93 - Thankful For Truth

Do we realize what a treasure we hold in our hands when we open a Bible? The very words of God were written down and preserved for thousands of years so that, today, we can hear them afresh and believe. Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible during Israel’s Exodus from Egypt, probably between 1446 B.C. and 1406 B.C. His writings and then those of all the others who wrote the books that are included in the Old Testament, were written over a period of a thousand years. During all those centuries dedicated people copied the texts by hand, word by word, writing on leather or papyrus. They checked, in every way possible, to see that each word was accurate. Why? Because these were the very words of God, and they wanted to pass that treasure down to you. They saw themselves as a link in the chain of history. When invaders attacked, they grabbed their most precious possession, the Bible, and cradling it in their arms they ran into the hills and hid it away so it couldn’t be destroyed. Why? So you and I could read it.

And then Jesus came and perfectly revealed the character of God and died on the cross for the sins of the world. His disciples watched and listened, and wrote down everything they could. I think some took notes as He spoke, and all of them memorized as much as possible, which was quite a lot because their memories were highly trained. They had been memorizing the Word of God since they were tiny children. And they surely realized that what they were hearing and seeing was very special. This too was God’s Word and must be preserved. Matthew wrote what he remembered; John Mark wrote down what Peter remembered; Luke did careful research, interviewing those who were eyewitnesses, and wrote down exactly what they told him. And John, the disciple who was with the Lord from the very beginning of His ministry until He ascended into heaven, wrote down what he remembered, filling in important sections the others had missed. Why? Because that was their assignment from the Lord. They were to preserve the truth that Jesus had revealed so that people all over the world and in every generation could hear it, and believe it, and be saved.

This weekend our nation will celebrate our Thanksgiving holiday. It’s a time we have set aside for reflecting on the good things God has given us, and acknowledging Him as our Source. Many blessings will be mentioned on that day, but this year as we listen to Jesus pray for those eleven men to whom He was entrusting the gospel, we would do well to be especially grateful to them, and to all the men and women who have preserved this truth, sometimes at the cost of their lives, over the past 2,000 years. It was written down, guarded, and passed onto their children and grandchildren so that you and I can still hear it. Without them we wouldn’t know that God’s Son died for us. And without them we wouldn’t know that the Father loved us and wanted to save every one of us.

This Thanksgiving we owe a debt of gratitude to a lot of people, but none more than those who made it possible for us to hear about Jesus. As we listen to Jesus pray for those first apostles let’s stop and thank God for their faithfulness this year, and for all those who passed on to us the knowledge of the truth.