BE THIRSTY FOR WRITING THE WORDS OF OUR FATHER!
Most of us ignore the importance given by our Lord to writings
and yet did you know that on several occasions God wrote with His own hand to human beings?
More amazing, would you believe that even today, GOD IS STILL COMMUNICATING REGULARLY IN WRITINGS WITH WOMEN, MEN AND CHILDREN ON EARTH?
"The Ten Commandments written with the finger of GOD! "
God throughout His Word underlines the importance that He is attributing to writings. The Lord took care to write the ten commandments on two tables of stone as we are told in several places in the Bible. Please make the effort to go and read about this in Exodus 24:12 and also 31:18.
Unfortunately these two first tables were broken by Moses, while going down from the Mount Sinai, because he saw the abominable worship of the golden calf! Yes, "Moses' anger waxed hot, and he broke the two tables of stone with the writing of the Lord" (Exodus 32:15-20).
But the Lord in His great love for His people decides to rewrite
the famous words better known as the ten commandments.
Read on this subject in Exodus 34: 1 and 28. This second copy of the ten
commandments will be placed by Moses in the Ark of the Covenant made of wood of acacia. These two tables of stone with the written ten commandments will accompany the people of Israel and Judah
during more than a thousand years of their history; read this in Deuteronomy 4: 13 and 10: 1-5.
In the New Testament, Paul confirms the presence of the ten commandments in the Ark of the Covenant. This is written in his epistle to the Hebrews, chapter 9, verses 1 to 4.
All the details related to the building of the Temple entrusted to David
in a Writing of the Lord!
Another important circumstance when the Lord wrote to a man occured
at the time of the preparations for the building of the Temple of Jerusalem.
Let us read how David describes the way he was informed by the God about all the details related to this building:
" All this, said David, the LORD made me understand in writing by his hand upon me, even all the works of this pattern. " (I Chronicles 28:19).
All these details are described in the beginning of the same chapter.
The king of Israel must prepare for himself a written copy of the law.
If our Creator makes the effort to write to us, it should not be in vain.
In fact, He is showing us an example to be followed. Moreover, in order to confirm this example, well a long time before the Kingdom of Israel, God did forecast the rule of a King and one of his obligations is that given in Deuteronomy 17, verses 18 and following:
"And it shall be, when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book out of that which is before the priests the Levites:
And it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life: that he may learn to fear the LORD his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them:
That his heart be not lifted up above his brethren, and that he turn not aside from the commandment, to the right hand, or to the left: to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he, and his children, in the midst of Israel. "
By this obligation, the king must behave as an example before his
people, as the first citizen of the kingdom. This is in conformity
with the way of thinking and of conceiving of our Creator: The Lord makes all the efforts to have the same laws followed by all His people so
that they can live happy and in harmony.
All the sons of Israel must also write the law of the Lord
The today's historians and scholars often tend to make us believe that the Hebrew during the exodus were illiterate shepherds led by an illuminated man called Moses. All that would fit very well with the context of slavery under which the Hebrew people were submitted in Egypt. This way of thinking is most probably due to the pride of the scientific world of today
which likes the idea that only our time is one time of light while all previous periods in history, specially the one dealing with God, is part of a darkness age of the past. The same attitude was found in the Roman Empire which has succeeded in making people believe that the Celts and the Germans were only barbarians with a very primitive civilization which it was better to ignore or to destroy. This attitude which consists in denigrating is unjust in its roots because it is built on partiality and a priori! The Bible teaches an absolutely opposite behaviour:
It requires in an insistent way from us that any statement or judgement should be given only after a thorough inquiry of all the relative facts surrounding the topic in question.
Coming back to the Hebrew people and to their cultural level at the time of the exodus out of Egypt, the Bible makes it clear that these people were far from being uncultivated and illiterate since during their stay in the desert of Sinai, the Lord, by the mouth of Moses, asked them to put in writing His Law upon the posts and gates of their dwellings! Let us read that in Deuteronomy, in the chapter 6, verses 4 to 9:
"Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:
And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:
And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.
AND THOU SHALT WRITE THEM UPON THE POSTS OF THY HOUSE, AND ON THY GATES. "
Love letters between the Creator and His creatures!
All the writings that some people had the privilege to exchange with our Father and Creator is in fact nothing else than an exchange of testimonys of love. Thus, if you read carefully the psalms, many of them are truly declarations of love to our Creator or his Messiah by whom all was created:
" I will love thee, O LORD, my strength! The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower! " (Psalm 18: 1-2)
" As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.
My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God? " (Psalm 42: 1-2)
" To the chief Musician upon Shoshannim, for the sons of Korah, Maschil,
A SONG OF LOVES
My heart is inditing a good matter: I speak of the things which I have made touching the king: my tongue is the pen of a ready writer. Thou art fairer than the children of men: grace is poured into thy lips: therefore God hath blessed thee for ever. "
(Psalm 45:1-3)
Living Declarations of Love!
Paul wrote and sent living declarations of love and ourselves let us become
such a love letter: we only need to submit ourselves to the commandments of our Lord:
" Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men: Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart. "
(II Corinthiens 3: 2-3)
Did you ever notice that the actual mission of Paul is litterally to write the law of God in the heart of those who aspire to it. This mission is the accomplishment of the pophecy given in Jeremiah:
" Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD: But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD,
I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts
and will be their God, and they shall be my people. " (Jérémie 31: 31-33)
Paul was unveiling the beginnings of this new covenant given by
our Creator, covenant whose sign is the new circumcision, no more that of
the flesh but that of the heart which is released from all flesh, from all perishable things:
" But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God. " (Romain 2:29)
If we let our Creator thus write His commandments on our heart and if we keep them, it will be our testimony of love towards Him!
" For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous. " (I Jean 5: 3)
All scripture... will be fulfilled!
The major characteristic of all the deeds of our Creator is their utilitity. God never did anything useless. Thus, if our Father writes to us, it is not in vain:
" All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." (II Timothée 3: 16-17)
Our Saviour, Yeshuah-Christ, attached the greattest importance to the Writings of His Father:
" Then he took unto him the twelve, and said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and ALL THINGS THAT ARE WRITTEN BY THE PROPHETS CONCERNING THE SON OF MAN SHALL BE ACCOMPLISHED. " (Luc 18: 31)
Our Saviour took care not to forget even any little details in the achievement of His faithful mission and thus at the most critical time of His mortal agony, His thoughts goes towards the obedience to His Father and Lord:
" After this, Yeshuah knowing that all things were now accomplished,
THAT THE SCRIPTURE MIGHT BE FULFILLED,
saith, I thirst. Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a spunge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth. When Yeshuah therefore had received the vinegar, he said,
IT IS FINISHED:
and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost. " (Jean 19: 28-30)
Thanks to this "last love letter" written on His heart, Yeshuah
obtained with faith and softness His victory over the Devil and Yeshuah will very soon supplant him on earth.
All this should encourage us to communicate regularly in writings with our Creator. If we do so, our mail will not remain without answers and these answers will be printed on the table of our heart and will become a part of our life if we grow them.
For those of you who do not know how to start to write to God, do not
hesitate to write to us and we will help each other, each one according to his talents.
Truly yours in Yeshuah-Christ,
Pierre.