The request is frequently sent in from some earnest correspondent that some text in the Bible be "harmonized" with some other text that is mentioned. We wish to call attention to the fact, so that those who read may come to the study of the Bible better prepared to receive benefit from it.
Suppose some student of music should take one of the masterpiece of Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn, or Handel, and after glancing it through two or three times, should ask his teacher to "harmonize" it for him, so that he could play it understandingly. The teacher would tell the student that the harmony was already there; that the master put it there when he wrote the piece; and that he must study it until he is able to see the harmony.
To the student it might at first seem a hopeless task, but if he has patience, and a love for music, he will study away at the composition, working out difficult chords, until finally the grand harmony is open to his understanding. Then he can go on for years enjoying it, his appreciation of it ever increasing; and his enjoyment of it will be the greater because of his previous study.
It does not need that one should be a musician to know that there is no other way than this for a person to appreciate the work of the great composers. Why should not the Bible be treated as fairly? David prayed to the Lord, "Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law." (Psalm 119:18)
The same God to whom he prayed exists today, and is as ready to answer that prayer for any person who prays it, as He was to answer it in David's case. When the two disciples walked to Emmaus, and Jesus drew near and walked with them, their hearts burned within them, as He opened to them the Scriptures; and afterwards, in the upper chamber, where the twelve were gathered together, Jesus opened their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures. "Then He opened their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures." (Luke 24:45)
Although we cannot see Him with our eyes, He is just as near, and just as able to instruct those who ask Him today, as He was then. When the Scriptures were written, the harmony was put in them by the great Master. "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." (2 Timothy 3:16-17)
One Spirit inspired the whole of the Bible, and so there is the most perfect agreement between all its parts. This agreement may not be always apparent to the casual reader, any more than the harmony in the great musical compositions is apparent at a glance; but the right kind of study will always reveal it.
The greatest hindrance to the understanding of the Scriptures is the attitude which people assume towards it. They come at it in a spirit of challenge. They put it on the defensive. When a plain declaration is read in one text, they immediately refer to another text, and say, "I don't see how that can be, in view of what this text says."
So they put the two texts in antagonism. Such a position shuts off the possibility of understanding the Bible. "By faith we understand." (Hebrews 11:3,RV)
The truths of God are revealed to faith, not to mere human intellect. There is no discount upon intellect, for it is a gift of God; but it is to be subject to faith, and to be instructed by it. That means simply that human reason is to be subject to God, for faith is the laying hold of God. Belief, implicit belief, of the Bible, is the necessary condition of understanding it. He who does not believe cannot understand; and nobody believes the Bible, when he comes to it in a spirit that will, even in thought, put one text in antagonism to another.
In order to understand the Bible we must come to it in the positive knowledge that it is inspired by God. We must know that in consequence of that inspiration it is perfectly harmonious throughout. Then when we come to a text that seems to be in contradiction to another, or to a line of other texts, we can say, "I know that there is perfect harmony between these texts, although I cannot see it now. I will therefore give them careful and prayerful consideration, that I may see it."
The problem is half solved then. The Holy Spirit was given for the express purpose of leading people into the truth, (John 16:13) and will still do it. That Spirit is freely given to all who will sincerely ask for it.--Present Truth, May 14, 1903.