How the "Burning Heart" Warms Us to the Truth

Jesus Torches Our Misunderstandings

Dennis Gladden | June 8 2024

“Now it came to pass, as Jesus sat at the table with them, that He took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they knew Him; and He vanished from their sight. And they said to one another, "Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?" -Luke 24:30-32

All of us who study the Bible desire a "burning heart" such as these two disciples who encountered Jesus as they walked from Jerusalem to Emmaus two days after The Crucifixion.

The "burning" didn't frighten or harm but warmed them to the truth: Jesus is alive. They abandoned their plans for the evening and rushed back into the city to tell the other disciples.

Haven't we all had days when reading the Bible was like staring at blank paper? Nothing resonates, nothing speaks, not even a whisper.

But those "burning heart" moments, when a passage you have read umpteen times ignites with new meaning, are awesome. I had such a moment while reading this account again recently.

We dread getting burned but understand that fire can be cleansing as well as harmful. Wildfires destroy, yet Forest Management sets controlled fires to burn off the dry undergrowth and preserve the forests from wildfires. Fighting fire with fire is more than a cliché; it is a sound practice.

So, when our hearts "burn" as we read the Bible, there is both hurt and healing: Hurt while the Lord exposes a long-held understanding as a misunderstanding; healing as He pours the balm of truth where the false had been.

A couple of examples.

Years ago, I believed that this statement in Judges, "In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes" (Judges 17:6, 21:25), was God's plan for ideal government. Without a king, personal freedom reigned. God ruled, and people lived freely before Him. This supported my enthusiasm for minimal government, which I carried into a brief political foray (and won two elections).

As time passed, God combusted my conviction. I had overlooked another text, where God exhorted Israel, "You shall not at all do as we are doing here today—every man doing whatever is right in his own eyes" (Deuteronomy 12:8).

The historical context of Judges should also have told me that everyone doing their own thing is not ideal. The 400-year period of the Judges slumped to deplorable conditions. It was the worst of times more than the best of times.

God chastened me to set aside a cherished notion.

The text in Luke 24 also demonstrates the painful side of a "burning heart." These two disciples knew the scriptures. They were looking for the Messiah and knew He would be a prophet of God, powerful, and a skilled speaker. They saw these traits in Jesus and were ready to acclaim Him.

But they also misunderstood the scriptures, having read them through a lens of politics. "We were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel," they said, explaining their disappointment.

Jesus immediately set a flame to their wrong interpretation. "O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!"

Talk about words that singe.

But fire also cleanses, and the hearts of these two disciples burned anew as Jesus, "beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself" (Luke 24:27).

What they had seen only dimly, they now saw clearly. Jesus had burned away the dross and fanned their withered hope into flame.

As for my misunderstanding of the passages in Judges, the Lord has warmed my heart to the truth of the Gospel.

The Apostle Paul reminds us, "We walk by faith, not by sight" (2 Corinthians 5:7, emphasis mine). In other words, we live by our ears, not by our eyes, because faith comes by hearing. He goes on throughout his letters to talk about behaving in God's sight:

Compare the lives of those in the book of Acts to those in the time of the judges. Both influenced their generations, but those in Acts, who grounded themselves in the sight of God, "turned the world upside down" (Acts 17:6). Under the judges, however, generations where everyone "did right in their own eyes" grew more corrupt.

"The Lord our God is a consuming fire," said Moses (Deuteronomy 4:24). No wonder the hearts of the disciples burned as Jesus talked with them. He was torching their misconceptions, leaving only the truth.

"I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth" (3 John 1:4). These are the words of the Apostle John, but I think Jesus would say, "Ditto."

Walking in truth is the residue of a heart that God sets aflame.

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"If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever --- the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. -John 14:15-17

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