In the cool of the evening is when the Lord God walked in His newly created garden here on this earth, the evening is the beginning of the cycle if you study the Scriptures, not the rising of the sun. In the cool of the evening infers that the daytime temperature was perhaps not hot, but warm enough that the man our Lord created sought shelter at times under the shade of the trees, trees that were only a few days old and at the same time hundreds of years old, something evolutionists have a difficult time grasping. “For with God nothing shall be impossible.” (Luke 1:37)
My most understanding wife read for us this morning about the temptation of Christ, forty days without food, and how He later said that “It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” (Matt. 4:4) As He always did, our Lord was a master of words, parables with Him were not uncommon, and each word in context must be carefully studied, for misinterpretation of the Scriptures has led to not only the downfall of many, but has led to many man-governed religious ideologies that have led many to hell. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (John 1:1) Jesus is the bread of life, (John 6:35) the bread of course that the Lord was speaking of in that instance was of course the food that we need to ingest often, or the flesh will suffer, but the analogies are none the less interesting, and can give us pause to contemplate the Scriptures, to assist us in keeping every thought captive for Christ, (2 Cor. 10:5) and to help us grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord. (2 Peter 3:18) The Word is Jesus Christ, and it is in Him that we have our existence, and it is only because of Him that all things subsist.
The Word of God though we also call the Scriptures, the inerrant and forever eternal written word of God, and it is in these words that we find how we are to live if we desire to be pleasing to Him. As odd as it may seem though, many have placed the Word of God the Sriptures, in this manner above the Word of God who is Christ. “Then said I, Lo, I come, in the volume of the book it is written of me, to do thy will, O God.” (Heb. 10:7) We find Christ, and in the whole of our studying of the Scriptures we should be constantly searching for Christ in them, but that Bible should not be your most prized possession, Jesus Christ should be. It is such a subtle trick of Satan, but it should be expected, all that he can accomplish to keep our minds off of Christ, he will do, every opportunity he has to embarrass God by the actions of His children, he will take, and there are very few things less admirable than a Bible-toting person who cannot tell you about the One the Book was written about. The church member who has his “assigned” seat in the pews, but does not understand his place in the kingdom, the esteemed elder who has no clue how to lead a person to the salvation of the Lord, the pastor who extols only the parts of the Scriptures that those with itchy ears (2 Tim. 4:3) desire to hear, these are those that do not understand the difference between the Word and the Word.
“I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me.” (Prov. 8:17) “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” (Heb. 11:6) “Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near.” (Isaiah 55:6) We seek the knowledge and wisdom of God in His Word, we seek Christ in our hearts. Redemption and the resurrection is what brings people to the knowledge of the saving grace of God in Christ, the rest of the Scriptures are a history lesson, a manual on how we are to live after our salvation. Did you not know that many were saved by this grace long before the Gutenberg Press was invented, men have long called on the Lord and been saved by His grace before the entirety of His word was made available to all. It is Christ we are to seek, it is Jesus we are to follow, and God has been gracious enough to bless us in this generation with the ability to search Him out in His word at our leisure, at anytime we desire to.
Don’t trade your Bible for Jesus, don’t trade works, tradition, formalities for Christ. It is the heart that the Lord God looks upon, (1 Sam. 16:7) not the one with the perfect church attendance record or the one with the most Scripture verses memorized. He regards the person of no man, (Romans 2:11) but He loves and adores those who love and worship His Son, the Word. “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14)
