Speak to Us Smooth Things

Think back over the sermons you have heard, and ask how many were preached on this verse:

Philippians 2:12 So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own Salvation with fear and trembling;

Then ask how many were on “keep the commandments” and whether any of them walked you through Leviticus 11, or Leviticus 23, or Ezekiel 44.

Whole chapters of the Bible go for years without being opened from the pulpit. No one has torn them out. They are left unread, and a text that is never read never has the chance to speak.

Smooth Things

The prophets saw this long ago. Isaiah described people who told their prophets what not to say:

Isaiah 30:10 who say to the seers, "You shall not see," and to the visionaries, "You shall not envision for us right things; speak to us smooth things, envision illusions;

“Speak to us smooth things.” What was right had become unwelcome, and the people wanted only what was pleasant, even if it was an illusion. Hosea saw where that road ends:

Hosea 4:6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest to me; and you have forgotten the Torah of your God — I also will forget your children.

Knowledge was rejected and the Torah was forgotten, and the verse names the cost of both, ending with “I also will forget your children.” The loss does not stop with one generation.

The Price Tag

Why would anyone pass over whole sections of the Bible? The honest answer is that the cost of reading them aloud is frightening.

Suppose a pastor were to stand up next Sunday and say, in all seriousness, that God’s commandments are meant to be kept. He would be called a legalist. If he said that the biblical feasts have value for believers, someone would call him a Judaizer. A teacher who steps outside the received framework can lose his pulpit, his salary, his friends, and his good name.

So it is natural that people look away from the parts of the text that carry a price tag.

This is not a weakness of our own age. John recorded it in the first century:

John 12:42-43 Nevertheless many even of the rulers believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they were not confessing Him, for fear that they would be put out of the synagogue; for they agapao ἀγαπάω ag-ap-ah'-o(loved) the approval of men rather than the approval of God.

Their problem was not a lack of information. It was fear.

A Veil Over the Heart

Paul describes something deeper still:

2 Corinthians 3:15-16 But to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their kardia καρδία kar-dee'-ah(heart, soul-domain). But whenever one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.

The problem is not a gap in education. It is a covering over the heart.

Even Yeshua’s own disciples, who had walked with Him for years, could not see what their own Scriptures were saying until He did this:

Luke 24:45 Then He opened their nous νοῦς nooce(intellect, spiritual domain) to understand the graphai(written-scriptures),

He opened their minds. Knowledge alone was not enough. They needed the veil to be lifted.

Where We Stand

We have now seen why the Bible so often goes unread as the Bible: a framework handed to us before we read, translations that hide the original words, and a price tag that makes whole passages easier to leave unread. All of it is held in place by a veil over the heart.

That leads to a graver question. Some teachers have said that the push to erase the Torah is more than a mistake, that it is the work of the spirit of antichrist. Is that going too far? It is a heavy charge, and before we decide, we should hear what the Bible itself says, and the Bible answers with two truths that must be held together.