No power is nearly as illuminating as the Word of God.  The Bible gives us enlightenment that no other source can give.  Some of the questions that man yearns to have answered are given to us in the Word of God.  These questions include “Where did we come from?” and “What happens to us after we die?”  We can have the answers to those questions if we trust God and believe in the Bible because the answers are there.

Man was not created by an evolutionary process that just happened to result in his existence.  There are two kinds of revelation, general and special, and they both tell us that there is an intelligent being responsible for the creation of the world, and for man.

General revelation is how God communicates to us by nature, that is, the things which He created.  David said, “¹ The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. ² Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.” (Psalm 19:1-2).  When one considers the handiwork of God in creation, he is left without excuse for denying that there is a supernatural being behind it (Romans 1:20).  To conclude that the universe, and everything in it, came about by chance, is preposterous.  Just because most people accept the so-called “Big Bang Theory,” a theory that says the universe came from an explosion of dead matter billions of years ago, does not make that theory right.  It is, in fact, nonsensical.  It is like saying that the watch created the watchmaker.  Looking at the universe and concluding that there is a supernatural being behind it, is not only a logical conclusion, but also the only logical one.  However, general revelation does not tell us what our Creator is like.  We need special revelation for that.

Special revelation primarily refers to God’s Word.  By special revelation we know, not only that God created the universe, but how He did it (Genesis 1-2; Psalms 33:6).  We know, not only that God created man, but we also know that He created man in His image (Genesis 1:26-27).

However, the greatest blessing in the illuminating power of the Word of God is that it reveals God Himself to us.  The Bible reveals the nature of God.  While we know that God exists because of His creation, we only know the nature of God by His Word.  We know that God is love because the Bible tells us.  Perhaps, man would come to know that his Creator is a loving God by the way he is treated by Him; however, we know more than that.  By revelation we know that love is the very essence of God’s being (1 John 4:8).

We know that God is merciful, longsuffering, and forgiving because of the direct statements and approved examples found in His Word.  We can both fear God and be at ease with Him because, by the Word of God, we know what kind of God we serve.

What is even more important than knowing the kind of God we serve, is knowing the will of God.  We can positively know God’s will because He has revealed it to us in His Word.  We know what we must do to be saved because we have the instructions of God in the Bible (Romans 1:16).  We know that God wants to be worshipped, and we know how to do it because He has told us in His Word (John 4:24).  We know the work that God wants us to do, and we know how He wants us to do it because, again, it has been revealed to us in the Bible.  This is why Paul exhorted us not to be foolish, but to understand the will of the Lord (Ephesians 5:17).

It is foolish not to know God’s will because He has graciously revealed it to us.  This is why we can be saved.  God has given us all that pertains to life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3); however, as we have learned all week, this blessing of illumination and enlightenment, comes only to those who are willing to put in the time to study the Word of God.  I pray that we will all understand the true value of God’s Word and take advantage of this wonderful gift given to us by our Creator.

As you wind down for the night, think about these things.