(2 Tim. 3:16.)
(Continued from page 19.)
(3) We pass on now to a third in breathing as we repeat, "Every Scripture is God-breathed." Thus in the Holy Scriptures we have God's words, His thoughts, His mind, His will, His purposes, all breathed out from God; thus we have verbal inspiration in the fullest sense, in striking contrast to all other writings.
EXAMPLES
We have remarkable examples of this mode of communicating the mind of God at different times. We will give a few of them here:
(1) Moses:to the first Old Testament writer we turn first and learn God's mode of communicating His mind and will. "The Lord said unto him, I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say" (Exod. 4:11-15). This is the introduction to the deliverance cf that nation out of Egypt and from slavery. God intervened and became their Saviour. He raised up Moses to lead them out, and the very words he was to say to them were given to Moses. He was not left to his poor human memory or abilities. God spoke, Moses heard, and delivered to them the words of God which he received. Both Pharaoh and Israel heard the God-spoken words to them. To Israel it was a message of mercy and salvation; to Pharaoh a message of judgment.
(2) David:the sweet psalmist of Israel said, "The Spirit of the Lord spake by me and His word was in my tongue" (2 Sam. 23:2, 3). These verses are a remarkable text. With these in mind we should read the Psalms in which we get the very words of God.
(3) After David had died the Holy Spirit by another penman, wrote; "Moreover David and the captains of his host separated to the service, of the sons of Asaph and of Heman and of Jeduthun who should prophesy with harps…. All these were the sons of Heman in the words of God.. according to the king's order" (1 Chron. 25:1, 5,6). Thus we can read the Psalms and study their prophetic character, for they were to "prophesy with harps." These prophetic Scriptures unfold the sufferings of Christ and the glories that were to follow. They also describe the sufferings of His people during the time of His rejection by the world. They also point forward to the glories they shall enter into at His second coming. If the critics and modernists of our day, who have such difficulties with many Psalms, would but study them on their bended knees, what vast stores of wealth they would discover instead of criticizing them!
(4) Isaiah:We next look at the writings of the salvation prophet, and find added confirmation concerning inspiration. In the wide expanse of his prophecies we read such words as, "Thus saith the Lord;" "The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw;" and, "The mouth of the Lord has spoken it" (chaps. 1:1, 20; 2:1).
We have already seen that God used the prophets to deliver His Word; now we learn that the communications were directly from the mouth of Jehovah Himself. This expression in Isaiah and elsewhere is akin to that in the New Testament by Paul-"All Scripture is God-breathed."
(1)"The mouth of the Lord has spoken it"(chap. 1:20).
(2) "The mouth of the Lord has spoken it" (chap. 40:5).
(3) "The word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness" (chap. 45:23).
(4) "I have declared the former things from the beginning, and they went forth out of my mouth…. and they came to pass" (chap. 48:3).
(5) "So shall be my word that goeth forth out of my mouth" (chap. 55:11).
(6) "For the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it" (chap. 58:14).
(7) "Which the mouth of the Lord shall name" (chap. 62:2).
In all these verses we see how assured the prophet was as to whence his message came. Isaiah says, "The mouth of the Lord has spoken." Paul says, "All Scripture is God-breathed." And, further, mark the great themes in Isaiah's prophecies, many being fulfilled hundreds of years after they were given, and some yet to be fulfilled. He prophesies concerning our Lord Jesus Christ.
(1) His deity (chaps. 35:4; 40:9-12).
(2) His virgin birth (chaps. 7:14; 9:6).
(3) His lowly life on earth (chap. 53:2,3).
(4) His death, in sacrifice for sin (chap. 53:5,10).
(5) His burial (chap. 53:9).
(6) His resurrection (chap. 53:10).
(7) His future millennial glory (chap. 32:1, 2).
(5) Jeremiah:"The weeping prophet," says, "The Lord said unto me, Behold, I have put my words into thy mouth" (Jer. 1:9). This tender-hearted prophet wept over the unbelief and sins of his people as if they were his own; and by him Jehovah sent message after message to them in words of His own choice. With this in mind, study the books of Jeremiah and Lamentations. In chap. 36:4-32 the faithful message written by Jeremiah was refused by the people and their king, who cut it with a pen-knife and consigned it to the fire, but God repeats the truth on another scroll, and a copy was securely preserved as a witness of how His word shall be fulfilled. And how often has God's word been refused since! Knife and pen and fire have been used to obliterate the whole testimony of God to man; but while "heaven and earth shall pass away His words shall not pass away." "The Scriptures cannot be broken."
And shall man dictate to God or deny Him His divine right to address Himself to His creatures, or to His own redeemed people, making known to them His mind and will, whether in mercy, love, righteousness, or stern justice? Shall man dictate to Him the mode or manner in which He is pleased to communicate His will and His truth, whether by human lips or pen as a channel of His revelation?
(6) Paul:In the New Testament, God's mode of communication was the same as in the Old. The Apostle claimed what the prophets before him claimed, the verbal and plenary inspiration of his writings. We will quote but one passage, "When ye received the Word of God, which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe" (1 Thess. 2:13). When our modern preachers select a text from the Pauline epistles, let them take such verses and expound them to their hearers. Thus, whether in the Old or New Testaments, the reverent student of the Book beholds the verbal inspiration of a "God-breathed" Book. A. E. Booth
(Concluded in next number.)