron are both found to blame here by the Lord and they both ultimately end up losing their lives because they're not allowed to go into the Promised Land. Now I'm going to get into a lot of the meaning behind that later but first I want to start off by proving that these are two different events. First and foremost it should stand out to you, wait a minute, in Exodus 17 God tells them thou shalt smite the rock and water is going to come out. Why then is there a problem when Moses goes and smites the rock twice and then water comes out? Is it because he smote it twice or whatever? But actually what you see when you read carefully in Numbers 20 verse 8 the Bible says take the rod and gather thou the assembly together thou and Aaron thy brother and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes and it shall give forth his water. So he tells them to speak to the rock to bring forth the water whereas the other one he does tell them to smite with the rod. So people will use these types of events also to try to shake your faith and see oh there's a contradiction in the Bible why is God telling them to smite the rock for water to come out here but then he's telling them over here well now you can't enter in the promised land because you smote the rock right? People try to throw that or it might just be confusing but see that's why it's important to read every word carefully but I'm going to prove to you there's even more information here to just understand the whole timeline of events. Turn if you would to Numbers chapter 33. Numbers 33. Notice the seeming contradiction alone should be enough to tell you something's not right there and these may not be talking about the same thing but I mean another reason why you might think they're the same is because in Numbers 20 it says you know it's called the waters of Meribah and then in Exodus 17 it says he called the name of the place Massa and Meribah right so they're kind of calling it the same thing but they in both places it gives you the meaning of the words and I think the reason why it says Massa and Meribah is because it's happened twice and one is because the chiding of the children of Israel because they tempted the Lord that was in Exodus 17 and in Numbers 20 it's because of the children of Israel strove with the Lord and he was sanctified in them so the meanings are slightly different even though it was almost the same event that happened. Now this isn't even in my notes but I'm just thinking like the fact that there's two events happening it goes to show how short-sighted people can be and again the symbolism here with these people these are the children of Israel was supposed to be the children of God right now we know not not all of them are saved and whatever like not a hundred percent of all of them but symbolically they're representing the children of God and what we see them doing is having a short-sightedness of being so focused on the earthly things that even when God has already performed miracles for them in the past in the same exact situation how easily they can forget what God has done for them I mean they get to a point where they're going hey we don't have any water which is in Exodus 17 this is the first event that happens so God miraculously supplies water for them out of the rock well further on down the road they get to the point again where they're going hey there's no water here why you bring you know and then they start complaining again God's already miraculously taken care of them God's fed them with manna God's taken care of them every step of the way and they still are finding room to complain about their situation and what's going on and having such short-sightedness than to just trust that God will take care of them and we need to take this to heart because human nature sinful human nature hasn't changed and and take instead of taking the attitude going oh yeah those children of Israel they were so stiff neck real start applying that to you as a child of God and see where am I where am I not putting all my trust and faith in Lord when he's already done this this this this for me in my past in my life where there's times when I thought there was no way out and I thought that I was you know how am I ever going to get out of this and then God sees you through and then you find yourself in a similar the same situation again and now you're still lacking the faith that God's going to take care of you you know when you get like that you're acting just like the children of Israel did here see God always comes through and God will come through and we need not to if you could look at that and be like oh man I can't believe they would do that don't allow yourself to be like that you see that we can all see that's not the right attitude to have they shouldn't be out there murmuring complaining oh man you know why are you bringing us out here well where are you in your life you got the murmuring you got some complaining and on things that may not be going quite right or the way that you expected them or or how why would you lead me here God it just seems like there's nothing it's dead it's barren but look at numbers 33 and and this is another point I want to make because as you do those of you who read your Bible every day those of you who do regular Bible reading let's face it some chapters are more interesting and engaging than others in the scripture nonetheless every word of God is pure and true and and and all the chapters all the verses are important for one reason or another okay otherwise it there would be no point of it being in God's Word numbers 33 may seem like a really boring chapter when you're just reading it at home but don't skip over these chapters don't skip over the genealogies don't skip over the the chapters that seem to be boring pray that God will open up some more understanding so you can understand why is this in the Bible because when you start to really study these chapters come in very handy and very useful to get a full understanding of other parts of the Bible and in this one