As my Dad lay in hospital for the last month of his life the only book he had with him was his Bible. He was very sensible. It was the Word that would outlast him in the most emphatic of ways - for ever. So at his Thanksgiving Service we read . . .
1Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.
2 Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins.
3 The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
4 Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain:
5 And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.
6 The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field:
7 The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass.
8 The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.
This Old Testament reading appears, at casual reading, to be a strange combination of comfort and brutal truth. After all, what real comfort is their that God has forgiven us (2) when we are all on the way out anyway (7)? All that lasts is the echoing voice of the Divine (8).
It all hinges on what the Word of the Lord actually says.
If the enduring Word of the Lord had said, "Good Riddance" we could hardly blame him. But the Word that outlasts our little earthly life-slot speaks instead of eternal salvation. We also read . . .
1And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.
2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.
The Word that lasts is the Word that brings the greatest comfort of all.
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