This Book - Isaiah 55:8-11 (Introduction)

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People approach the Bible and understand it in different ways.  

• For some it’s ancient and irrelevant. I mean, yeah, it's got some decent poetry, and some good moral lessons. But other than that, it's really not important for us today.  
• Others approach it as a source for bumper stickers, tattoos, or posters. 
• For some it's ‘Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth’—how to be a good person and get into heaven.  

The truth is so much greater than any of those, even greater than all of those combined.  

I’m going to spend the next few months walking my church together through the Bible’s ‘library’ of books. But I almost didn't. I almost changed my mind this week.  

I was working on my Sunday sermon, planning the series, bringing the big pieces together, and focussing on this week. I’d been working for a while, and was ready for a break. I stood up from my desk, stretched, made a coffee, sat in the comfy chair beside the window and took out my phone. I opened the CBC news app to catch up on the headlines. I started reading about the shooting of Renee Nicole Good, and what was happening in Minneapolis.  

I read the accounts, watched the videos and (maybe even worse) listened to the spin, the commentary, the debate, the justification. 

It all hit me really hard. In my gut, my head, my heart. It still does.  

After a while, I finished my coffee and went back to work on my sermon. I sat down at my desk, opened my laptop, and looked at my notes so far. And I thought... is this really what I want to be preaching about on Sunday? “The B-I-B-L-E, yes, that's the book for me...”  

Shouldn't I be preaching about injustice and violence? Shouldn't I be preaching about the suffering of the innocent? Shouldn't I be preaching about what power does to the souls of people who hold it? Shouldn't I be preaching about loss and grief?  

Is this really the time to start a long series on ‘What's in the Bible?’  

Well, yeah. It really, really is.  

2026 has not started well. This isn’t shaping up to be a fun year. We’re 2 weeks in, and it already feels like we've sunk further than we had before.  

I have days when I am angry at my world, and angry at God for not doing... something! There are days when I'm confused. When lament is all I’ve got.  

I have lament. I need wisdom.  

I need wisdom to know how to react to the emotions that arise within me when I read my newsfeed. I need wisdom to know how to respond in my anger and my lament. I need wisdom to know how to live in a world that is not doing well.  

What I do not need is an online or in-person echo chamber where everybody agrees with me and we all sit around together making each other angrier.  

What I do not need is to become a keyboard warrior, an angry clickbait troll feeding the fear and making things worse.  

Yes, I want answers! Answers that explain why. That defuse tension, that bring justice, that end suffering. I want answers that break the corrupting power of power.  

I want answers. I need wisdom.  

I need what's in the Bible.  

Because there is no quick fix for our world, and the Bible does not pretend to be one. There are no quick answers to injustice and pain, and the Bible does not pretend to offer any quick answers.  

Yes, the Bible provides the good news of eternal, abundant life in Christ beyond this world.  

It also provides wisdom for life here and now. Whatever happens next, whatever turns up next week in the newsfeed, the Bible offers us the best opportunity to navigate that better: to not just live in an anger-driven survival reaction mode, but to live in hope. To live in determination to live in hope.  

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First Question: Who Wrote the Bible?  

When believers talk about the Bible, we talk about it being the ‘inspired word of God.’  

Let's peel that back and ask, what does ‘inspired’ mean?  

Some of us imagine Paul, for example, being in an almost trance-like state: a supernatural vision-state where the Holy Spirit almost physically guides his hand across the page as he forms the letters and the words.  

Or we can look at someone like Charles Dickens. 

It was the best of times. It was the worst of times... It was the spring of hope. It was the winter of despair. We were all going to heaven. We were all going direct the other way. (A Tale of Two Cities) 

Oh, man! Dickens was an ‘inspired’ writer! He understood the human condition, he had the skill to describe back to us ourselves. That was inspired writing.  

So when we talk about the Bible are we talking about a supernatural imposition of ideas and thoughts into the minds of the writers? Or about people who were really smart, and knew what was going on, were really good at crafting words?  

I would say some of both. 

Long back in the history of Israel, they had just left slavery in Egypt, and were living in the wilderness. God told them to build a tabernacle—a portable worship space they could take with them when they moved. 

The Lord has filled Bezalel with the Spirit (or the breath) of God. Giving him great wisdom, ability, expertise in all kinds of crafts. He is a master craftsman, an expert in working with gold and silver and bronze. He is skilled in engraving and mounting gemstones and in carving wood. He is a master at every craft, and the Lord has given both him and Oholiab, son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, the ability to teach their skills to others. Exodus 35:31-34 

The tabernacle was designed by God himself as a place where generations would meet with him. So it had to be built right: with the right materials (gold, silver, bronze, acacia wood, fine linen, goat hair, ram skins). With the right colours in the right places (blue, purple, scarlet, white and black). With the right footprint, the right layout, that would draw the people's attention towards the holiest of holy places.  

