Our own understanding

[OldShep]

Well to some the only understanding that they well ever have is there own, because:....

Mar 4:9 Then Jesus said, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear."

Mar 4:10 When he was alone, the Twelve and the others around him asked him about the parables.

Mar 4:11 He told them, "The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables

Mar 4:12 so that, "'they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!'"

Mat 13:24 Jesus told them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field.

Mat 13:25 But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away.

Mat 13:26 When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.

Mat 13:27 "The owner's servants came to him and said, 'Sir, didn't you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?'

Mat 13:28 "'An enemy did this,' he replied. "The servants asked him, 'Do you want us to go and pull them up?'

Mat 13:29 "'No,' he answered, 'because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them.

Mat 13:30 Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.'"

We all have a "what" in ours lives and we struggle to understand the "why". A change of perception; God sees all before it ever happens to us and because of that He always has a "why" before the "what" in our lives, so that we can Glorify His name. A change of perception: "The trials and tribulations that we go through today often become the testimonies that we will use tomorrow." dks

ICL~~~Dennis

[JeannieC]

NChrist,

Let me rephrase my question in my OP. What does it mean to lean to your own understanding? If we read and study the word as we all should, and we decide what the meaning of the word we are reading is, in our own head, are we not leaning to our own understanding? Shouldn't all our understanding of what the word says come directly from God? If it doesn't is that leaning to our own understanding? Are we really ready to say that the doctrine we speak came directly out of the mouth of God? Yes there are people at different levels of growth, but shouldn't we all agree with the simple basics if all of us are recieving the understanding from God?

P.S. I forgot to put this in previous post, sorry. Thank you for taking the time to post.

Fire, I've been considering this some myself as I study my Bible on my own and wean myself away from relying on commentaries and just accepting someone's word. My attempt before to walk with God was not a very good walk in that I didn't trust in Him with all my heart. So, I accepted what my pastor said and studied my Bible intellectually and tried to make sense of it with my own intelligence which I was quite prideful about. Well, what happened is the moment I didn't understand a scripture or found a "contradiction" my shallow seeded faith would be shaken and I'd try my best to figure it out and reconcile my doubts. I wasn't trusting in God with all my heart, I was trusting in my reason or my pastor and what a mess that was. I eventually fell away for many years and this was part of the problem, not all, but what is relevant to this topic.

Now, when I read the Bible, I pray and when I find something that I don't understand, I'm okay not knowing. I ask God to help me believing that if I seek I will find, knowing He will lead me into all truth. When I find something that appears to contradict, I don't freak out and have my faith shaken. I trust God and confess that I do not understand but God's Word is Truth and ask Him to show me where I am misunderstanding. That has been working. For example, a passage I've read a million times, suddenly a word will pop to the forefront and other verses I've read will come to mind and I start to see the whole concept form and then I understand. I had to stop trying to make it make sense myself or run to secondary sources first, if that makes any sense. To me that is what it is to trust in the Lord with all our heart and lean not on our own understanding when it comes to God's Word.

I don't know if this helps at all but I do understand what you are saying and the concerns that you are feeling and wanted to thank you for this thread. I'm finding it to be edifying.

[gdemoss]

Proverbs 3:5 when speaking about our own understanding is referring to 'pride' or 'self-exaltation' due to acquired knowledge/wisdom/understanding, even that which is from God and truth. I confess that I did not know this until you asked and I went back to the scriptures to better understand it. I found my understanding by comparing the word translated from the Hebrew to the Greek Septuagint.

ἐπαίρω - New Testament occurances of Septuagint Greek translation.

בִּינָה - Hebrew instances in OT usage.

I perceive the warning to mean that we are to be careful not to begin to believe that we know it all but simply apply ourselves by that which we do know through acknowledging God in our actions and rely upon him to simply guide our path for us. As soon as we think we know it all and are able to be guided by what we know, we will find ourselves in trouble.

Gary

[Guest]

With all due respect, What does this have to do with my op and question? Please keep this thread on topic, or start a thread on your topic to further discuss your points of view.

Thank you for your time and may God bless

I got a response I didn't understand and I had a question, so I asked it. Have a nice day. You also, sevenseas.

[firestormx]

To everyone who has posted,

You have given me much to seek the Lord about.

Dennis, great point that I had not applied to this subject. thank you

jeanniec, Sorry that happened to you, but great testimony, that's what I've been asking people for, thanks for sharing

gdemoss, I was hoping someone would have a deeper understanding of the origanal language and what it meant

Thank you again and God bless

[Sevenseas]

Proverbs 3:5 when speaking about our own understanding is referring to 'pride' or 'self-exaltation' due to acquired knowledge/wisdom/understanding, even that which is from God and truth. I confess that I did not know this until you asked and I went back to the scriptures to better understand it. I found my understanding by comparing the word translated from the Hebrew to the Greek Septuagint.

Actually, the proper translation is not one of pride

Trust

batach (baw-takh')

to hie for refuge; figuratively, to trust, be confident or sure -- be bold (confident, secure, sure), careless (one, woman), put confidence, (make to) hope, (put, make to) trust.

in the LORD

Yhovah (yeh-ho-vaw')

(the) self-Existent or Eternal; Jehovah, Jewish national name of God -- Jehovah, the Lord.

with all thine heart

leb (labe)

the heart; also used (figuratively) very widely for the feelings, the will and even the intellect

and lean

sha`an (shaw-an')

to support one's self -- lean, lie, rely, rest (on, self), stay.

not unto thine own understanding

biynah (bee-naw')

understanding -- knowledge, meaning, perfectly, understanding, wisdom

KJV Lexicon

You cannot translate word for word when dealing with another language. English is exceptional in its construction.

