Comforting Knowledge

Jeremiah 31:34

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Recently I went to Rochester, Minnesota for some fairly minor surgery. In fact, I was awake during the surgery that I had over there. My eyes were covered, but I could listen to the surgeon and to the resident who was helping the surgeon. And I have to say, it was interesting to listen to them talk about what they were doing. I couldn’t understand a word of it, but it was comforting for me to know that they were very sure of what to do next. And it all turned out well. As I think about it, it would have been quite distressing if I would have heard them lament about how confused and lost they were as they were operating on me. It was wonderful to know that those who were taking care of me know an awful lot, much more about this than I’ll ever know.

As Christians, you and I know a lot. We know especially a lot about what’s in the Bible. We know not that we want to dazzle and overwhelm others with our knowledge, but rather we want to share the good news that the Bible contains. The prophet Jeremiah in the 31st chapter, at verse 34, we read these words.

No longer will they teach their neighbor,
or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’
because they will all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest,”
declares the Lord.
“For I will forgive their wickedness
and will remember their sins no more.” (Jeremiah 31:34)

It is through the Word of God that we know two very important things we know by his law the trouble that we’re in. The threat of his law makes us aware of our sin. When we see our lives reflected in that message of his will for us and our failure at obeying his will. There, though, we see not only our sin and the threat of God’s law, but in His Word, God shows us the gospel of our Savior, his own Son, who came and lived the holy life in our stead, and who accepted the blame for our sins and who suffered its penalty dying on the cross. That through him we have, as the prophet says, the forgiveness of our guilt and the assurance that God will remember our sins no more. There we see Jesus, who by his death on the cross, then gave us this wonderful knowledge of our salvation.

As I speak to you, we’re just about in the month of May. So we’re coming up on the summer season. And we know summertime as a time of traveling and vacation, a time of busyness. And it’s good for us to have a break from the routine of our work and our study the rest of the year. But please don’t take a vacation from church and from God’s Word. Don’t leave behind this wonderful knowledge that God wants us to have, that we know him and we know him through the preaching and the teaching of His Word and our own private reading of it, he wants us to hold on to His Word, for then we hold on to his love and his salvation by faith all year round. May God grant that to us all. Amen.