example that I'm going through here yeah there's a lot of other clues so this is actually easier to deduce and to figure out and to search for but we're gonna see in numbers 33 how it is very clearly tying everything together how you can see oh yeah this event happened first and here's where they went and then they continued on and then that event happened so that there's no doubt in your mind that even though they call it the waters of Massa or water of Meribah that they're two separate events that happened look at verse number one and number 33 Bible says these are the journeys of the children of Israel which went forth out of land of Egypt with their armies under the hand of Moses and Aaron and Moses wrote their goings out according to their journeys by the commandment of the Lord and these are their journeys according to their goings out and then as you read through it just tell you they went here and they went here and you're thinking like you know don't don't just let your eyes gloss over and just go whatever who cares that they you know what God cares because Moses recorded their goings out at the commandment of God so you know if nothing else remember that and think about that when you're doing your reading and it may be more of a chore maybe harder for you to keep focus and keep attention because it's not as exciting but I'm telling you it's going to be useful and valuable for you to really stay intent on the reading and ingest and digest as much as you can from that and and and always give your best to the reading and try and understand as much as you can because I'll tell you what you you may not understand it the first time or second time or third time or fourth time or fifth time or sixth time or seventh time going through the Bible but the repetition is going to help it stay in your memory and this is a truth I actually preached on this same exact topic six years ago and and I love this is something that for me it was this is a truth that I had studied and learned without hearing it preached somewhere else so it's kind of pivotal for me but it's great to have those moments where you get this understanding and it's all through the study and at that point you know I've already read the Bible many times and never knew it and I kind of ended the reason why I'm saying you know it's easy to just kind of think that these might just be the same event because for me that's exactly what I thought when I was reading until I actually started looking more carefully and closely and going wait a minute this doesn't make any sense and then you study it out further and then and then you can get it so obviously I have my own back story for this but I'm trying to relay that to you so I've prepared this to help you out in in your own learning and study of the Bible now in numbers 33 is where we are jump down to verse number 14 because because it gives you this whole list but the the pertinent areas are going to focus on what it relates to this particular passage in this story verse 14 says and they removed from alish and encamped at Rephidim where was no water for the people to drink and they departed from Rephidim and pitched in the wilderness of Sinai now this matches if you still have a bookmark in Exodus 17 and we're gonna be looking at numbers 20 and Exodus 17 because those are two stories with numbers 33 Exodus 17 verse 1 says and all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of sin after their journeys according command the Lord and pitched in Rephidim and there was no water for the people to drink so that location of Rephidim happens in numbers 33 in verse number 14 and 15 and both of them are making mention that hey there was no water there the other event that we saw in number 20 happens later if you jump down to verse 36 in numbers 33 after more of their traveling around and their journeys that are recorded in numbers 33 verse 36 says and they removed from Ezion Gabor and pitched in the wilderness of Zin which is Kadesh and they removed from Kadesh and pitched in Mount Hor in the edge of the land of Edom and Aaron the priest went up into Mount Hor at the commandment of the Lord and died there in the 40th year after the children of Israel were come out of land of Egypt in the first day of the fifth month and this is the event that matches numbers 20 numbers 20 verse number 1 says then came the children of Israel even the whole congregation into the desert of Zin in the first month and you could and I didn't even have this in here but you could see the wilderness of Zin the desert of Zin and then says and the people abode in Kadesh and Miriam died there and was buried there so verse 37 they removed from Kadesh and pitched in Mount Hor in the edge of the land of Edom and we can see even how long they spent there because it says that Aaron died in Mount Hor in the fifth month and in numbers 20 it says that they came in the first month into the desert of Zin so you could see how long it took them in that area now I don't have the the the extra learning of what why the other importance of that I just this kind of popped out of me right now you could see how long they've even been there for but jump down to verse number 13 and numbers 20 so that's showing because this numbers 20 goes over this whole story which mentions the desert of Zin it mentions that they abode in Kadesh and then in verse 13 it says this is the water of Meribah because the children of Israel strove with the Lord and he was sanctifying them and then verse 14 says and Moses sent messengers from Kadesh unto the king of Edom and in numbers 33 37 it says that they were in on the edge of the land of Edom so again you just have all these clues that's tying it together showing okay well he's sending messengers to the king of Edom why because they're on the edge of the the the land of Edom and they came out of the wilderness of Zin in both situations and they're staying in Kadesh so it's it's very easy to see okay yes this is obviously talking about the same situation numbers 33 brings up there in Mount