Friday 2 Jan 2009

Friday Reading: Isaiah 28 23-29

Key Verse: Isaiah 28 23
23  Give ear and hear my voice; listen, and hear my speech.

Devotion:
Have you ever wondered how some things were discovered? I’m not talking about the things like radio and television but rather the more mundane things like flour to make bread. It may be easy to work out how man was able to send signals over radio waves because we know the history of that, but some of the wisdom that man has does not have firm foundations written down. How did man know that he must crush the grain in order to combine it with other ingredients so that he can make bread? Isaiah’s explanation makes so much sense – God taught us in the beginning!

Yes farmers have made a bit of an art out of growing crops and harvesting them. Here in the UK we see farmers gather together and either share combined harvesters or rent them when it is time to harvest. Things are done on such a large scale that there is often more crops left behind on the fields than we can grow in our back yards; the amount of money needed to gather up those few crops (in comparison to the huge amounts gathered by the harvesting machine) would not make it profitable for the farmers – hence they often leave them for others to gather. Again that action of leaving behind some crops for the poor and needy to gather has been going on for thousands of years and is encouraged in our bibles. Once again, God has given us the wisdom to help ourselves and others.

Why then do we only take the parts of the bible that we want to and leave behind the rest? Why should we not take note of every part of God’s Word? He has given us all of it for a reason – so that we can learn what is right and true. We have so many books telling us how to do so many things in life from growing your own crops to destroying nations with weapons. How many of those books are sold for vast amounts of money because people need to know what is in them? Still God’s Word is the book that is at the top of the list of all books – yet so few people take notice of what is actually written within its covers. How do we think we are going to learn unless we take notice of what is says. Make this the year that you read your bible cover to cover!

Points to Ponder:
How many books do you read?
 
How often do you read your bible?