I was recently perusing a book in my library, “The Essence of Guy N. Woods” edited by Johnie Scaggs, Jr. Many may recognize brother Woods name from our Book Reading Challenge list. The book is a collection of articles written by brother Woods, one of which I submit for your reading. (By the way…we have this book in our church library.)

-Jerry Sturgill

“Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine” (1 Timothy 4:13).

 

It is inconceivable that one who loves God will not also be greatly interested in His word and equally determined to learn as much of it as possible. One may indeed read the Bible and not heed its precepts, but it is incontrovertible that one who neither reads nor heeds its teaching can please Him who is its author. Every child of God should read regularly the sacred writings, since such effort, when pursued in the right spirit and prompted by proper motives, will immeasurably increase one’s spiritual stature, and secure the greater favor of God.

In recent years, booklets designed for daily devotions have proliferated, and they possibly serve some useful purpose in focusing attention on religious themes, but their thrust is generally away from the scriptures rather than toward them, since they consist, in large measure, of material matters involving the observations and experiences of those who write them, rather than detailed studies of the text itself. It is far better to quench spiritual thirst at the source of all wisdom, assured that the divine fountain, from which one drinks, is pure and unpolluted. Every child of God ought daily to read the divine writings diligently, prayerfully, and with open mind and pen in hand to jot down for further meditation and possible memorization, those precious gems of truth one regularly unearths in such effort.

It is far more than mere coincidence that through the ages the successful pursuit of liberty and happiness has been in those nations and among those peoples where the scriptures are read and reverenced and religion is honored and respected. Conversely, it is also an established fact of history that there is an eclipse of spiritual life, and an inevitable loss of liberty of mind and body where the holy volume is ignored or unknown.

Green, in his “Short History of the English People,” quite correctly observed that “no greater moral change ever passed over a nation than passed over England in the latter part of the reign of Queen Elizabeth. England became the people of a Book, and that book was the Bible. It was read by every class of people. And the effect was amazing. The whole moral tone of the nation was changed.”

It is doubly tragic that the one book, capable of directing us all into the way of greatest and enduring happiness here and hereafter, is so widely ignored today. There is little danger, in our land at least, that through legislative edict and the exercise of tyrannical powers of government, the Bible will be taken from us. The grave and ever present danger is that we will allow it to remain a closed volume on our study tables and in our book shelves!

Wonderful indeed it would be if our own beloved land, conceived by the Founding Fathers as “one nation under God,” could be influenced to turn from its materialistic and secular ways, and its peoples led to respect the Book and its Author as in former days. Were this done, from Maine’s rockbound coasts to the placid and peaceful waters of the Pacific, and from the great lakes to the southern shores of the Gulf, happiness, peace and prosperity would be ours, and the blessings of the great God and our Saviour would descend on us like the gentle dew from heaven. Let us all pray and labor to the end that this worthy goal may be fully and speedily realized.

 

-Guy N. Woods

 

God’s dealings with Old-Testament Israel are beneficial to us today by providing examples of God’s faithfulness to His word (1 Corinthians 10:1-11; Romans 15:4). The book of Numbers contains a section of several rebellions against the Lord in chapters 11-16. Between the rebellion of the congregation—who listened to the evil report of the ten spies rather than the faithful report of Joshua and Caleb—in Numbers 14 and the rebellion of Korah, Dathan, Abiram and 250 princes of the congregation in Numbers 16, lies a crucial command about rebellion. “But the soul that doeth ought presumptuously, whether he be born in the land, or a stranger, the same reproacheth the LORD; and that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Because he hath despised the word of the LORD, and hath broken his commandment, that soul shall utterly be cut off; his iniquity shall be upon him” (Numbers 15:30-31). God made a difference between a sin committed through ignorance (Numbers 15:24-29), and high-handed sins. Parents understand this principle and discipline their child differently depending on whether the child was just not thinking or deliberately defied their parents’ orders.

Presumptuous sin recognizes God’s law and goes its own way anyway. It places self on the throne and arrogantly looks down on the law of God; it has no fear of the Lord or His judgments. Presumption says man, not God, has the best way to conduct his steps; this is false (Jeremiah 10:23).

Immediately after this commandment regarding presumptuous sin, Moses records an example of such in Numbers 15:32-36. A man was caught picking up sticks on the Sabbath (Numbers 15:32). Sticks were gathered in order to make fires for cooking (cf. 1 Kings 17:10-12). The Lord’s daily provisions from heaven were doubled on the sixth day so that Israel would not have to gather manna on the seventh day; thus, they could keep the Sabbath (Exodus 16:22-30). But this man chose to go out and gather sticks in defiance of the Lord’s command to keep the Sabbath holy (Exodus 20:8-11). When he was brought before Moses and Aaron, he was placed in ward to see what the Lord would have the congregation do with him (Numbers 15:33-34). The Lord gave His judgment to Moses, “The man shall be surely put to death: all the congregation shall stone him with stones without the camp” (Numbers 15:35). Israel followed through with this command (Numbers 15:36).

This punishment may seem harsh, but it was not as if the man did not know what God had said. The Israelites were slaves in Egypt and were used to obeying or being punished strictly. For this man to blatantly disrespect the Lord and His plain command was to shake his fist at God. All of Israel learned a lesson. God then instructed them to remember to keep His commandments by makings fringes or tassels on their garments (Numbers 15:37-41). God’s word should be respected. He has magnified His word above His name (Psalm 138:2). While we are no longer under the law of Moses with its Sabbath command (Colossians 2:14-16), we should not refuse the word of Christ (Hebrews 12:24-25). If today we see ourselves becoming apathetic toward God’s commands let us remember to ask ourselves, “He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?” (Hebrews 10:28-29).

-Mark Day