Hor we know that's where Aaron dies and it's a result of what happened in numbers 20 and then in numbers 20 verse 23 the Bible says and the Lord spake unto Mosin Aaron and Mount Hor by the coast of the land of Edom saying Aaron shall be gathered unto his people for he shall not enter into the land which I have given unto the children of Israel because you rebelled against my word at the water of Meribah so we could clearly see the difference right when you see when you start piecing them together and you know hopefully I did a good enough job at trying to tie everything together there it's something that you kind of need to focus on and maybe make notes on and write down it when you're doing this on your own right I encourage you like so you know when I when I look at and study this stuff I usually have to write down or copy and paste or whatever right if you if you've got a digital like a sword or something like that I could kind of put these verses side by side and say okay how do these oh look at that look at that either way however you do it it requires a little bit of your own digging you know I encourage you to do that everyone should be reading regularly but hopefully things will stand out to you or you'll have questions about things or you'll see things that maybe don't make sense or it might seem like a contradiction look into that a little bit more you know I'm gonna do my best to show you the things that I've learned and what I've seen to help teach you and guide you but do that for yourself do your own learning your own studying so that's where the Bible study comes in is when you start writing things down and comparing and you're taking scripture against scripture but see you're not able to do that and don't do that until you've already read through the Bible cover to cover at least a few times because you need to understand the context and what are the stories even talking about and get some of the foundation just by going through start to finish start to finish so okay I've read I feel like I've you know I've read through I know where certain stories are I know what generally speaking what these books are about you know just on a real high level you have to have that understanding first before you really can start digging in because you just need to have that back knowledge in order to make sure your study is correct now now we're going to focus a little bit on if hopefully your numbers chapter 20 we see the difference we could see there's two different events clearly okay but why did God get so angry and and and punish Moses and Aaron so much I mean Moses had done all this great work right I mean leading the children of Israel out he had to deal with their murmuring they're complaining you know he had this faith in God he was doing these great miracles and and all of this stuff he'd already smitten the rock once before for the water to come out so what's the big deal that he went and smote the rock twice and you know the water still comes out and they're taken care of why is it that big of a deal that he can't even enter into the Promised Land well we're going to look a little bit closer into what he did in numbers 20 look at verse number 10 well says and Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock and said unto them this is important here's what they said here now you rebels must we fetch you water out of this rock and Moses lifted up his hand and with his rod he smote the rock twice and the water came out abundantly and the congregation drank and their beasts also and the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron because ye believed me not to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel therefore you shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them they had used their staff in the past but this time God said to speak to the rock array pointed that out we already saw that but they're also putting themselves as the ones getting the water instead of giving the glory unto the Lord so what oh do we have to oh oh you rebels do we have to just go and get you water out of this rock wait a minute God said to speak unto the rock and in the past you know Moses has done a very good job of doing exactly as God had commanded and there's a lot of things in the book of Exodus that are very very very specific I mean talk about the building of the tabernacle and some hard reading because that's very specific when you talk about the fillets and the chappeters and the pomegranates and the you know and in the hangings and and everything okay the colors the lengths the width the dimension you know it's all spelled out God's very particular and when he says to do something and he says to do something a certain way then that's how you do it and there's some things that are accepted of God and there's some things that aren't and while yes God knows the heart which is important he also is particular in what he says to do and you know what he wants you just to do what he says so if he tells you this is the way that the tabernacle is going to be built then you know what that's the way it ought to be built you don't need to add your own flair or do anything different or say well I think this would look better look just do what God said and in this instance God said hey speak unto the rock now think about this too Moses has been using that staff quite a bit for the miracles I mean he used that with the parting of the waters he used that with the rod becoming a serpent he used that many times turning the water but there's so many times where the staff was being used and even previously with the rock God had told them to use the staff to smite the rock with it so God had had told them because he believed me not and we don't we can't get into the minds of Moses and Aaron but we can see through their actions what they had done and you can see where it could be easy to think more on the staff or the rod having the power then just what's because God said so he's the one doing it I mean just getting the point of saying well hey do we have to just go