NATIONAL ENQUIRER magazine

For as long as I can remember, the National Enquirer magazine – along with its wild, wacky, and sometimes raunchy photos and headlines – has flaunted itself proudly in the faces of supermarket and drugstore customers propelling their shopping carts up the checkout line. Its long-time motto, “enquiring minds want to know”, may seem like the farthest thing imaginable in the way of a catalyst to launch into a vitally important Bible lesson, but in fact it is not. For just as much of the world has pressed its nose and eyes into the pages of the magazine while passing through checkout lines, perusing its pages whether it be for total curiosity, extreme interest, or sheer boredom, so has the world’s enquiring mind manifested itself in countless ways throughout the ages as it enquires (inquires and looks into) and seeks everything from A to Z and back again. We live in an enquiring world, don’t we? We are all constantly seeking something, or someone, aren’t we? We are seekers by nature, are we not? We have enquiring minds, wouldn’t you agree? Now take a leap of faith with me for a moment from National Enquirer magazine to the pages of the Old Testament of the Bible.

background photo courtesy of morguefile.com

Imagine my surprise in my most recent study of the Old Testament, which has shockingly become one of my favorite pastimes despite my not so long ago sheer intimidation, boredom, and fear when it came to studying it, when I discovered just how often the word enquire is used. Do you know that those who were victorious, those who overcame their seemingly insurmountable challenges, who won their battles, who accomplished things unimaginable, were those who enquired. Yes, I read the King James version of the Bible. And yes, the word enquire appears to be an archaic word no longer in use as far as I can tell, outside of National Enquirer magazine. But suffice it to say those who came out victorious at various stages of their lives were those who ENQUIRED after the Lord. They sought His face. They prayed to Him. They called out to Him. They sought the prophets to hear from the Lord for them. They inquired what the Lord would say about a matter. And they listened and obeyed – those who were victorious anyway.

From National Enquirer magazine to the Old Testament of the Bible, and onto the New Testament. We humans are truly seekers by nature. Always seeking something, aren’t we? Our next meal. Next relationship. Next job. To win. To succeed. To watch a favorite t.v. program. To get directions to the hotel. To get someone to love us in return. Seeking, seeking, constantly seeking. But there is one we were created and born to seek and to follow above anything or anyone else on this entire earth – and that is the Lord God almighty through faith in Jesus Christ Savior of the world. Our problem as humans is not that we do not know how to enquire and to seek. It is that we stand on the checkout line of our lives, enquiring into the things, the places, the people, we are not called to seek. Or the things we should be enquiring about, we find ourselves prone to seeking and enquiring into those things as a higher priority than enquiring after the Lord. Our enquiring minds were not created to seek the things of this world as our greatest priority, but instead to seek the Lord as the number one priority for our enquiring minds. This is where our victory – and our eternity – lie. In Him.

Gen_25:22  And the children struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to enquire of the LORD. 

Exo_18:15  And Moses said unto his father in law, Because the people come unto me to enquire of God: 

1Sa_9:9  (Beforetime in Israel, when a man went to enquire of God, thus he spake, Come, and let us go to the seer: for he that is now called a Prophet was beforetime called a Seer.) 

1Sa_22:15  Did I then begin to enquire of God for him? be it far from me: let not the king impute any thing unto his servant, nor to all the house of my father: for thy servant knew nothing of all this, less or more. 

1Ki_22:5  And Jehoshaphat said unto the king of Israel, Enquire, I pray thee, at the word of the LORD to day. 

1Ki_22:7  And Jehoshaphat said, Is there not here a prophet of the LORD besides, that we might enquire of him? 

2Ki_1:3  But the angel of the LORD said to Elijah the Tishbite, Arise, go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria, and say unto them, Is it not because there is not a God in Israel, that ye go to enquire of Baalzebub the god of Ekron? 

2Ki_3:11  But Jehoshaphat said, Is there not here a prophet of the LORD, that we may enquire of the LORD by him? And one of the king of Israel’s servants answered and said, Here is Elisha the son of Shaphat, which poured water on the hands of Elijah. 

2Ki_8:8  And the king said unto Hazael, Take a present in thine hand, and go, meet the man of God, and enquire of the LORD by him, saying, Shall I recover of this disease? 

2Ki_22:13  Go ye, enquire of the LORD for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that is found: for great is the wrath of the LORD that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not hearkened unto the words of this book, to do according unto all that which is written concerning us. 

2Ki_22:18  But to the king of Judah which sent you to enquire of the LORD, thus shall ye say to him, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, As touching the words which thou hast heard; 

2Ch_18:4  And Jehoshaphat said unto the king of Israel, Enquire, I pray thee, at the word of the LORD to day. 

2Ch_18:6  But Jehoshaphat said, Is there not here a prophet of the LORD besides, that we might enquire of him? 

2Ch_34:21  Go, enquire of the LORD for me, and for them that are left in Israel and in Judah, concerning the words of the book that is found: for great is the wrath of the LORD that is poured out upon us, because our fathers have not kept the word of the LORD, to do after all that is written in this book. 

2Ch_34:26  And as for the king of Judah, who sent you to enquire of the LORD, so shall ye say unto him, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel concerning the words which thou hast heard; 

Psa_27:4  One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple.

Jer_21:2  Enquire, I pray thee, of the LORD for us; for Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon maketh war against us; if so be that the LORD will deal with us according to all his wondrous works, that he may go up from us. 

Jer_37:7  Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel; Thus shall ye say to the king of Judah, that sent you unto me to enquire of me; Behold, Pharaoh’s army, which is come forth to help you, shall return to Egypt into their own land. 

Eze_14:7  For every one of the house of Israel, or of the stranger that sojourneth in Israel, which separateth himself from me, and setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to a prophet to enquire of him concerning me; I the LORD will answer him by myself: 

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