Read Psalm 12:6; Isaiah 40:6-8; Isaiah 42:8-9; Titus 1:2
Two different subjects have caught my interest this week:
First, James Holzhauer, the professional sports better who has won 32 straight times on Jeopardy. I don't know about anybody else, but I feel totally inept as I try to play against him. He pulls obscure answers right out of the air while I simply sit back and laugh and wonder who knows those things? Although I have been amazed by what he does know, I was surprised to read that he has given wrong answers more than 30 times, including one in Final Jeopardy. He's amazing, but not perfect in his answers.
Second, I read about the Clark's nutcracker, an amazing little bird. This wondrous creature hides between 22,000 and 33,000 seeds in preparation for the winter. Not in one place or ten places. The seeds are stored away in up to 2,500 locations. The article in Creation Moments relates the fact that the Clark's nutcracker finds 2/3 of the hidden seeds over a 13-month period. I wonder who decided that the term "bird brain" is a derisive term? I have been known to lose the scissors, only to find it weeks later in the silverware drawer. Don't ask. I don't know why it ended up there, but back to the industrious little creature with the amazing memory for detail. These birds are amazing, but not perfect in their recall.
James Holzhauer and the Clark's nutcracker are reminders of both the wonder of the world and its limitations and imperfections. The Creator, Genesis 1:1 has made people with amazing gifts and creatures with wondrous abilities built into them. Yet, nothing on the earth is flawless, perfect or stays lovely forever. There is always a limit to the beauty and stamina of everything God has made. Yet, there is Good News. We can come to know the Perfect One Who never lies, Titus 1:2. How often the scripture reminds us of the temporary beauty of what has been made and the permanency of the One Who created it, Psalm 119:96. There is a contrast between what has been created and what the Creator has decreed, Isaiah 40:6-8; Psalm 119:89.
Sometimes people ask how the Bible differs from other religious books? It is a good question, and Jesus answered it for us. After His resurrection, the Savior appeared to two men. They were dejected as they walked together on the road. The One in whom they had placed their hope was dead. Everything was different for them now. However, their sorrow was about to turn to joy because Jesus was about to give them an incredible lesson concerning the veracity of the scriptures, Luke 24:13-49. It was at that time that the Savior told first the two disciples with whom He walked and then the others that all that had been written about Him centuries earlier had to be fulfilled. Can you imagine opening up a book that had been written by authors who didn't know one another? Can you imagine finding out that details about your life had been written down by these authors who lived centuries apart from each other? How unbelievable would it be to see that your birth place and intimate details about your life had been laid out hundreds of years before your parents were alive? Those things and so much more were laid out by Jesus to His followers that day, and that is why the Bible is so different than any other book.
In Isaiah 46:9-10, we are told this very thing. We can know what God says is true because of fulfilled prophecy. It was written by ordinary people but its message was crafted by God, 2 Timothy 3:16; 2 Peter 1:20-21. Even angels and the earthly authors didn't know how the details of what they wrote would come about, but they faithfully listened to God and wrote His message, 1 Peter 1:10-12.
Unlike the amazing sports better and the little bird, all that God has given us in His Word is perfect and flawless, Psalm 12:6. There are no wrong answers and no Imperfections because The Lord is Truth, John 1:14; John 1:17; John 14:6. No detail that God has given us will go unfulfilled. Since we serve the One Who does not change, Malachi 3:6; Hebrews 13:8, His Word can be fully trusted. The world changes its opinions frequently, but God's Word is settled in heaven, Psalm 119:89. It is truth, John 17:17.
Lord, Thank You that You showed Your disciples the truth of Your Word. We can rely on what You have told us because You are trustworthy and will do what You say, Numbers 23:19. Who You are and what You have said is not only amazing, it is perfect.