The proper translation for not leaning on your own understanding would actually mean to 'not support yourself with'

Which, is why the translation in our Bibles uses the English word 'to lean'...the Hebrew language is far more descriptive exact in it's meaning so we should

be careful not to put our own translations in if we are not a student of Hebrew or Greek. If we do not follow the rules for languages we do

know we can easily change the meaning and that would not help our understanding at all

The Bible tells us we should ask for wisdom and seek knowledge. In our pursuit of truth, we should be willing to accept

correction when it is given. Pride and arrogance occur when someone thinks everyone else but them is wrong

[firestormx]

Proverbs 3:5 when speaking about our own understanding is referring to 'pride' or 'self-exaltation' due to acquired knowledge/wisdom/understanding, even that which is from God and truth. I confess that I did not know this until you asked and I went back to the scriptures to better understand it. I found my understanding by comparing the word translated from the Hebrew to the Greek Septuagint.

Actually, the proper translation is not one of pride

Trust

batach (baw-takh')

to hie for refuge; figuratively, to trust, be confident or sure -- be bold (confident, secure, sure), careless (one, woman), put confidence, (make to) hope, (put, make to) trust.

in the LORD

Yhovah (yeh-ho-vaw')

(the) self-Existent or Eternal; Jehovah, Jewish national name of God -- Jehovah, the Lord.

with all thine heart

leb (labe)

the heart; also used (figuratively) very widely for the feelings, the will and even the intellect

and lean

sha`an (shaw-an')

to support one's self -- lean, lie, rely, rest (on, self), stay.

not unto thine own understanding

biynah (bee-naw')

understanding -- knowledge, meaning, perfectly, understanding, wisdom

KJV Lexicon

You cannot translate word for word when dealing with another language. English is exceptional in its construction.

The proper translation for not leaning on your own understanding would actually mean to 'not support yourself with'

Which, is why the translation in our Bibles uses the English word 'to lean'...the Hebrew language is far more descriptive exact in it's meaning so we should

be careful not to put our own translations in if we are not a student of Hebrew or Greek. If we do not follow the rules for languages we do

know we can easily change the meaning and that would not help our understanding at all

The Bible tells us we should ask for wisdom and seek knowledge. In our pursuit of truth, we should be willing to accept

correction when it is given. Pride and arrogance occur when someone thinks everyone else but them is wrong

Good answer.

[OneLight]

Hebrew is a hard language for us to understand. What I have on my Interlinear for Proverbs 3:5 is the following.

btch al - ieue b •kl - lb •k u •al -binth •k al - thshon

trust-you ! to Yahweh in •all-of heart-of•you and•to understanding-of•you must-not-be you-are-ⁿlearning.

btch

trust-you !

al - ieue

to Yahweh

b •kl

in •all-of

- lb •k

heart-of•you

u •al

and•to

-binth •k

understanding-of•you

al -

must-not-be

thshon

you-are-ⁿlearning.

Though it takes some time to understand, returning to the copies of the original is the best way to read.

[gdemoss]

Proverbs 3:5 when speaking about our own understanding is referring to 'pride' or 'self-exaltation' due to acquired knowledge/wisdom/understanding, even that which is from God and truth. I confess that I did not know this until you asked and I went back to the scriptures to better understand it. I found my understanding by comparing the word translated from the Hebrew to the Greek Septuagint.

Actually, the proper translation is not one of pride

Trust

batach (baw-takh')

to hie for refuge; figuratively, to trust, be confident or sure -- be bold (confident, secure, sure), careless (one, woman), put confidence, (make to) hope, (put, make to) trust.

in the LORD

Yhovah (yeh-ho-vaw')

(the) self-Existent or Eternal; Jehovah, Jewish national name of God -- Jehovah, the Lord.

with all thine heart

leb (labe)

the heart; also used (figuratively) very widely for the feelings, the will and even the intellect

and lean

sha`an (shaw-an')

to support one's self -- lean, lie, rely, rest (on, self), stay.

not unto thine own understanding

biynah (bee-naw')

understanding -- knowledge, meaning, perfectly, understanding, wisdom

KJV Lexicon

You cannot translate word for word when dealing with another language. English is exceptional in its construction.

The proper translation for not leaning on your own understanding would actually mean to 'not support yourself with'

Which, is why the translation in our Bibles uses the English word 'to lean'...the Hebrew language is far more descriptive exact in it's meaning so we should

be careful not to put our own translations in if we are not a student of Hebrew or Greek. If we do not follow the rules for languages we do

know we can easily change the meaning and that would not help our understanding at all

The Bible tells us we should ask for wisdom and seek knowledge. In our pursuit of truth, we should be willing to accept

correction when it is given. Pride and arrogance occur when someone thinks everyone else but them is wrong

Sevenseas, what you have stated here is really no different than what I said except that you state that it doesn't mean pride but then turn around and describe in detail what pride is. I believe this is why the translators of the Septuagint decided to use a word that expressly is pride related instead of a word that was not. But please, by all means, continue to be skeptical of all that which I post since we are still dealing with the idea that I am being seduced by evil spirits. The extra scrutiny is useful.

Gary

[firestormx]

But please, by all means, continue to be skeptical of all that which I post since we are still dealing with the idea that I am being seduced by evil spirits.

Gary

Ok, you got my attention. Anything you need to talk about?