August 1, 2013

• "To exercise ourselves in this book is sweet indeed." ~ Jeremiah Burroughs

  In my last post, "Why do you watch the same movie over and over?" I wrote:

  Many of us know the enjoyment from watching a favorite movie (or reading a book or listening to a piece of music or a sermon) over and over again... How much more ought that to be the case when we come to the Bible, which is breathed out by God, and when we come to Jesus Christ Himself, who IS the Word of God?

  Because the Word of God is beautiful.
  Because the Word of God is interesting.
  Because the Word of God has a lot of layering that takes at least a few reads to unravel the mystery. . .

  How sad to say how very few Christians relish time in the Word of God in anticipation of His descending upon the mercy seat! Consider that we have access into the Most Holy Place through our Savior's precious blood –– are too many of us making light of His sacrifice and trampling on the blood of the Lamb? ~ Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by?

  How few professing Christians consider time with God in His Word to be a privilege and a delight –- and how contrary that attitude is to the pattern we find in the Psalms, where we read of the children of God panting, longing, and thirsting for the living God! –– or those in Jesus' day went all out for a touch from the Master or to grab hold of His garment! In contrast, for many today Bible reading is seen as one of many items on our daily to-do list. We take our few minutes with God, we check off our list, and we go our way. Well, we claim we have met with God, but I wonder what He would He say to that claim?

  Prior to beginning his exposition on the book of Hosea, Jeremiah Burroughs gave this introduction, which I found to be a very fitting follow-up to that post.

  We might preface our work by labouring to raise your hearts to the consideration of the excellency of the Scriptures in general. Luther uses a high expression about them; he calls them the highest genus, that contains in it all good whatever. Take away the Scripture, and you even take away the sun from the world. What is the world without the Scriptures, but hell itself? We have had indeed the word of God as the sun in the world, but oh how many mists have been before this sun! Seldom the sun shines clearly to us. Seeing there is such a glorious sun risen, it is distressing that there should be a misty day. Now the work to which we are called is, to dispel the mists and fogs from before this sun, that it may shine more brightly before your eyes and into your hearts...

  Chrysostom in his twenty-ninth sermon upon Genesis, exhorting his auditors to get the Scriptures into their houses, and diligently to exercise themselves in them, tells them that by them the soul is raised, elevated, and brightened, as with the beam of the Sun of righteousness, and delivered from the snares of unclean thoughts. In the Scripture the great God of heaven has sent his mind to the children of men; he has made known the counsel of his will, and opened his very heart unto mankind. The Bible is the epistle that God has sent into the world. Did we but hear of a book dictated immediately by God himself, to show the children of men what the eternal counsels of his will were for conducting them to eternal happiness, and thoughts and intentions concerning their everlasting condition; did we, I say, but hear that there was such a book in the farthest part of the Indies, should we not rejoice that the world was blest with such a mercy? What strong and vehement desires should we have to enjoy but one sight of it before we died! We should be willing to venture upon any hazard, to pass through any difficulty, to be at any expense, that we might have but a glance at such a book as this. My brethren, you need not say, Who shall go to the farthest part of the Indies to fetch us this book? who shall descend into the depth, or go to the uttermost part of the earth, to gain us a sight of this book of Scripture? for, behold, the word is nigh unto you, it is in your houses, and we hope in your hearts, and in this exercise it is to be in our mouths, not only to tell you what it saith, but to explain to you the mind of God in it.

  To exercise ourselves in this book is sweet indeed. Luther professes himself out of love with his own books, and wished them burn, lest men, spending time in them, should be hindered from reading the Scriptures, which are the only foundation of all wisdom:  I tremble, said he, at the former age, which was so much busied in reading Aristotle and Averroes.

  * * *

  May our God forgive us for our weak and indifferent desires toward Him and His Word. May He impart to us strong and vehement desires for Himself and His Word. May God's Holy Spirit breathe into us a holy appetite for God and His Word, that we might taste, experience, and savor the sweetness of entering into, abiding in, and enjoying eternal happiness through the Lord Jesus Christ!

  Psalm 119

  97  Oh how I love your law!

  It is my meditation all the day.

  98  Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies,

  for it is ever with me.

  99  I have more understanding than all my teachers,

  for your testimonies are my meditation.

  100  I understand more than the aged,

  for I keep your precepts.

  101  I hold back my feet from every evil way,

  in order to keep your word.

  102  I do not turn aside from your rules,

  for you have taught me.

  103  How sweet are your words to my taste,

  sweeter than honey to my mouth!

  104  Through your precepts I get understanding;

  therefore I hate every false way.

  

  Psalm 19

  7  The law of the LORD is perfect,

  reviving the soul;

  the testimony of the LORD is sure,

  making wise the simple;

  8  the precepts of the LORD are right,

  rejoicing the heart;

  the commandment of the LORD is pure,

  enlightening the eyes;

  9  the fear of the LORD is clean,

  enduring forever;

  the rules of the LORD are true,

  and righteous altogether.

  10  More to be desired are they than gold,

  even much fine gold;

  sweeter also than honey

  and drippings of the honeycomb.

   

  But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn,
  which shines brighter and brighter,
  (which tastes sweeter and sweeter!)
  until full day!
  ~ Proverbs 4:18, adapted

   

  ---

  Reference: Jeremiah Burroughs, "An Exposition of the Prophecy of Hosea" (completed by Thomas Hall & Edward Reynolds, revised and corrected by James Sherman); (reprinted by Grand Rapids: Reformation Heritage Books, 2006; orig. published Edinburgh: James Nichol, 1863), 1-2.

  Photo credit: Work found at <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Honey_comb.jpg> / CC BY-SA 3.0.

   

  • 3:49 PM
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