The Slow Decoding of the Rosetta Stone

In 1808, a seventeen-year-old French linguist named Jean-François Champollion stood before a copy of the Rosetta Stone in Paris and knew — with the certainty of a calling — that he would one day read Egyptian hieroglyphics. But the stone did not yield its secrets all at once. For fourteen years, Champollion labored. He mastered Coptic, Arabic, and ancient Greek. He traced each carved symbol with painstaking devotion. Colleagues dismissed him. Rival scholars published false translations. Yet piece by piece, the ancient script surrendered its meaning. In September 1822, Champollion finally cracked the code, reportedly crying "I've got it!" before collapsing from exhaustion. The truth had been inscribed in that stone for two thousand years — but Champollion could only receive it as he became ready to understand.

This is the very promise Jesus makes in John 16. "I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now," He tells His disciples. The truth was not being withheld — it was being timed. And the Spirit of Truth, Jesus promised, would guide them into all truth, taking what belongs to Christ and revealing it at the pace their hearts could receive.

The Holy Spirit is no reluctant teacher. He is the master interpreter of God's own language, decoding the depths of Christ's glory for us — not all at once, but faithfully, as we grow ready to bear the weight of what He reveals.