and do this for you now hold on a second Moses you know like you're you're not bringing the water out of the rock really like I mean you're doing what God said to do and you should be speaking what God said to speak and God's gonna be the one providing and guys it's the water that God is giving to the people to sustain them not you now you're leading and it's an important job and and you need you know God's gonna work together with people but don't get you know too ahead of yourself into thinking that oh we are doing this right so they didn't sanctify the Lord as much as themselves in the eyes of the children of Israel because they're the ones saying hey we have to do this now the other thing is that this is immensely significant in the symbolism and a lot of what happens in the Old Testament and the particularity that God has in the Old Testament the reason why it's so important is because it's teaching other things there's a much greater teaching going on you say well why does God care so much why is he so particular about you know the the way that the tabernacle is set up why because there's more to learn about that if there wasn't it wouldn't he wouldn't care to have that part of scripture but it is important and eat you know what with all of these things with everything that's in the scripture it's all important there's more things to learn the sacrifices all had a particularity in in how they were to be made and especially that you know the the Passover land right very particular I mean it's got to be it's got to be burnt with fire roast with fire you can't have it sodden with water you can't eat it raw you know like he makes all these points saying look and why does he do that because it's all symbolic it's all teaching other truths those sacrifices are representing Jesus Christ in various ways depending on his particularity for each one I mean even the scapegoat right that's gonna take away the sins of the people you're gonna let it go that's what Jesus Christ would represent you know escape represents Jesus Christ of taking the sins of the people away I mean there's there's so many things the thing is when you don't do it right when you don't do it the way that God said now you're screwing up the teaching you're screwing up the picture that God has given and what he's trying to teach God commanding Moses and Aaron to speak unto the rock to bring forth that water is very significant and we're gonna see some in the New Testament you could turn if you would to a 1st Corinthians chapter 10 and then we're gonna go to the book of John and you probably already know where we're going with this because it's it's such a it's a pretty basic fundamental truth but it's very important and especially us as New Testament believers you know we see the significance a lot easier because we have the New Testament writings that is shed more light on the things of the past so in Moses and Aaron's day they may not have been thinking so much about what God's trying to teach besides just getting the water for the people but God knows what he's trying to do and what he's trying to teach with the people there 1st Corinthians chapter 10 verse 1 the Bible reads moreover brother and I would not that you should be ignorant how that all our fathers were under the cloud and all passed through the sea and were all baptized under Moses in the cloud and in the sea and before we continue any further is obviously talking about the children of Israel being brought forth out of Egypt and it's applying another spiritual truth to the event that happened of them going through the Red Sea see God is multifaceted there's a lot of things that you could learn from these events it's not just one thing God's miracle of bringing them through the Red Sea it's not even just to show how mighty God is now that's one of the reasons that's one of the things he's showing he's showing it doesn't matter if you've got a whole sea in front of you and it seems physically impossible God's able to make a way through the impossibility because God is Almighty and God can do all things that's of course one of the things but that's not the only thing we see here that is saying you know they were baptized because they were surrounded by all that water as they're going through and as a symbolic reference after their salvation coming out of Egypt of being baptized and then going into the Promised Land so there's other things to learn we see that going on here verse 2 look at verse number 3 and did all eat the same spiritual meat talking about the manna and did all drink the same spiritual drink for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them and that rock was Christ so when we see the water coming out of the rock that rock is representing Jesus Christ and they need to speak under that rock in order to bring forth that water of life unto them and you don't use a rod you don't use a staff you don't need to hit it he wanted to teach that truth in this illustration of speaking under the rock to bring forth that water John chapter 7 verse 37 to go to John chapter 4 John 7 37 says in the last day the great day of the feast Jesus stood and cried saying if any man thirst let him come unto me and drink he that believeth on me as the scripture has said out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water but this spake he of the Spirit which they that believe on him should receive for the Holy Ghost was not yet given because that Jesus was not yet glorified and then in John chapter 4 verse number 6 the Bible reads now Jacob's well was there Jesus therefore being wearied with his journey sat thus on the well and it was about the sixth hour there cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water Jesus saith unto her give me to drink for his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat then saith the woman of Samaria unto him how is it that thou being a Jew askest drink of me which I'm a woman of Samaria for the Jews have no dealings with Samaritans Jesus answered and said unto her if thou knewest the gift of