“Then Zedekiah the king sent and took him out. The king asked him secretly in his house, and said, ‘Is there any word from the Lord? And Jeremiah said there is …” (Jeremiah 37:17)
It is no secret. The world we are living in is unstable in so many ways. We would hope and pray that more folks in their search for stability … for some peace … would find their way to the truth of God’s inspired word … the only absolute source of truth! In fact, it should always be our prayer that others living in the world would come to the realization of just how valuable the blessing is of having a “word from the Lord.”
God’s Book does have the answers all of us need to the many questions of origin, life, death, and the issues and challenges that we are confronted by.
Found in our text the king of Judah, Zedekiah found himself and his citizenry facing the final days of the siege that would ultimately lead to the destruction of Jerusalem and the deportation of many of its inhabitants to Babylon.
God in His infinite wisdom had good reason to put His Word in a book, as books are the best method of preserving the truth and the passing of its contents from one generation to another! God knew memory, even traditions, or the experiences of others cannot be trusted. We find in God’s Book the source available to anyone who is curious and looking for the answers to life.
And a fact that many might not realize … His inspired word is “profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction and instruction in righteousness, thoroughly furnishing and equipping the person of God for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16,17) Oh, how fortunate … how blessed that we have access to the One and only God … and that He loved us enough to ensure His Book was not only revealed but protected down through the ages.
Another blessing of having His Word in written form is the intended purpose of God for all men to both learn and follow the same standard of faith and practice! God’s Word is just as true today as when the Lord said through the inspired writer in John 20:30-31, being sufficient in every way to lead the reader to faith and prayerfully, their obedience.
We live in a world that has determined for the most part there is no absolute standard for life and for behavior. We are seeing more and more at all levels of society … people living by a fluctuating sense of guidance based on ‘whatever feels right for someone is perfectly fine.’ And it is this same ideology that leads to a tolerance nowhere to be approved of by our God!
It is said of the nation of God’s people living in the days of the Old Testament after the death of Joshua in Judges 21:25, “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in their own eyes.”
The real challenge to the absence of order, law, and morality that meets with God’s approval is that our entire universe is built on fixed laws … laws that cannot be violated without tremendous and far-reaching and fatal consequences. It is when men deny or choose to ignore God’s Book, that disorder and chaos ensue leading to a place opposite to God’s order.
It will be so at the end of this world that each one of us will find ourselves meeting this Word which will serve as our standard of judgment, Revelation 20:20.
Read this Word from the Lord to be wise … believe it to be sure … obey it to be right with God … practice it daily to be holy!
Bill Fairchild, Jr.
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