You Can Find Riches Worth More Than Gold!

THE truths in the Bible may be likened to gold, silver, or other hidden treasures. Though you may never have prospected for literal gold or silver, likely you realize that doing so requires much hard work and persistence. And often the prospector meets with disappointment.

However, such disappointment never results when you seek hidden treasures in the Bible. Note this encouraging guarantee: “If you keep seeking for it as for silver, and as for hid treasures you keep searching for it, in that case you will understand the fear of Jehovah, and you will find the very knowledge of God.” (Proverbs 2:4, 5) But you must search.

“Search and See”

“Search and see that no prophet is to be raised up out of Galilee.” This was the advice that some first-century Jewish Pharisees gave to Nicodemus, also a Pharisee. “Search and see.” Good advice, indeed. It was possible to search and find the truth​—something far more valuable than gold.

In that particular case, however, those who gave the advice to “search and see” failed to act accordingly. How so?

The chief priests and the Pharisees had sent officers to arrest Jesus Christ. Highly impressed with his way of teaching, the officers returned empty-handed. Consequently, the Pharisees asked them: “You have not been misled also, have you?” Nicodemus spoke up and said: “Our law does not judge a man unless first it has heard from him and come to know what he is doing, does it?” These words prompted the advice to “search and see.”​—John 7:32, 45-52.

How had the priests and the Pharisees failed? They did not know or acknowledge that although Jesus was raised in Galilee, he was born in Bethlehem. The prophet Micah had foretold: “From you [Bethlehem] there will come out to me the one who is to become ruler in Israel.” (Micah 5:2) So those leading men failed to search and see Jesus’ credentials as a prophet, one who was to become ruler in Israel. This led to tragic consequences, and it illustrates how vital it is to search and get the whole truth about matters. But how is truth often viewed?

Truth Has Become Adulterated

“Pure truth, like pure gold, has been found unfit for circulation, because men have discovered that it is far more convenient to adulterate the truth than to refine themselves,” said a 19th-century writer. How pointed these words still are regarding the worldly religious field! Behind the scenes of this adulterating of the truth is “the father of the lie,” Satan the Devil. (John 8:44; Revelation 12:9) He uses false religion to adulterate true teachings on such vital questions as these: Who is God? What is Jesus’ relationship to him? What is the destiny of the earth and mankind?

The priests and the Pharisees could have searched for and found the truth. They could have found riches worth much more than gold. Yes, they could have obtained the whole truth about Jesus by ‘hearing from him and coming to know what he was doing,’ as Nicodemus suggested. If they had been sincere in doing this, no doubt Jesus would have explained things to them, as he did to his disciples. (Mark 4:34) But where can we find the pure truth today? Indeed, is there any guarantee that we can successfully search for and get the whole truth?

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Religious leaders could have obtained the whole truth about Jesus by ‘hearing from him’