Day 35: Mental Illumination

In the area of the mind, also, the effect of God’s Word is unique.

“The entrance of Your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple.” (Ps. 119:130)

The psalmist speaks of two effects produced in the mind by God’s Word: “light” and “understanding.”

In the world today education is probably more highly prized and more universally sought after than at any previous period in man’s history. Nevertheless, secular education is not the same as “light” or “understanding.” Nor is it any substitute for them. Indeed, there is no substitute for light. Nothing in the whole universe can do what light does.

So it is with God’s Word in the human mind. Nothing else can do in the human mind what God’s Word does, and nothing else can take the place of God’s Word.

Secular education is a good thing, but it can be misused. A highly educated mind is a fine instrument – just like a sharp knife. But a knife can be misused. One man can take a sharp knife and use it to cut up food for his family. Another man may take a similar knife and use it to kill a fellow human being.

So it is with secular education. It is a wonderful thing, but it can be misused. Divorced from the illumination of God’s Word, it can become extremely dangerous. A nation or civilisation which concentrates on secular education but gives no place to God’s Word is simply forging instruments for its own destruction. The history of recent developments in the technique of nuclear fission is one among many historical examples of this fact.

On the other hand, God’s Word reveals to man those things which he can never discover by his own intellect: the reality of God the Creator and Redeemer; the true purpose of existence; man’s own inner nature; his origin and his destiny. In the light of this revelation, life takes on an entirely new meaning. With a mind thus illuminated, a man sees himself as part of a single comprehensive plan that spans the universe. Finding his place in this divine plan, he achieves a sense of self-worth and personal fulfilment that satisfies his deepest longings.