Why is it so important for us to read God’s Word? In 1981 Geoffrey Thomas wrote, Reading the Bible. Brief as it is, it contains great encouragement and wisdom. He has this insight to the question, why is it so important for us to read God’s Word?
“Life is exceedingly complex: the prevailing climate in present-day Society is hostile to the Christian faith. Marx, Darwin and Freud have all contributed to the dominant philosophy of unbelief that prevails in the Western World. The mass media repeatedly attack the faith of the Bible. The breakdown of the family, promiscuity, divorce, abortion …Answers to our complex contemporary questions are found in the Bible and our task is to equip ourselves with the knowledge of the Word so that all needed insight and strength will be ours. Laziness is our great temptation. Reliance on knowledge gained in the past is a great danger. We must be growing Christians. Our convictions, our conduct and our devotion must be rooted in the Word of God. ‘For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.'”1
In my post Romans 15–16: Encouragement & Love I shared how God used Romans 15:4 to give me hope and comfort when I was very discouraged about my handicap of severe hearing loss. In my struggle to trust Him the verse underscored the importance of the Scriptures to give me hope.
I never expected to have so many posts with nautical themes, but in the Bible storms are a vivid analogy of adversity and our hope is depicted as the anchor of our soul, and so ships and the sea made it into my writing.
The painting above, The Ninth Wave, by Ivan Aivazovsky is his “most famous work and is an archetypal image for the artist. The painting depicts the feared ninth swell, believed by Russian seamen to be the most powerful and destructive.”2 Click on the image to enlarge it, and you can see the detail of the men clinging to the mast with a rope thrown over one to hold him fast.
John Owen wrote:
“Without absolutes revealed from without by God Himself, we are left rudderless in a sea of conflicting ideas about manners, justice, and right and wrong, issuing from a multitude of self-opinionated thinkers. We could never know who God is, how He is to be worshiped, or wherein true happiness lies…”3
Through His Word, the Holy Spirit has comforted my heart and in the midst of my storm strengthened me to trust God. Through His Word, God has kept me lashed tight to Him so that I would not drown under the ninth wave.
In the passage we call the “Sermon on the Mount,” Jesus finished his teaching by telling a story of a devastating storm and flood and two houses.
Christ came, not to a place of shelter, but to a shattered and sinful world. We live in that world, and sometimes our lives are shattered. The rain falls, the flood comes, the wind blows and slams against us. Our house, our life, built on the solid ground of hearing God’s Word and acting on what He has said, will hold.
That’s why it’s important to read His Word.
The Ninth Wave, Ivan Aivazovsky: Public Domain. To see more details of the men as they cling to the mast click the image.
Waves crashing over The North Pier, Tynemouth: FreeFoto.com (Site has been deleted).
1Admiral William Henry Smyth, The Sailor’s Word-Book, 1867.
2“Aivazovsky, I. K. The Ninth Wave. 1850″. Auburn University. Via Wikipedia. Retrieved 29 December 2022.
3John Owen, Biblical Theology: The History of Theology from Adam to Christ, Stephen P. Westcott, translator (Soli Deo Gloria Publications, Grand Rapids MI: 1994) original Latin (Oxford: 1661) xl.
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Kindling for Candles 