12/01/2020
How valuable do you consider God’s word? Do you keep it under lock and key, guard it with your life, memorize it, and contemplate it all the day long? Prior to the invention of the printing press it was considered the greatest treasure a man could have, and every copy of God’s Word took years to create, it was painstakingly reproduced by scribes... one letter, word, sentence, paragraph and page at a time. I ask again... How valuable do you consider God’s Word?
“Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.”
Acts 17:11 ESV
I was reading an excerpt of the collective works of George Swinnock this morning, and it opened my eyes to a new observation concerning how modern society views the Bible, and its contents. Swinnock wrote about how people of his time, and before, considered a single page of the Bible worth laying their lives down for; not because of the ink and paper, but for what that page contained. Listen to his words:
“The godly have meditated in it day and night and have esteemed it above the sweetest honey and finest gold. The martyrs in England have given much of their estates for a few leaves of it, and have laid down their lives before they would lose the precious fruit in it.” - George Swinnock, ‘Collective Works, 1665’
It dawned on me that perhaps the Bible has been trivialized by the mass produced familiarity with which we now hold it. To make this point let me ask you a simple question... what do you do with an old Bible when it has grown brittle, yellowed by time, and you have bought a new one to replace it? Do you simply throw it away?
My wife’s parents passed away a few years ago, and in the process of clearing out their house, we weren’t surprised to find their personal Bibles conveniently placed next to their chair, or bedside, but then, while clearing the attic we found a large box of precious treasure. Inside this box were many old Bibles, including their children’s new testaments, and the small Bible they had given the daughter they had lost to cancer as a child. These were more than just keepsakes, or sentimental objects, they each contained the written Word of God, and Ann’s parents couldn’t part with them for fear of profaning a single Word.
“The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.”
Isaiah 40:8 ESV
And again in the New Testament...
“Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.”
Matthew 24:35 ESV
Do we hold God’s Word sacred, reverent, and Holy to the point where even the mass produced copies of the ‘Holy Bible’ created by an unthinking machine are more valuable than life to us? I thought about the monks who sat day after day transcribing God’s Word in beautiful script as if each letter were a masterpiece, and I wondered to myself if their efforts didn’t somehow add a touch of their faith to each of those words, because I envisioned them being prayed over, and their pens actively bringing to life the very scripture they were reproducing...
“For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”
Hebrews 4:12 ESV
So, what is the value we place on our Bible... God’s Word? Is it worth going blind over like a scribe sitting in a dark room with a candle writing each letter, or a dark lamp lit cabin in the woods straining our eyes to read it? Is it worth our physical life to protect it, and the eternity that God has placed there for us? Or, is it just something pretty to put on display to impress our friends, and on occasion read mindlessly to ourselves? Does it mean less because we bought it in a seedy used book store than those which were slaved over in a monastery on a mountain somewhere, and later offered at auction as a historical treasure? Ask yourself these questions, and more, concerning the value you personally place on your Bible. I pray today that your fortune and mine is found in the very Word of God contained therein, and not some sentiment, or monetary price placed on them.
“And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’””
Matthew 4:3-4 ESV
Prayer:
Father, thank you for every letter, and Word that you have given us. No matter the language, or translation, help us to find you there between the covers of our Bibles. We thank you for the completely amazing fact that we can easily hold this small book, and yet from our hands your Word, like the sun whose light radiates in every direction, encompasses all of creation. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you our God who has chosen us to bring your Word to the world, and all of your creation. Praised be your name for each individual Word we read because it opens our eyes, and souls, to a vastness that we can only marvel at. We worship you Lord for trusting us with the Bible, whether old, new, written by hand, or produced by machine, you have placed in our hands your Word... the key to all faith, understanding, wisdom, and life. Why us Father? What makes us worthy to be sent forth to preach and teach your Word to all the entirety of your creation? Only your Son Jesus who you sent to redeem us, and send us forth. Wash us clean of all sin with his blood, and make us Holy as He is Holy through your mercy, grace, and the boundless faith you have nurtured in us. Find us righteous on judgement day, and invite us into your house where we will realize, at your feet, how far reaching your Word truly is, and that the small book we once held was a portal to all eternity.
“It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.”
John 6:63 ESV
Rich Forbes