As I walked to the front door of our home, I noticed my wife’s carefully tended flowers had finally succumbed to the changing weather, and the phrase that came to mind was, “The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever” (Isaiah 40:8).
As I thought about the Scriptures, I wondered, “Lord, why didn’t You leave anything You personally wrote behind. I mean, You had so much bubbling up inside of You and spilling out of You, how could you NOT have left behind volumes of instructions for living and meditations on the higher things of life. Multitudes of preachers and prophets and holy men feel compelled to write. How is it possible that You didn’t write down at least a little something on a fragment of parchment that someone latched onto and later had it copied and distributed?”
Well, the Lord didn’t answer me, but I couldn’t help but speculate. If Jesus had written a portion of the Scriptures Himself, and not just inspired others to do so, would we not value His written words above what others had written? Even now, some consider the red-lettered “words of Jesus” in the Bible weightier than the other words of Scripture, even though Jesus inspired all of them. And would we then miss how truly supernatural the Bible is in its continuity and its stunning prophecy? Would we have missed a portion of the glory of God as it is demonstrated in the compilation He has inspired over 1500 years and through 40 authors writing about the nature and deeds of the one true God? Ultimately, by giving primary focus on Jesus’ written words, would we have lost some sense of the meaning of “the [entire] word of our God stands forever?”
Thanks, Pastor; I really enjoyed this musing; and I believe the scriptures clearly teach that “we walk by faith, not by sight.” We live in the Holy Spirit, not by the letter of the law. Thanks again.