[i]
1 Corinthians 1:4-5
Good News Translation
(GNT)
4 I always give thanks to my God for you because of the grace he has
given you through Christ Jesus. 5 For in union with
Christ you have become rich in all things, including all speech and all
knowledge.
Looking back over the history of the human race as generally
outlined in the Bible from Adam to me, I often ponder what it must have been
like to be a follower of the LORD. Apparently Adam and Eve got to talk to God face
to face. However this did not last very long.
When our earliest ancestors sinned, God met with them
personally, perhaps for the last time. This time He[ii]
showed them how to kill and skin an animal. Then He showed them how to sew clothes
from the animal’s skin to cover their nakedness. I assume He also showed them
how to offer a sacrifice on an altar using the same animal. Apparently it was
only much later that people started eating animals with God’s blessing.
Thereafter God very seldom communicated directly with
humans. We can list a few: Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses. People were expected to
remember what they had learned about God’s will. Apparently when Moses came, he
wrote down human history and God’s instructions. These were carefully stored
inside the Ark of the Covenant. The average person never saw these words.
By the time Christ walked on the earth, it seems that most Jewish
meeting houses had some or all of the earlier writings that later came to be
parts of our Bible. These had been laboriously copied out by hand and so were
extremely expensive. Still the average person on the street had probably never
read or owned even a part of the Bible. They were still expected to order their
lives by what they had heard read to them.
Is it any wonder that so many people never heard God’s word
in their whole lives? Is it any wonder that so many religions sprang up all
over the world? Finally, in the 15th century, printing was invented,
and the first book ever printed was indeed the Bible. Over the years printed
versions of God’s word have become more and more available. In this millennium
it has become very easy to get the Bible on your cell phone for free. So we
have indeed become “rich” in God’s word. With this “wealth” has come the
responsibility of learning what our Creator’s will is for us individually and
experiencing the Grace of Christ directly.
Thank You, Lord, for
giving us Your Word so abundantly. Grant us wisdom to read and profit from it.
[i]
https://teatimewithev.com/kaleidoscope/printed-bible-or-cell-phone-bible
[ii]
I use the masculine pronoun for God advisedly because the vast majority of
translations of Scripture that I own, as well as the Greek and Hebrew texts, use
it. I do not believe God has reproductive organs like humans and animals do.
