[This is one in a series of devotional reflections prepared for Horley Baptist Church during January 2024]
What I have written, I have written.[1]
It may be that my poor performance in school exams was partly due to a reluctance to re-read what I had already written. Educators recommend that examinees reserve a little time to review their answers before submitting their answers. On the rare occasion when I actually did this I was able to reconfigure my answer to address the question as actually asked rather than as I thought it had been asked, thus demonstrating that re-reading the question before putting pen to paper has its own benefits.
How often do our initial reactions to what we see or hear change when we take a second look or listen more carefully? One of the apostles offered this advice:
Remember this, my beloved brethren: everyone should be quick to listen but slow to speak and slow to anger James 1 v19 [NCB]
Many of us will have been encouraged to memorise Bible verses during our earlier years and some churches still have a weekly memory verse. Nevertheless, for most of us now, our familiarity with Scripture comes from what we read, either on the printed page or on a screen.
Not everybody has ready access to these written resources but for those of us who do they are a great blessing. However this availability can make us lazy. When Jesus was tempted he responded each time with an answer beginning “It is written …”. He knew that, not because he had his scroll with him but because he had learnt the Scriptures beforehand. We need to ‘be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks us to give the reason for the hope that we have’[2] but rarely will there be time to Google it.
As we read through the historical books of the Old Testament we see time after time that there are records of the activities of the various kings. Here is just one example:
… and his deeds from first to last, indeed they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah. 2 Chronicles 35 v7 [NKJV]
In the Old Testament books of Ezra and Esther we read of kings who consulted the records and made major policy decisions. In Exodus we read of a pharaoh was not aware of his nation’s history, with disastrous consequences.[3]
The distinguished English writer Samuel Johnson is credited with the observation that “What is written without effort is read without pleasure”. It goes without saying that compiling the words of Scripture involved a great deal of effort. The apostle John explained why he wrote the gospel that carries his name:
But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. John 20 v31 [NIVUK]
Does your response honour that effort?
Resources:
[1] John 19 v22
[2] 1 Peter 3 v15
[3] Ezra 6 v1, Esther 6 v1, Exodus 1 v8.
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Contributed by Steve Humphreys; © Steve Humphreys