The word of our God stands forever

“The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever.” 

Isaiah 40:8

Yesterday I had mentioned about mobile phones not being absolutely necessary or, in general, that technology is a struggle for many people and our reliance should not be solely on it.

This morning I woke early. I remembered a series of thought’s that I’d had and never put them on paper. What had started this thought process was attending ‘Creative Word’ Bible College in my home town of Rochdale on one particular day during the term.

Each morning someone different would bring a short word, testimony or devotional after worship and before our first topical lesson. On this day a young man who some of you know quite well Mr Gareth Crossley. He spoke on God having it all in hand and moving extraordinarily with the times and expanding His word without us really being fully aware. He spoke of God moving across time from the Diaspora to then afterwards the Septuagint being written then up to the main point; the printing press or the invention of the printing press by Johannes Guttenberg.

The Guttenberg Press

The first movable type accelerated man tremendously. It has been hailed as ‘The most important invention of the modern era’ and it profoundly impacted the transmission of knowledge.

The first book to be printed on the Guttenberg Press in Mainz, Germany was The Holy Bible in 1455.  All 180 of them, at 14lbs each they were quite an achievement. 49 of those still exist today.

But to continue, Mr Crossley’s point was how instrumental was the invention of the press in Martin Luther bringing about ‘The Reformation in 1517? No accessible Bible = No reformation? Wow, or certainly not as we know it. It’s a broad statement, as he said, but it was a powerful one. Throughout history men of faith like Wycliffe, Tyndale and Luther have pushed new boundaries often at the cost of their lives to bring us what we have today. I thank the Lord for them.

Some time later I had come across something that could add to that line of thought that God allows these things to happen for His good, for His purpose and we maybe don’t always see things that way.

The Information Age

We are aware that we are now in the fourth stage known as the INFORMATION AGE of time. The first being the HUNTER AGES, the second being the AGRICULTURAL AGE followed by the INDUSTRIAL AGE and now the INFORMATION AGE. We know that as the printing press brought in a revolution in distribution of texts and literature across medieval Europe by being able to produce it faster, cheaper and in larger numbers. How much more this modern age sparked by the invention of computing has ushered in this digital age of internet and the information super highway?

The Computer

So one day I’m looking at some stuff and one of the things that I came across was the accepted time of inventing the computer. There are many claims to this title for different reasons depending on what is accepted it is actually doing and what type. Without going into all them, it is generally accepted that, between the years of 1946 and 1953, IBM proved that their ENIAC Electrical Numerical Integration And Calculator processed data and formulated answers at an increased speed.

Basically, the ‘computer’ computed. So straight after the war and over a period of several years! This reminded me of another amazing discovery that shook the world at about the same time though I would have to check the dates.

Between the years of 1947 and 1953, in the west bank of Jordan, a Bedouain shepherd found the first of what the world now knows as the Dead Sea Scroll’s atWadi Qumran.

1946-1953   IBM = Manmade.  1947-1953 = Godmade.

The Dead Sea Scroll’s discovery was phenomenal!  Thousands of scrolls and fragments of papyrus writings. Some from as early as the year 1 ad. Copies of manuscripts from the Hebrew bible They took years to excavate and ten times longer to piece together and examine by experts with carbon dating before many were declared as the most important archaeological discovery of modern times.

Wow. Praise the Lord. So as the computing world is cutting its infant milk teeth on unscrambling a few mathematical puzzles, God allows ancient writings that have been hidden for probably nearly 2000 years, for many different important reasons, of which some I can only wonder!

What if these were found a hundred years earlier or two? Would they have been destroyed or potentially sold? What happens if it was later, what likely outcome would they have had then, gone to a private seller maybe and never disclosed to open knowledge?

I presume that God had it all under His perfect timing and control and allowed the finding of these at this time because it allowed many things to happen.

1. With the end of the World War, people needed to be reminded to look to God first, not politicians.
2. With the news network, TV, radio and global press, the majority of people on the earth would hear about these startling discoveries.
3. With many modern inventions ‘around the corner’ carbon dating would be invaluable at proving their age and therefore their authenticity.
4. When things happen in peoples lifetimes they have a much better chance of being carried into history rather than being left behind and with the digital age just ‘around the corner’ this would be the most perfect time to be “Discovered” don’t you think?

God doesn’t need to provide these discoveries to compete with the world to prove that He alone is Sovereign, for He is Omniscient, He is Omnipresent, He is Omnipotent, and God’s Word will stand forever.

In the book of Isaiah, Chapter 40 verse 8, we read;

“The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever.”

God Bless