"You search the scriptures because in them you THINK you have life."

No one during Jesus' day knew the Jewish scriptures better than the Pharisees and the scribes. They knew their scripture word for word. They could quote it, teach it, preach it better than anyone. But they were the very ones Jesus pronounced several "woes" unto in Matthew chpt 23 - and he even referred to them as serpents and vipers.

I have thought often over the last few years of what would happen if I went around to some of the churches around here and, after the pastor or priest finished his message, I were to get up and say "Woe to you. You serpent! You Viper!" LOL I do not doubt I would quickly be ushered out the door and told never to return.

The fact is, the religious leaders of today are no different than they were in Jesus' day. They use the scriptures to control people - some more subtly than others. And they themselves know and worship those scriptures, and their belief systems, more than they do God.

Jesus told the scribes and Pharisees to "search the scriptures for in them you think you have eternal life." (Jn 5:39)
They didn't know the real purpose nor the real meaning of the scriptures, even though they could quote them word for word and preach and teach them. They were so engrossed in the scriptures and what they believed and thought the scriptures meant that they thought that was where their very life came from.

I guarantee you - there are some of you reading this right now who think your life, your eternal life, comes from what you believe and what you think you know about your religion's scriptures. Let me assure you - the ONLY difference your beliefs make is in how what-you-believe affects your living now - not your "after-life".

During a time of fasting, it is said that Jesus was tempted to turn stones into bread. There is so much symbolism here - if you can see it. The stones can actually symbolize a couple of things in the scriptures. They can symbolize all of the scriptures themselves. They can symbolize the tablets of stone that Moses is said to have received the laws of God upon. The stones can also symbolize things we believe or experiences and encounters with God we had in the past. (Take the story of Jacob and his dream of the ladder to heaven - after the dream he took the stone he had used for a pillow and made a monument out of it.) And bread - well it can symbolize many things - the words spoken by teachers and prophets given to sustain the people, the bread of communion, the fellowship of believers (aka church), etc. Bread gives us sustenance.

So basically, this temptation of Jesus to take the stones and turn them into bread, was really a temptation to try to find his life in the scriptures. But Jesus countered that by saying that we should not find our true life and spiritual nourishment from that - "but by every word that proceeds(continually flows) from the mouth of God."

Jesus was, in essence, being tempted to live by the "letter - which kills" (which is what the Pharisees lived by) rather than by the "Spirit - which gives life."

Do you realize, Spirit lives in you? Not in a book.
This is grace. The divine influence in your heart.