Okay, not everything. But we have been taught from our earliest years that God is neither hiding nor hidden. So why, as adults, do we live as if He were, as if He had not written a Book for us? Why do we assume that each new crisis demands from us original techniques from a storehouse of creativity we seem not to possess?
Not only does God have answers, solutions, and guidelines, He has filed them in a very accessible place and rehearsed them often to us from our childhood. Imagine the comfort we could receive and the perils we could avoid, if only we remembered that. . .
Cain murdering Abel demonstrates how bitterness destroys. Genesis 4
Noah’s rainbow pictures God’s patience with sinners. Genesis 8:21ff
Abraham and Sarah regretted running ahead of God. Genesis 16, 21
Jacob-like deception is not the way to gain a blessing. Genesis 27
Joseph portrays God working all things for good. Genesis 50:19-21
Moses’ mother reminds us to obey God rather than man. Exodus 2
Solomon’s life shows that we must love wisdom, not just acquire it.
Daniel depicts how we can be faithful in any culture. Daniel 1
Israel shows that grace doesn’t quiet grumbling. Exodus 15, 16, 17
Joshua and Caleb prove the majority may be wrong. Numbers 13, 14
Judges chronicles the danger of ignoring God’s commands.
Josiah marks that God’s Word neglected may disappear. 2 Kings 22
We need not reinvent the wheel of wisdom with every new catastrophe nor meet every challenge out of our own resources. Both Testaments teem with stories of war, famine, pestilence and political intrigue, and more than that, how God’s people dealt with them.
His purpose is lovingly to guide us through life’s struggles, including this one. “These things happened to them (Israel) for examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come.” 1 Corinthians 10:11
Hmmmm. Yes, it’s coming back to me now!
“Thank you, Lord, for this wonderful Book of Books!
We pray you would reveal more of yourself in its pages
and give us wisdom and will to obey what we read,
as Jesus Himself taught us to do. Amen.”