It is true that “the LORD giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding.” (Pro 2:6). It is true that God’s commandments, testimonies, and precepts (in other words, His word) give wisdom and understanding (Psa 119:98-100). It is true that God commands His people to “get wisdom, get understanding: forget it not; neither decline from the words of my mouth….wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.” (Pro 4:5,7).
So if God desires and enjoins His people to get understanding of His word, why then would I be asking the question of whether God’s word is written to intentionally confuse some people? To see why this question is posed, let’s have a look at a passage in the book of Isaiah. The prophet Isaiah asked, “Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts.” (Isa 28:9). So we see it is those who have been weaned from the milk and taken from the breasts whom God will teach knowledge and make to understand doctrine. The apostle Paul elaborates on this in Heb 5:11-14 where he explains that “every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe.” Those who will get beyond the basics of the gospel and into the meat of the word need to be weaned from the milk: in other words they need to mature in their understanding of the word of God.
So how do they do this? How are they made to understand doctrine? Isaiah goes on to give the answer, “For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:” (Isa 28:10). So here is the formula for understanding God’s word: precept (commandment or instruction) must be upon (above and in contact with; in an elevated position on; at rest on the upper surface of; on and supported by) precept, and line must be upon line, and the doctrine must be gathered here a little and there a little. In other words, all the information concerning a point of doctrine is not given in one place in the Bible; it is scattered here a little, and there little; and once all the information is found, it needs to be organized and each piece has to be laid upon the other, each point building upon the previous one. This is how God’s doctrine must be understood; this is how God designed it.
Okay, so what about this business of God writing His word in a way to intentionally deceive and confuse some people? Let’s keep reading in Isaiah: “For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people. 12) To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear.” (Isa 28:11-12). So God gave people the method to understand His doctrine and by this the weary would be given rest and refreshing. Indeed, continuing in God’s word and knowing the truth will make us free (Joh 8:31-32), and taking Jesus’ yoke upon us and learning of Him will give us rest (Mat 11:28-30).
But what if people won’t hear, as was the case with those whom Isaiah was speaking of? Let’s keep reading…”But the word of the LORD was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.” (Isa 28:13). God’s judgment on those who will not hear is that they might “go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken”. And how does God accomplish this? He accomplishes it by the same means as he gives understanding of His doctrine to those who will hear: by giving the word of the LORD “unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little”. You see, God has written His word in such a way that it gives knowledge and understanding of His doctrine to those whose hearts want to know it, but at the same time, and by the same means, confuses others who will not hear it and causes them to fall backward, be broken, snared, and taken.
That’s how God operates: He will send strong delusion to those who receive not the love of the truth so that they will believe a lie (2Th 2:10-11); He sent a lying spirit in the mouth of His prophets to cause king Ahab to fall in battle because Ahab would not hear His word (1Ki 22:17-23); He says that He “will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent” (1Co 1:19), which He accomplishes “by the foolishness of preaching” (1Co 1:21), which is done in the same way that “the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual” (1Co 2:13), or in other words by preaching and teaching “precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little” (Isa 28:13).
Anyone who has read much of the Bible knows that there are lots of supposed contradictions in it that are only resolved by “comparing spiritual things with spiritual” and by studying it “precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little”. But to those who don’t want to do that and don’t want to believe it, God has set plenty of traps and snares in it to catch them so that they will “fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken”.
So is God’s word written in such a way to intentionally confuse those people who will not hear it? Absolutely.
