People Of The Book - Part I

In doing research for my sermon today I ran across the following article by John Ortberg.  It was so good that I decided to re-post it here.  It's also a little long so I am going to break it up into 2 posts.  I found it highly informative and also very challenging.  The question that came to my mind is - 'Do I have the same view of God's Word that the Jews did?'  Enjoy!

Israel had a Book.  They called it the Tenakh.  Say that word out loud.  When you get to the end of it, it's like you're clearing your throat.  It's from three letters: T is for Torah; N is the Hebrew word for the prophets Nedi'im; K is for their word for writings Ketugim.

They had a Book that was unlike any other book that had existed before, because it contained truths and ideas that had never hit the world before.  This Book said that instead of there being little tribal gods all over the place, there was one God, that this God is holy and just and loving and good, and that He created all things and plans on redeeming all things.

This Book, unlike any of the other mythologies or religions of the peoples around Israel, said that human existence is not just an endless cycle of repetition over and over and over again, but that it is a story.

This Book said that it is God's story, and that the story had a beginning - that God said: Let there be light and there was - that it had a middle - there was a fall and God has begun this work of redemption and that one day it will reach a climax.  There's going to be an end to this story.  There is something to look forward to.

This Book said that this God created human beings in His own image.  That means that they have an indescribable splendor about them, and that they are accountable to this just and holy God.  That means they carry an indescribable responsibility, and that they can now know how to live.  Because of this Book, mankind is not stuck in darkness anymore.  It is very hard to recapture what the world was like before this Book came to it.  Those ideas changed the way that the world thinks and feels.

Lord, I thank you for this great book that You have given me, the Bible.  Thank you that it is available in my language.  That I can read it.  And understand it.  And memorize it.  Help me to realize just how valuable it is.  In Jesus' name, Amen.