Enduring Forever

Psalm 119:160 The entirety of Your word is truth,  And every one of Your righteous judgments endures forever.

Both halves of this verse are very important, but today I want to focus on the second idea: that God's word endures forever. If the Bible were true, but did not endure, our faith would be impossible, for that would mean that either Truth is changeable, or that the Truth could be lost and forgotten. 

Have you ever wondered, what if the Bible had gotten lost? After all, the Bible is history, and we lose pieces of history all the time. Even today, with the internet storing a flood of useless information, events occur that are never recorded outside of human memory, and are lost when that memory fades. Written records themselves are far from permanent. For instance, the Epic of Gilgamesh, as we know it today, is only fragments of the original strung together, with later material added and some of the gaps filled in by educated guess. 

Or consider the lost colony of Roanoke. A settlement of people disappears into the American wilderness and is never heard from again—and despite hundreds of years of research, we are still unsure what happened to them. Historians look at all the evidence and draw conclusions, we read the surviving letters and notes of people who were there at the time, but we will never know all the facts. 

Yet in the Bible God has divinely preserved all the facts we need to understand the mystery of salvation, and the Bible itself has been preserved throughout history. One of my favorite stories in the Bible is that of Hilkiah the high priest, in 2 Kings 22. During the reign of Josiah, carpenters and masons were repairing the Temple, and a scroll was discovered. When Hilkiah examined it, it was the Book of the Law. A scribe read it out to the King, and when Josiah heard the judgments that would fall because they had not been obedient to the Law, he tore his clothes. God's people had lost His Word, but God did not allow it to remain hidden.

We do not need to wonder if we have the full revelation of God, or if more will be discovered that will change our interpretation of the Bible. Over and over, God promises and reminds us that it will endure.

Psalm 119:89-90 Forever, O LORD,  Your word is settled in heaven. Your faithfulness endures to all generations; 

Psalm 119:152 Concerning Your testimonies,   I have known of old that You have founded them forever.

Isaiah 40:8 The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever.

Isaiah 55:11 So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth;  It shall not return to Me void,  But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.

Matthew 24:35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.

We can be confident that we have the words of God, His revelation of His will, and that God will always preserve His word, no matter how hard the world may try to destroy or discredit it.

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 For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. —Jesus Christ