Oh, how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day. You, through Your commandments, make me wiser than my enemies; for they are ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers, for Your testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the ancients, because I keep Your precepts. (Psalm 119:97-100)
Finding Purpose In God’s Revelation – What The Bible Means To Me
Man is an eternal creature. The fall of man changed everything. The fellowship of God with man was severed as sin separated the character of God from the sinful nature of man. God chose to save man, promising to redeem him through a promised Seed. After the fall, the Lord expelled man from the garden and the tree of life. Life on the outside of Eden was very different from the inside. God provided everything man needed in the garden. Now, outside the garden, what was man to do?
It is clear from the beginning of time that God revealed to man how to care for himself, provide for his family, and most importantly: to worship God. While no reference is given to Adam and Eve, the first stories of the early world begin with Adam’s two sons offering sacrifices to the Lord. “Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord. Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat” (Genesis 4:3-4). Both sacrifices were offered because God had instructed early man how to worship and the elements of worship. The Lord did not respect Cain’s offering because of his heart.
God shows He has never left man without revelation. Cain and Abel offered their sacrifices because they understood God required sacrifices. How God revealed this to them is not known. God spoke to Noah and told him what he must do to save himself and his family. Abraham obeyed God’s voice when he was told to leave his family and go to a place yet unknown. After rescuing his nephew Lot, Abraham met a priest of the Most High God named Melchizedek. Abraham gave him a tithe of all he had. Melchizedek shows that God had revealed to early man what he must do to be saved. Later, God gave the people of Israel the Law of Moses so they would know what to do to be saved. The Gentiles became a law to themselves.
Finding purpose in God’s revelation is realizing the power of God’s Word. We stand two thousand years removed from the completed revelation of the final message of God to man. The Bible is a collection of books spanning 1500 years before Christ, written by forty different men in different walks of life through many generations. Many more books were written that are not contained in the collection known as the “Bible,” but what is given will tell anyone what to do to be saved. The Bible is “that which is perfect” (1 Corinthians 13:10). God has never left His creation without a revelation.
God’s revelation is the amazing story of His Son. Jesus came to bring the abundant life. This life is found in the bounty of God’s Word—stories, laws, commandments, illustrations, parables, and revelations—all of which point to Jesus. Life has greater purpose and meaning when the heart is filled with God’s Word. God answers the question of where man came from, why he is here, and what lies beyond the vale of death.
No book in the history of man brings greater hope than the Bible. The Bible should be the most treasured possession I have to know the mind of God. Read it to be wise. Follow its precepts to find hope. Live the words of the Bible to find the abundant love of God given through His Son, Jesus Christ. Spend time in the Word of God.
