The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my heart and mind in Proverbs 30:5-6,
"Every word of God is flawless; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him. Do not add to his words, or he will rebuke you and prove you a liar."
This passage takes for granted we know that not only does God exist, but he communicates with us! With this a priori presumptive truth in hand, Agur says that what God has to say is flawless. Importantly, since God's word is flawless, don't tamper with it - let it speak for itself, let God say what he has to say, don't meddle with it. It should be abundantly apparent that when something is flawless, any modification, any alteration, any change whatsoever is necessarily less than flawless.
Nevertheless, flawed mankind always finds a compulsion in his heart to do exactly that. For one reason or another, pinhead scholars and their sycophants, religious "leaders", those who would cast themselves as the "spiritual elites" among us find a need to torture the Scriptures in a variety of ways. Certainly not all, but many. It has been going on for millenia and will continue to do so until this age comes to a close.
Whether it is an effort to corrupt the Scriptures by claiming none of the miraculous documented in the Bible is truthful, or that the fulfilled prophecies are cast as such because they were really written after the events described, or even the wholesale production of counterfeit literature under the guise of "Scripture" (think the book of Mormon here, or the Qur'an, Gospel of Thomas, etc.) - are all an effort to disrupt and miscast the flawless word of God.
Our Bibles, the 39 books of the Old Testament and the 27 of the New comprise the flawless word of God. Peter tells us, "Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation of things. For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit." 2 Peter 1:20-21.
"Every word of God is flawless; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him. Do not add to his words, or he will rebuke you and prove you a liar."
This passage takes for granted we know that not only does God exist, but he communicates with us! With this a priori presumptive truth in hand, Agur says that what God has to say is flawless. Importantly, since God's word is flawless, don't tamper with it - let it speak for itself, let God say what he has to say, don't meddle with it. It should be abundantly apparent that when something is flawless, any modification, any alteration, any change whatsoever is necessarily less than flawless.
Nevertheless, flawed mankind always finds a compulsion in his heart to do exactly that. For one reason or another, pinhead scholars and their sycophants, religious "leaders", those who would cast themselves as the "spiritual elites" among us find a need to torture the Scriptures in a variety of ways. Certainly not all, but many. It has been going on for millenia and will continue to do so until this age comes to a close.
Whether it is an effort to corrupt the Scriptures by claiming none of the miraculous documented in the Bible is truthful, or that the fulfilled prophecies are cast as such because they were really written after the events described, or even the wholesale production of counterfeit literature under the guise of "Scripture" (think the book of Mormon here, or the Qur'an, Gospel of Thomas, etc.) - are all an effort to disrupt and miscast the flawless word of God.
Our Bibles, the 39 books of the Old Testament and the 27 of the New comprise the flawless word of God. Peter tells us, "Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation of things. For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit." 2 Peter 1:20-21.
Woe to the man that meddles with the word of God!
On the other hand, how wonderful is it that we have a source of truth! We can know where we came from, where we are going, why we are here, what brings real happiness and fulfillment in life because we have it on authority from our Creator! We can know how we can live our lives pleasing him, how to enter into his family, how to inherit eternal life! How amazing is that?!
Hopefully it is not just sitting on the coffee table collecting dust!
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!
If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just respond and let me know.
Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!
If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just respond and let me know.
Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com
No comments:
Post a Comment