Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow: The Power of God’s Word

As I walked into the dimly lit interior room of the museum, I could feel my excitement. My pulse quickened. I could feel my blood surging through my veins. Around the perimeter of the circular room stood five heavy-duty display cases specially designed to protect their contents from the museum patrons and any other potential threat such as dust, moisture, and even certain types of light.

I walked over to the first case, my sense of awe producing a slight fluttering to arise in my chest. I took a quick breath to steady myself as I leaned over and peered into the case. This is why I was here. This was a dream come true. This was a moment I had only dreamed about. As I gazed down into the display case through several layers of pressure and temperature controlled glass I was now face to face with nearly three thousand years of history—tradition, culture, knowledge, art. I was staring at three thousand years of life.

Peering up at me were fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Passages from God’s Word recorded two hundred years before Christ’s birth were in that museum display case. This was a moment that transcended time and space. I was looking at three thousand years of God’s revelation to humanity—God’s revelation to you and to me.

At first glance this sentiment is not necessarily grasped. A few scraps of papyrus (paper made from the interweaving of thinly cut reeds) with some faded handwriting on them hardly screams “This is the very truth of God!” But as I starred at the Hebrew script a line of the text began to make sense. The words before my eyes were these: “Forever, O LORD, your word stands in the heavens.” This is Psalm 119:89 and it was the perfect verse to have on display at this exhibit.

Here are manuscripts of the Old Testament that date to two centuries before Jesus ever preached his promises to the people of Judea. These are the exact same words we still see carefully preserved in our Bibles today. God promises to be faithful to us for all time and this exhibit at the Science Museum of Minnesota demonstrates how God has fulfilled that promise with the Bible.

The Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in the late ‘40s at Qumran (a small settlement at the northern tip of the Dead Sea). Until that time the oldest manuscripts of the Old Testament documents—the documents used to make the Old Testament in our Bibles—only dated back to about eight hundred years AFTER Christ. The manuscripts they found in the caves at Qumran however, bring that date back one thousand years. We now have manuscripts that place every book of the Old Testament (except Esther) two hundred years before the birth of our Lord.

With a thousand years of coping and human interaction separating these two sets of manuscripts, one would suspect these two Old Testament traditions would be drastically different (If you don’t believe me just think about the telephone game) but the Dead Sea Scrolls match up nearly word for word with the documents that make up the Old Testament we are familiar with. That is miraculous. If the words of the Old Testament were merely the propaganda or wisdom of man there is no way the message would have survived intact…but it has! God clearly has his hand in the preservation and translation of the Bible. It truly is his Word and the Dead Sea Scrolls attest to that fact.

The Bible is a way that God has revealed himself to us. It is his clear Word to humanity and as 2 Timothy 3:16 says, “All scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness.” The Bible does more than just give us the Word of God. It also unites us with all of God’s people throughout all of history. The words we read in our Bibles are the same words that Jesus read in the synagogues and preached to his followers. They are the same words that Paul used to show people all over the ancient word that Jesus is the Messiah. They are the same words that St. Augustine used to illustrate faith to his students. The words we read today are the same words that Martin Luther studied to help set the Church back on the right track during the Reformation. And they are the same words our children and grandchildren will read and hear in their churches as the Bible continues to present God’s grace to the world. God’s Word is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow!

O Lord, your words truly do stand firm in heaven FOREVER, and thank you for it. Amen.

The Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit will remain at the Science Museum of Minnesota until October 24^th, 2010. If you have the chance to go see this exhibit—to learn about the discovery of the scrolls, their translation, and their importance, I strongly encourage you to do so.