J12 Prepare to protect yourself!

Gen 6:14: "Make yourself an ark of gopher wood..." [Noah's ark]

and Exodus 2:3: "And when she could no longer hide him [Moses], she took for him an ark of bulrushes..." [trans: Heb "tebah," a box].

And Exodus 25:10: "...make an ark..." [I.e., the Ark of the Covenant]

Augustine: "Undoubtedly the ark is a symbol of the City of God on its pilgrimage in history. It is a figure of the church that was saved..." (1)

Reflection: Most people today hear "ark" and think only of a big boat, but the more inclusive reading is that of a strong box. Valuables need protection.

Augustine sees the church as the preserver of the revelations of God, in all the forms revelation has taken. He was writing about 1600 years ago -- a time when persecution had repeatedly savaged believers to suppress the Truth.

How vulnerable was the record of Jesus Christ's earthly ministry. The community of believers had to gather to hear the Apostles' oral recollections. Paul's letters to the churches are the earliest written records, pre-dating the Gospels by decades. Most families today have no knowledge of their ancestors, beyond a few generations -- yet letters written on papyrus 2000 years ago, and carried across the sea in tiny wooden boats, were so treasured that they were copied hundred of times, passed on to the next, copied again and again, until the very proliferation of them made further efforts to destroy them, futile.

When Erasmus compiled the Greek New Testament in 1515, he had access to only 3, very late manuscripts. And yet, he was able to correct errors that had been in the Vulgate for over a millenium. Modern researchers have found over 14,000 hand-written manuscripts of NT writings, some papyri dating to the second century. The most rigorous scholarship has produced translations, such as the NIV, with accuracy and confidence. No other early writing is attested in such a multitude of contemporary sources.

Preservation of the scriptures is an incredible record of God's protection. He has used countless human individuals to do so. There is a wonderful song that includes the phrase, "may all who come behind us, find us faithful..."

For whom am I the Ark of God's message?

My prayer today: O God Almighty, who could witness how you have preserved your written word, yet still doubt? Yet more wondrous is how you have preserved your chosen nation, Israel. Facing constant persecution for millenia, yet still testifying today of your truth! How wondrous that Isaiah, 2,500 years ago, still speaks truth of Jesus Christ our Saviour! Holy, holy, holy is Your name!

(1) "City of God," 15.26

7/11/2018, 4/1/2020