Bezalel was one of those people who had grown up in slavery in Egypt. He was not just a guy with a hobby. He would have been apprenticed as a child to a master craftsman: someone who understood and taught him how to work with these materials: what they could do, what they could not do. With the tools: what they could do and what they could not do. He had learned his craft, becoming a master craftsman.  

Then God filled him with his Holy Spirit. God put him to work, building a space that was designed and decorated to tell people something about God. When it came time to build the tabernacle, Bezalel was ready with his tools and his skills, and with the Spirit.  

For the people who wrote our scriptures?  

The apostle Paul, who wrote much of the New Testament, was a student of Gamaliel, one of the greatest theological rabbi minds ever. Paul spent years learning from Gamaliel how to look beneath the surface to find truth.  

Matthew and John, who wrote two of the gospels, had been with Jesus for years. They learned from how Jesus taught. How Jesus put arguments together, how he tore arguments apart. How Jesus told a story to bring out what really mattered. How to land the perfect mic drop.  

The writers of the Bible learned their skills from masters. Then when it came time for them to do their work, the Holy Spirit filled them. Spoke to them. Gave them the message that they were to convey.  

Who wrote this book? God wrote this book. And so did people.  

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Second Question: What Does the Bible Do?  

All scripture is inspired by God (or God-breathed) and is useful to teach us what is true, to make us realize what is wrong in our lives, and it corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. 2 Timothy 3:16 

"God breathed” -- sounds very spiritual. "Useful” - a very earthy word.  

The Bible is “useful.” It has an identifiable purpose. What does that look like? 

We have received God's Spirit so that we can know these wonderful things that God has freely given to us. And when we tell you these things, we do not just use words that come from human wisdom. Instead, we speak words given to us by the Spirit. 1 Corinthians 2:12-13 **  

Paul has received God's Spirit. The Spirit has given Paul the message he needs to deliver. And then... 

When we brought you the good news... the Holy Spirit gave you full assurance that what we said was true. 1 Thessalonians 1:5-6 **

This is the journey of the message: 

• Holy Spirit comes to one of the writers.  
  
• Holy Spirit speaks the message to the writer.  
• The writer communicates that message to the people.  
• The people (who are also filled with the Holy Spirit) recognize the voice behind the message.  

The writers of scripture are filled with the Holy Spirit, and delivering the message. We are filled with Holy Spirit, and receiving the message.  

When we read the Bible, it's our turn to recognize the voice that we're hearing, the voice of someone we've met, the voice of someone who always speaks what is true, points out where we've gone wrong, teaches us to not just believe what is right, but to do what is right.  

So what does the Bible do? It preserves and delivers God's recorded message that has been delivered through Holy Spirit believers to Holy Spirit believers.  

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Third Question: How Does the Bible Do Its Work?  

Like I said, I have questions for my world. I have questions for God, and yeah, I want answers. My most important questions begin with words like 'why?' How long? What am I supposed to think? What am I supposed to do?  

So do I turn to the Bible for answers?  

Well, let's see.  

• Direct questions that Jesus was asked in the gospel: 183. 
• Direct answers he gave: four.  
• 179 out of 183 times he responded to people's questions with either something cryptic, or a story, or by asking them a question back.  

The questions that people asked Jesus were, for the most part, good and fair questions. Like, “Where are we going to find enough food to feed all these people?” “Should we pay taxes to a corrupt government or should we not? “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” All good, serious questions about basic human needs, family, politics, spirituality. 

But when people asked Jesus direct questions, what did he do? He bounced the spotlight back onto them. He made them think: about themselves, about what they'd learned already. He answered their questions with questions like, “Well, what resources do you have?” “Whose name is stamped on that coin? Whose name is stamped on you?” “Why are you even asking me this question in the first place? What are you avoiding?” Very often (to people who he knew ought to know better) Jesus' question of choice in response was, ‘What do the scriptures say?” Ooh, snap.  

Your word is a lamp to guide my feet, a light to illuminate my path. Psalm 119:105 

I want answers; the Bible offers me a path. It offers me light, and direction, and a choice. The Bible does not often give me what I want... it always offers what I need.  

How does the Bible work? More often than not, by making me work: with Holy Spirit guidance, working through my questions, working into my challenges, working into my opportunities.  

The Bible describes my ultimate destiny, my someday. It describes life eternal, overflowing with love and joy, in abundance with Christ forever, because he saved me from myself.  

For today, for now, for tomorrow morning, for next week, the Bible offers me a chance at wisdom.  

Wisdom is built the way muscle is built: one rep, one step at a time. The same way skills are built: one attempt, one failure, one success at a time.  

Holy Spirit, through the Bible, offers to build in me wisdom. One question at a time.  

** emphasis mine