God is
the artist extra-ordinary and unrivalled.
When it is stated He created humankind in His image, the Lord imparted
aspects of Himself. As writers, I believe our Lord planted this ability within
us as a seed which would need to grow, blossom and bring glory to Him with
blessings to others. That is for another day to consider. This piece aims to
highlight what God Himself wrote.
The
Scriptures specifically state the Almighty wrote a number of items. I would
like to quote the second article, as I see it, and finish with what, again to
me, is His first. When the Lord called Moses up into the Mount He gave him two
stone tablets. ‘The tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the
writing of God, engraved upon the Tablets’ (Exodus 32:16). This was done by His
finger.
Jeremiah
is often called the prophet with tears. True. However, even in the book of
Lamentations is that most wonderful promise of chapter 3:22-23 ‘The steadfast
love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new
every morning; great is your faithfulness.’ How could Jeremiah say that? Israel
was shattered with many of the people taken to captivity. Because of a promise
Yahweh, who sees the restoration of the Nation. At some period known only to
Him the Lord promised to write His law on the hearts of Israel (Jeremiah
31:33). God keeps His word! That is where hope is born, nurtured and grows.
The next
time the Lord God of Hosts writes on a wall. Is He the classic graffiti artist?
However, what He wrote was ‘mene, mene,tekel, parsin’ (Daniel 5:5,24). Babylon
was judged and would be thrown down that very night. God again keeps His word. He
had said the captivity would last 70 years and it was fulfilled. God is not
only redeemer He is Sovereign and He is the Judge.
Time
passes and the Lord of Glory enters our realm as the Babe of Bethlehem,
Emmanuel. Jesus is recorded, only once that I can see as writing. John 8 says
He wrote twice in the dirt. What was written is unknown (but that hasn’t
stopped speculation). Whatever it was, those would be stone throwers took fright
and left the woman to the mercy of the Lord.
Our
digital age helps me understand the storage of God’s book He has compiled. My
computer holds so much which appears at a touch. How the Lord keeps His ‘files’
isn’t mentioned, but if it was on paper, wow! Imagine what sized storage
facility would be needed. This final insight into Yahweh’s writing is three
fold, but is actually the first He wrote. In many ways it is controversial and
for some fatalistic. For me, it is awesome for it stresses the omniscience of
our Redeemer.
In Psalm
139:16 the Psalmist claimed God wrote a book about his life even before the man
was born. Does that mean God determines our life? Or that He sees and records
for some future accounting with Yahweh as the rewarder of faithfulness? Another
group of people have a special inscription from the hand of God. Revelation
14:1 calls the ‘one hundred and forty-four thousand’ brigade. They wear His
mark on their forehead. As such they have a special ministry and at the end of
their service have a new and special song to sing. Did Christ Jesus write the
song? I wonder!
In
conclusion, we are confronted with the spine-tingling, but also frightening
grace of God’s foreknowledge. He has this other book called ‘The book of Life.’
Everyone ever born (and may I respectfully include those still-born) have been
recorded. It was from this book that Moses was willing to be scrubbed off to
save the Nation (Exodus 32:32). Unfortunately, there will be those, who,
because of unbelief and rejection of Christ have been blotted out (Revelation
20:11-15).
Why can
you and I have a sense of confidence that this doesn’t apply to us? Simply and
only because we belong to Christ Jesus by faith in who He is, what He has done
and that He keeps us in His hand. Jesus is the Lamb of God who has inscribed
our name in His book Revelation 13:8. (Romans 8:1-39 expresses what He has
done, is doing for us because of Calvary and our surrender to His authority).
How
humbled we should be to know God has written our names with His own ‘finger’ in
His book of life. As followers of Christ to whom He has given the gift of
writing we have much to say about His grace. Whatever genre is ours and however
we weave the story, it is our honour to declare His story and grace through the
words we write.
©Ray
Hawkins September 2015.
