Jeremiah 30:2 - Homiletics

Scripture-the written Word of God.

Jeremiah was required to write his prophecy in a book. Israel had received the Law first by a voice of thunder, but the voice was followed by the writing on the tables of stone ( Exodus 34:1 ). St. John was commanded to write his vision in a book ( Revelation 1:11 ). Without definite commands of this character, prophets and apostles, historians and evangelists, have committed to writing what they knew and taught. Thus we have a written revelation, a Bible. We may see the great value of this without becoming guilty of bibliolatry, or lowering our spiritual conceptions to slavish subservience to the "letter that killeth."

I. CONSIDER THE VALUE OF SCRIPTURE , AS CONTAINING THE WORD OF GOD IN WRITING .

1 . Accuracy. Words may be spoken in haste, under excitement; a book is presumably considered and reconsidered, its words weighed and measured. "Writing makes an exact man" (Bacon).

2 . Permanence. The spoken word may soon be forgotten, or it may be recollected imperfectly with unconscious embellishments and deficiencies. The written word can be studied carefully and at leisure.

3 . Publicity. The spoken word is heard only by one audience, present in one place, at one time. The written word is capable of being spread over a wider area. If but one copy is written, this can be sent about and frequently reread to various hearers, like the circular letters of the New Testament. But the book can be copied, and thus the area of its influence enlarged. Since the invention of printing, and with the facilities for multiplying and cheapening the production of books, this extensive influence of literature beyond that of speech has been immensely increased.

4 . Transmission to the future. The spoken word dies with the breath that utters it; the written word can be treasured for ages, and transmitted to distant generations. The orator is peculiarly a man of his own age; the literary genius belongs to all time. If the Divine Word had been handed down only by tradition we know how terribly it must have been corrupted. We in these later days can enjoy its fresh power because it is crystallized in literature, because prophecy has become Scripture.

II. CONSIDER THE WAY IN WHICH WE SHOULD DEAL WITH SCRIPTURE THAT CONTAINS THE WORD OF GOD . Several duties and wise courses of action are suggested by the fact that the Word of God is written in a book, viz.:

1 . Care to preserve the purity of the text. Correct readings and accurate renderings of this are of first importance, since they guard the thoughts of God from perversion.

2 . Reverence for the authority of Scripture. If we believe that it embodies the words and ideas of God, we shall feel that, even when it teaches spiritual principles which we cannot as yet see well established, it has a claim to be listened to with the reverence of the ignorant pupil for his wiser master. As far as it brings before us God's thoughts, it must be read and examined and estimated by quite a different standard from that by which we decide questions of purely human literature.

3 . Diligence in searching the Scriptures. The Bible is to be used. It is not to be treated as many men treat the classics, "without which no gentleman's library can be complete," but as a text book, a book of daily reference. It must also be inquired into. There are mines of spiritual wealth to dig, things new as well as things old that a well furnished scribe can bring out of it. There is in it "milk for babes, and meat for strong men," and the latter needs to be "read, marked, learned, and inwardly digested," if we would profit by it.

4 . Care to extract the spiritual thought from the visible letter. The letter is human, the form of speech is human. It is the spiritual idea that is Divine, and this is the most important thing to us. This is the real and eternal truth, the Word of life and power. We need an inspiration ourselves to help us to peel off the husk of speech, and find the precious kernel of Divine thought beneath.