I
write this post to reflect again upon the importance of the Bible: the Word of
God. Dakota’s message 2 weeks ago and Courtney’s blog post from last week both
provided us with important facets of reading the Bible. By writing this post I
would like to add more fuel to the flame, so to speak, by adding another
treatise on reading the bible.
1
Peter 2:2 like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it
you may grow up into salvation.
Consider
the Above passage. Peter writes saying as babies, desire the milk: The
spiritual milk. So the question arises what is the spiritual milk? This we can determine based on the context of
the passage. Just a few verses earlier in chapter 1, Peter speaks of the Living
and Abiding Word of God, that is imperishable and never fades, and this Word is
the Good News that was preached to you. (Summary of 1 peter 1:23-25) Now
returning to 2:2, this verse is continuing that dialogue on the Word of the
word of God. Now Peter under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit uses an analogy
here to demonstrate to us the importance of the Word of God.
God
is likened to our mother, bearing the life giving substance, the milk, which is
likened to the Word of God. We are compared to babies. Now consider this
analogy. A baby: helpless, young, small, weak, in desperate need of protection,
no ability to sustain themselves without their mother. Their mother is their
everything. They look to her for care
and comfort and nourishment and life. Without her, they DIE. Now we are likened
to these babies. And it says long for the Milk. The Greek word is epipotheō. It
means to desire, to pursue with love, to long after, to yearn for, (and my
favorite) to intensely crave! Do you, do I intensely crave the Word of God? Oh
not nearly as I should, oh that I would long for the scripture as a baby longs
for milk.
Now consider a baby once more. This is such a
rich deep analogy for the word of God, it creates such great imagery. I grew up in a family of 10 kids and I had
firsthand experience of seeing my little brothers and sisters long for the milk
as babies. If they didn’t get fed they would CRY! They would cry until they got
the milk. Nothing else would satisfy their longing. A toy wouldn’t make them
stop crying, nor someone holding them. They desired one thing: the pure milk of
their mother. When was the last time we cried because we didn’t read the word
of God?
Another detail, Babies eat every 1 to
3 hours depending on age and all that. What if we drank every three hours of
the word of God? What richness that would be. Yet I suspect many of us don’t
drink of the pure spiritual milk every three days if not every three
weeks. Now why do the babies drink? Two reasons
given here: That firstly we might grow up into salvation (v2). As babies drink
to grow so do we. To grow in our faith: sanctification as Courtney wrote of. To
conform to the image of Christ. And secondly in verse three quoting from the Old
Testament (psalm 34)
If indeed you have
tasted that the Lord is good. (1 peter 2:3)
Just as babies have tasted that the
milk is good, we have tasted the Goodness of the Lord. We have seen his
steadfast Love. We have experienced the immeasurable riches of his grace. We
have seen his Love demonstrated for us on the Cross where he died for us while
we were yet sinners that we might have life. We have tasted his goodness and THIS
is what brings us back to the scriptures a new each day. It brings us back
yearning for a new revelation of his love and Goodness. The psalmist speaks of
this idea in talking of the worth of the word:
The
law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces
(psalm 119:72)
The
Word of God, the Law of the Lord, is a greater treasure then all the wealth in
the world! Now is that truth a reality in my life? He goes on to say in verse 103:
How
sweet are you words to my taste, sweeter then honey to my mouth!
What
truth these verses speak. I would encourage you to go back and read through the
entirety of psalm 119. It speaks of the worth and value of the Word of God.
Now we must understand this is
no ordinary book, the bible that is. It is the Word of God, which was written
down by men under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. It is the WORD OF GOD!! Of
the LIVING GOD! Not just a god, but the great IAM, Yahweh, the ruler of the
universe and he has lovingly given us these words so that we might know him, we
might seek his face. I must grind this axe; we must get the idea out of our
head that this is not just a thing that we have to do again in a begrudging
manner. We say, “Oh man I better read my bible again so I can be a good
Christian”, and mark a big check mark off of the Be a Good Christian List. We read the word for maybe four minutes,
while barely paying attention to what we are reading. NO! WHAT? What blasphemy.
What ignorance.
Let us learn from babies, and
their example of desire for that life giving substance. I read the Word for
many reasons, but the one that triumphs all the others is that I desire to KNOW
GOD. (Phil 3:8) therefore I come anew each day by the grace of God, desiring
and thirsting for a new revelation of God from his precious life giving word.
We must have that mindset. Many days it is not mine either, for sin blinds me
and lies to me, saying that the world is way better then reading the word. That
it is more enjoyable to check Facebook then to drink of the pure spiritual
milk. I have tasted and seen that the Lord is good; but the flesh causes me to
so easily forget it. Oh lay outside the
flesh and Drink!
Are
you drinking of the milk, regularly? Daily? Constantly? Do you long for it? When was the last time you CRIED because you
had not read the bible that day? Oh do we INTENSELY CRAVE to read the
scripture?
We are so easily satisfied by so
many worthless things, when truly only one thing can fully satisfy us. We have
the greatest treasure of the universe, awaiting us to seek him, and we have his
words sitting in front of us collecting dust on the bookshelf, yet we foolishly
neglect the milk that awaits us. Taste and see that the Lord is good! He will continue to satisfy our
hungry souls.
Oh I am not there yet,
I strive with you all too long for the word of God more and more. Our pray must
be God give me a deeper longing for the Word! Let me realize its true worth.
Make me crave it. Pray out this scripture. Pray out psalm 119. And God will
answer and give us this desire, if we sincerely want it.
You know what you got to do. Dog go drink that milk.
Like newborn
infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into
salvation— if indeed you have tasted
that the Lord is good. (1 peter 2:2-3)
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