Then Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neriah: and Baruch wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the LORD, which he had spoken unto him, upon a roll of a book. | ||
| Jeremiah 36:4 | ||
| The Word was given to Jeremiah, who then dictated it to a man named Baruch. In this, we see an interesting illustration of inspiration - how the Bible came into being. The Lord’s Word was revealed to Jeremiah. Jeremiah, in turn, related it to Baruch, who actually wrote the words down on parchment. This is a picture of the way inspiration works. Whether it be Jeremiah or John, Peter or Paul, the Word of the Lord was revealed to these men. It was revealed, then recorded, and finally regarded as God’s Word. Some people have a problem with this process. “What if Jeremiah made a mistake in sensing God’s heart or hearing His voice?” they ask. “What if Baruch wasn’t listening carefully and wrote something down wrong? Can it truly be regarded as the Word of God?” We could talk about the scientific accuracy of the Bible. Although it is not a book of science, when it does speak of science, it is absolutely accurate. Or we could talk about the archaeological confirmations of the Word. The Bible talks about cities and civilizations whose existence scholars denied for years that were eventually verified by the archaeologist’s spade. We could talk about the Bible’s miraculous unity - the fact that there are sixty-six individual books united in theme, message, and philosophy yet written over a period of fifteen hundred years. We could talk about science and archaeology, unity and history - but it all gets down to one simple question. Is God Who He says He is? If God is omnipotent, a Father who cares about His children, a King who is concerned about His Kingdom, do you think that if mistakes were made when the Bible was either being penned or compiled that He was powerless to do anything about it? If God is a Father who loves us and wants to communicate with us, and if He chose to do it through a book, don’t you think He would have safeguarded the writing and compilation processes? Pastor Jon Courson | ||
