Forever, O Lord, Your word is settled in heaven. Your faithfulness endures to all generations; You established the earth, and it abides. They continue this day according to Your ordinances, for all are Your servants. Unless Your law had been my delight, I would then have perished in my affliction. I will never forget Your precepts, for by them You have given me life. I am Yours, save me; for I have sought Your precepts. The wicked wait for me to destroy me, but I will consider Your testimonies. I have seen the consummation of all perfection, but Your commandment is exceedingly broad. (Psalm 119:89-96)

Truth That Does Not Move

Abraham Lincoln once told of a farmer trying to teach his son how to plow a straight furrow. In the time-honored tradition, he told the boy to keep his eye on some object at the other end of the field and plow straight for it. The boy started plowing, and the farmer went about his chores.

When he returned after several hours to check on the boy’s progress, he was shocked to find something that looked like a question mark instead of straight rows. The boy had obeyed his father’s instructions. He had fixed his eyes on something on the other side of the field – a cow. Unfortunately, the cow had moved. Evidently, the father forgot to tell his son to look for a stable object that wouldn’t shift or move around.

Everyone needs direction, and the challenge becomes determining the object of that direction. Many, like the boy learning to plow, choose an object without considering the impact of the decision. A cow would make a good object to focus on if it did not move. Choosing the cow became a problem because the animal moved throughout the field grazing, causing the boy to follow its path. The furrows would have turned out much differently if the boy had chosen a tree.

The contrast between human wisdom and divine knowledge is why the world is in the shape it is in. Whenever men try to follow their own wisdom, they follow a path that always changes. The laws of men are constantly changing, superseding previous laws to fit the moral code of the day. Morality has changed dramatically from fifty years ago. Man cannot trust human laws because they change frequently. Like the cow that moves seeking greener pastures, the wisdom of the human heart changes with the winds of time.

God’s word does not change. Consider that the writings of Moses are more than three thousand years old, the Psalms of David are 2700 years old, and the epistles of Paul are two thousand years old, and they have not changed. The Bible is a complete revelation of God’s divine word, which remains unmovable and unchanged. Human wisdom attempts to rewrite the word of God, but what is settled in Heaven cannot be changed. When men set their hearts on the word of God, they find it does not move, and their lives become “straight furrows” of hope and peace.

The Bible is the divine word of God because if the Lord can create a universe that testifies to His glory, He can give the world a book that remains unchanged throughout the ages. What a man can know about the divine word in the year 1134 is the same word that a man can read today. It does not matter what culture he lives; the Bible is relevant. No book written by man can furnish every generation with truth like the Bible.