Today when you hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts . . . – Hebrews 3:7-8
Hebrews 1:1-3
1 Long ago God spoke many times and in many ways to our ancestors through the prophets.
2 And now in these final days, he has spoken to us through his Son. God promised everything to the Son as an inheritance, and through the Son he created the universe.
3 The Son radiates God’s own glory and expresses the very character of God, and he sustains everything by the mighty power of his command.
Paul Marcarelli is best known for being the ubiquitous “Test Man” character in Verizon Wireless commercials from 2002 to 2011. He was repeatedly checking to make sure that the Verizon signal was reaching the desired area. He appeared in all of his Verizon commercials wearing a gray Verizon jacket and his own horn-rimmed glasses.
The spokesman in the background asks, “How do you build America’s largest wireless network, by never being satisfied. So no matter where you go, your call always goes through. Verizon wireless, we never stop working for you!”
Paul switched to Sprint in 2016 and became their spokesperson. He often referred to his switch from Verizon to Sprint in the commercials. In the Sprint ads, Marcarelli calls attention to the fact that Sprint’s network is vastly improved.
“Hey, I’m Paul, and I used to ask `If you could hear me now with Verizon?’ Not anymore.”
After mentioning that he’s moved to Sprint, Marcarelli goes on to say that “Guess what, it’s 2016, and every network is great. In fact, Sprint’s reliability is now within 1% of Verizon.”
Sprint’s pitch to consumers is that you can get a network with reliability that is nearly the same as Verizon’s but at rates, Sprint claims are half what you’ll pay Verizon.
The Father has spoken to the world through the Word of God. Being our Creator, He knows exactly what people need to know. The Father has disclosed truth regarding Himself and His ways to us in the Scriptures. The Word of God does not speak exhaustively on all issues, but it is always accurate, inerrant, and truthful.
Lord Jesus Christ did so many things in the presence of the disciples, everything could not have been included. So, the apostle John selected a small portion to include. We get some inkling of this in the Gospel of John where he explains.
John 21:25 Jesus also did many other things. If they were all written down, I suppose the whole world could not contain the books that would be written.
John 20:30-31
30 The disciples saw Jesus do many other miraculous signs in addition to the ones recorded in this book.
31 But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing in him you will have life by the power of his name.
The apostle John was an eyewitness to what the Lord Jesus Christ said and did. There was so much more that happened that is not recorded in his gospel. Using hyperbole, John says that even all the books of the world could not contain the full story of the Lord Jesus Christ. He carefully chose what to include for the benefit of all future generations. In no uncertain terms, he offers enough true truth, that anyone who reads and accepts it will have eternal life.
REFLECT & PRAY
The Father has spoken and continues to speak, are we listening? He asks, “Can you hear Me now?”
Father thank You that You have revealed true truth! Thank you that you have provided enough information so that anyone can believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Messiah, the Son of God. When they do, may receive eternal life in His name.
INSIGHT
The Father spoke in many ways, over many centuries, using many people, and culminating in the revelation of His Son the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible was written over two millennia. Yet there is remarkable unity and continuity to the message. The theme of the Scriptures can be summed up in one word: Redemption. The main characters are the Father and the Son.
Hebrews 1:1-2
1 Long ago God spoke many times and in many ways to our ancestors through the prophets.
2 And now in these final days, he has spoken to us through his Son
Down through the ages, many frequently asked philosophical and theological questions echoed down through the millennia by diverse cultures and faiths. Is there a God? What is He like? How did the universe and the world come to be? Where did the animals, and mankind come from? How and when did it all begin?
Only the Father had firsthand knowledge of these things. He was the only one there when He created the heavens and the earth. The word of God touches upon all of these questions. The Scriptures provide answers that are absolute truth rather than opinions, suggestions, our best guesses. It does not speculate or postulate conclusions based upon transitory, often fluctuating, or even conflicting scientific theories of the day. Rather, it accurately and succinctly answers them. The answers found in the Scriptures are unsurpassed in their sublime excellence and commonsense explanations.
With apologies to Young Frankenstein, by Mel Brooks, the Genesis record, tells the Father’s story, How I did it.
How tragic, that in modern times, the Scriptures are simply ignored or worse, rejected as a source of knowledge for such fundamental questions of the human race.
Many people engage in a search for truth. Sadly, rather than finding the Truth, they often find, “truth for now.” But it does not last long, and it is simply replaced by a new “truth for now.”
If you were working in a bank and at the end of the day the cash on hand was only roughly half of what was expected, what would you think? Perhaps some kind of malfeasance had occurred? Well most of us don’t work in a bank. But something analogous to that has happened to our understanding of the universe in our lifetime.
Before the Hubble telescope, the universe was estimated to be approximately 25 billion years old. That was the best guess of many of the greatest scientists of the time. But after Hubble, something remarkable happened. The estimated age of the universe was cut in half. About 12 billion years were simply gone, missing.
Oddly, this didn’t seem to really trouble anybody. No charges were brought, and no one was arrested. There wasn’t even an investigation. Perhaps some speculated that it might have been an inside job. Instead, new theories were offered to explain why the new estimate was correct.
The current measurement of the age of the universe is around 13.8 billion years (as of 2015) – 13.799±0.021 billion (109) years within the Lambda-CDM concordance model. According to current theory, the expansion rate of the universe can be used to calculate the universe’s approximate age by extrapolating backward in time. The assumptions involved in this new theory are not for the faint in heart. It is simply assumed that the expansion rate of the universe remains constant for 15 to 25 billion years. Is this assumption accurate? Some would say, there is no way of knowing.
If I were president of the Bank of the Cosmos, I would be very suspicious. I would want to know what happened to the missing 12 billion years.
“It’s easy to take for granted what is commonly available, but we should never lose sight of the most valuable possession God has given us – His inspired, inerrant Word” (Stanley).
Hebrews 3:15 “Today when you hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts.”
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© Dr. H 2022
Dr H Reflections 