Friday 29 April 2016

According to His word

For Your word's sake, and according to Your own heart, You have done all these great things, to make Your servant know them. – 2 Samuel 7.21

Not only does God care about us. Not only does He know us. He also wants us to know Him and His word.

The preciousness of God’s word is seen over and over in scripture. Once again David is hinting at things he will expand in later. In fact, the longest psalm he writer, Psalm 119 with 176 verses, is almost all about the Bible. Here is just a sample.

Your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path
How can a make keep his heart clean, by taking heed to the word of God
Give me life according to Your word
Remind me of Your word, where You have given me hope
Your promise gives me life
Oh how I love Your law, I meditate on it day and night

God honours His word. In his heart His wants us to know it so He does great things to show the power of His word to us so that we can know His word better, and, by knowing His word better we know Him better.

It only makes sense that if there really is a God who made us He would communicate with us. He could do it any way He wants. He could use dreams or visions or skywriting or voices in our heads. I am not saying He doesn't do the others (except skywriting) but the primary way He speaks is through His written word because that has a sense of permanence. I might forget what I heard or I might wonder if it is God’s voice speaking to me or my dream might be the result of too much pizza, but His word is always there. It doesn't change. If we take the time to learn Hebrew and Greek we can still read manuscripts that are thousands of years old and they say the same things as our Bibles today. If you go into Dublin (any day but Monday) you can see a display of Bible manuscripts as old as the second century. If God is going to communicate His written word is the surest way for us to know His words.

That God for the great things He has done to preserve His word.

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