The Bible Edge
Everyone needs an Edge, Believers can have the Bible Edge
Isaiah 46:8 Remember this, and shew yourselves men: bring it again to mind, O ye transgressors.
“The best teacher is repetition.” No one knows who first said this, but it is true. Repetition! Do you remember how you memorized the multiplication tables, repetition. Can you still recite the list of prepositions “aboard, about, above, across, after, against, along …” you get the picture. How did you learn them? Repetition. Repetition is the key to learning. In four lines of this devotion, I have used the word repetition five times, no doubt you are growing tired of the word repetition, but at least you know what this devotion is about, repetition, right!
The Word of God is a book of repetition. Great and wonderful truths are revealed over and over again so that we may be able to bring it again to mind. Isaiah is dealing with idol worship, a historically repetitive sin among God’s people. The prophet encourages the people of his day to remember to bring it again to mind. Today we still need to be reminded to remember those things that have been repeatedly taught to us from God’s Holy Word. In the very next verse of Isaiah’s message he explains what the people needed to remember. Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, Of all the teachings of the Bible there are none second to these truths. God is God and there is no other.
Someone in my church once said to me, “You know, you have about seven or eight things that you preach on all the time, you use different stories and illustrations, different passages and mannerisms, but all of your messages fall within seven or eight major themes.” I told that person that they were right, I wanted to go on to say, when you get those seven or eight things right and I’ll move on to seven or eight other things. But out of respect, love and not wanting to be a fool that utters his whole mind, I didn’t.
This person was right. Themes like the Doctrine of God, Grace, obedience to the Scriptures, prayer, ministry, eternity, creation, salvation, and others are repeated over and over in the Bible. For example, open the Bible anywhere and it won’t take much reading to find a teaching about one of the above-mentioned themes. They are repetitive. Why? So that we may constantly be reminded to once again: bring it again to mind. Never tire of repetiti0n, for it is one of the great keys of learning, maintaining, and remembering that will give you a Bible Edge throughout life.
May the Lord Bless and be pleased with your thought life today.
William T. Howe, Ph.D.