God and who it is that saith to thee give me to drink look at this thou wouldest have asked of him and he would have given thee living water who's that spiritual rock Christ and what's he saying to the woman at the well hey if you knew who I was if you knew that I was this spiritual rock you would have asked me and I would have given you living waters that is the truth being represented in the Old Testament it was a picture of salvation it was a picture of Christ is the rock he's our foundation he's solid right and you go to that rock when you you are neat look they're in a wilderness they're gonna die they're in a desert place they have no water they're ready to perish they have nothing to look forward to but just doom and and and perishing but you know what there's a rock there and if they call on that rock that rock will provide them the life that they need it provides them that sustenance it's going to give them that life is going to give them those living waters now obviously that was a physical representation but the whole point was the spiritual teaching behind it which is extremely important so yeah God was pretty upset when they screwed up his you know what he told them to do the will of the Lord was that they spake unto the rock and the water would come out they disobeyed the will of the Lord and look because we have free will now God still could know that they were going to do that but they chose to do what they did God has given us the ability to not have to do what he says to do and it doesn't take away from the all-powerfulness of the Lord it has to do with with the way that he made us and the way that the world works the way that he made the world to work is giving us the ability to choose and I want to get into the whole Calvinism thing and you know in free will but I mean it's just one more example of that now he's still able to get his point across but see here's how he did it now is that now he's saying okay Moses and Aaron you're not allowed to get into the promised land because the picture the representation is you're calling on the rock he's giving you you know if they would have just listened to that and done that they would have been leading the children of Israel all the way into the promised land but now they can't because what they had done was they took the staff and smote the rock which now is being representative of their own works of them must we do this for you I'm sorry Moses you're not the one that's bringing salvation to the people the rock is you just call on that rock and that'll bring the salvation so yeah they couldn't enter into the physical promised land because you know what that was representative of the spiritual promised land a lot you could learn in a good study of the scripture so shorter sermon doesn't take much but I hopefully this will stay you know with you because reading the Bible is important you know you all ought to be reading every single day it may not be exciting the first pass or second or third or fourth or fifth or sixth or seventh or tenth but you know what maybe on the 20th it will be for me personally this is really exciting this is a great discovery for me per like it's just it's just fun like I hopefully you find that stuff for yourself because it is joyful and exciting and be like you're you know when you see and feel your eyes being opened up and going wow I never saw that before that's really cool that's exciting I want you to have that in your spiritual life y'all can have it it's the same Holy Ghost teacher that teaches all of us there is nothing special about me or anyone else for that matter when it comes to just being able to receive knowledge from God you just need to have the dedication to the word and just study it and there's so much more to learn and that's that's the other exciting part is that you'll never run out of great truths like that in your lifetime ever I think in eternity we're never gonna run out of just the greatness and the depth the the eternal depth of the Lord in the wisdom and knowledge and so I mean there's don't let Bible reading become a drudgery there's a bottom line don't let it become a drudgery if you don't understand something keep working through it okay you don't have to stop everything to just figure out something you understand you could keep going but take the time sometimes to do more than just a little bit of reading and cursory study and do and dig in a little bit and start trying to find once you understand oh yeah I know I know that these books talk about this then focus on those books and it might take you more than a day to do it keep notes keep looking into that stuff so you know hopefully as a blessing to you I'd love you know I haven't re preached very many sermons at all just because for me I like having new things or different things to talk about but this one was one that was all right it's still exciting for me and I went back and I picked up a couple other little things anyways by going back and revisiting this even for myself so bottom line is is read your Bible study it carefully right don't just make assumptions make sure you're reading every word and and let God show these great truths unto you all right as far as have a word of prayer do Heavenly Father Lord we thank you so much for your word and for just the perfection in your word and how many great truths there are for us to learn help us to be able to see those truths Lord and and we know that you promised that you'll give wisdom and knowledge liberally unto those that that ask and Lord we're asking that you would teach us and guide us and help us understand more great truths from the scripture we thank you for preserving your words for us that we have we have a word that we can completely trust in today without doubt without any doubts of errors or omissions or problems your Lord or contradictions that if we would just study your words we would be able to see how perfect they truly are and I pray that you would please open up our eyes help us to learn and grow it's in Jesus name we pray amen