Gold Nugget 186 - A Wonderfully Different Book
The Bible is a wonderfully different book from anything the wisest of men could have imagined as a revelation of God. Philosophers and men of genius, had they been consulted, would have agreed that it must be a book for the select few, not the multitude. The notion of teaching peasants, slaves, children, the deep things of God, would have seemed to them folly. But “the foolishness of God is wiser than men.”
He has given us a book for the cottage, the schoolroom, the sick-chamber, as well as for the college, the palace, the cathedral. A compilation of short books that look as though collected by chance, yet with wondrous living unity. Depth is concealed by clearness; sublimity by simplicity. Its deepest, highest lessons are given in words a child may understand. No words are too homely, no similitudes too humble, if only they can point the arrow of truth, or wing it home to the heart.
We read of God’s eye, ear, hand, face; his throne, footstool, sword; of his remembering, forgetting, being angry, grieved, repenting, being well-pleased. A long unlovely name has been invented by learned men to express this setting forth of Divine things in human language, “anthropomorphism”. It is used as though a reproach, indicating the ignorance and narrowness of the sacred writers.
Suppose the Bible had been a book to please philosophic critics, what would have been its value to mankind? Suppose our heavenly Father had disdained to speak to us in our own language, how should we have learned that we are his children? The aim of his Word, his message to men, is not to make us philosophers, but to bring us sinners home to God. That teaching which best secures this end is worthiest of God.
The Pulpit Commentary, Psalms I p. 123, Psalms 18:35, (E. R. Conder, W. Clarkson)
Gold Nugget 186
A Wonderfully Different Book
