The Veil Of Ignorance

A tragic story once occurred of a woman and her son walking along a river bank. The woman was in her latter stage of pregnancy and held her toddler son by the hand as they journeyed. Suddenly, the little boy slipped and fell into the river! The woman in her condition could not jump into the river to save her son’s life. She cried and cried for help. After a little while, a couple of men heard her crying desperately and hurried towards her. They jumped into the river and brought out the lifeless infant, who had drowned in the river. The woman had not realised the river was only knee deep! She realised this, when the men ran into the river to rescue her son. Thus, she could have run into the river herself, in spite of her condition. Alas, it was too late. She had been unaware of the approximate depth of the muddy water. A majority of people in life are like the pregnant mother, oblivious of the journeys of life.

The spiritual lives of many people are in this way; unaware of what lies ahead of daily activities. Spirit-filled Christians should be able to discern, who their true friends and neighbours are. The irony is that many Christians are dining with the devil. There is a veil of ignorance covering their spiritual eyes.

People are managing the affairs they know little or nothing about. For instance, there are teachers who should be students, deliverance ministers who need deliverance, “great men and women of God” who should be learning how to be true followers of Christ. This is a fighter who is not familiar with his or her weapon of warfare or a soldier who does not recognise his or her enemies and where they are located.

Paul the apostle simply stated this in his epistle to the Corinthians, that he was not an ignorant person. He was a spiritual man who knew his right from his left.

“I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air.”

1 Corinthians 9:26.

Paul did not mince his words. He spoke with directness. He did not waste his punches, by shadow boxing. He fought with spiritual precision, and his spiritual eyes were alert.

When Joshua took over the mantle from Moses, God admonished him concerning all round prosperity. In the book of Joshua 1:8, Joshua the new leader was ordered by God to ensure the word of God did not depart from his mouth, and to meditate on it day and night, meaning at all times he had to carryout God’s will. In the first instance, the key within this particular Scripture is to seek constant knowledge from the word of God.

The main hindrance to any form of success is lack of knowledge. Many homes, ministries, callings, finances and so on are destroyed as a result of ignorance.

“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.”

Hosea 4:6.

It is said that the mountain of problems people have is in their mountain of ignorance.

A pompous young man once sought Socrates, the great philosopher for knowledge. When he finally accosted Socrates, his arrogance and pride were very apparent to Socrates. The philosopher decided to teach the man a lesson, so he took him to a pool of water deep enough for the purpose. Socrates then asked the young man, “What do you want?” And the man answered, “I want knowledge.” Socrates then pulled the man down with great strength and held him under the water for some seconds before pulling him out. He gasped for air desperately. Socrates asked him the question again, “What do you want?”, and the boy answered “I want knowledge.”

The man was dipped into the water for the second time, this time a little longer, before he was pulled up. He was then asked the same question, “What do you want?” and he answered with great breathing difficulty “I want knowledge” Again, for the third time he was given the same treatment, and he was held under the water for even longer than the second time. Finally, he was asked the question again by Socrates “What do you want?” This time the man gasped and gasped for air and cried out “I want air!”

Until a man seeks knowledge as much as the air he breathes, it can be argued he is not prepared to learn. A person such as this will forever remain a spiritual mediocre.

“Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices”.