Articles
LOOK AT THE BOOK
We are quickly nearing the end of our study “Look at the Book.” I hope it has been a study
that has encouraged reading the Bible through in the year. But, I hope and pray that it has also
opened our eyes to the need for spending more time in God’s Word on a daily basis; to say as
David did so long ago, “Your word I have treasured in my heart, that I may not sin against You”
(Ps. 119:11). The beginning of treasuring God’s Word in our heart, is spending time reading it
each and every day.
I know that I sound like a broken record as often as I speak of spending time in God’s Word.
I don’t apologize, because it is the same message shared by God’s prophets of old. Moses
declared the need for knowing God’s Word, “These words, which I am commanding you today,
shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and talk of them… You shall
bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead” (Deut. 6:6-9).
God commanded Joshua, “...you shall meditate on it [book of the Law] day and night,…” (Josh.
1:8). God, through Hosea gave the scathing rebuke, “My people are destroyed for lack of
knowledge,...Since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children”
(Hos. 4:6). And God indeed “forgot” their children and sent them into bondage! Jesus continued
the rebuke to the religious leaders who had substituted “their own law” for that of God’s, “This
people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far away from Me. But in vain do they
worship Me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men” (Mt. 15:8-9; Isa. 29:13). The apostle
Paul felt the need to repeat the same things to the Philippians as a safeguard for them (Phil. 3:1).
We review our children diligently (and repeatedly) on their alphabet, math skills, and
historical facts so they can make the grade. Shouldn’t we be as diligent with our children (and
ourselves) with the knowledge of the Bible so that we, too, can “make the grade” before
Almighty God? If we allow, God’s Word will lead us into the ways of eternal life. I wonder if
perhaps that is the reason we struggle so in our relationship with God? Without intending to do
so, we have become God’s children of Israel, “destroyed for a lack of knowledge.”
As we complete this study and begin preparation for a new year, may God bless us as we
strive to know Him and His love for us. Yet, so very aware of the judgment to come, when He
separates the sheep from the goats. There will be those who hear the words, “Depart from Me, I
never knew you” (Mt. 7:21). May we renew the challenge to be more faithful to the Lord each
day, beginning with a better daily study of God’s Word. ~P. Mowrer
