“The idea was to have a class of people charged with the job of
collecting together, collating, and laying out and copying the Word of God,”
says Jordan. “Of course, God is the one who takes the initiative in this
preservation process. It’s not something He leaves for man to do because man
wants to do it. It’s His design, purpose and program.”
God, for example, gave Moses the Ten Commandments, and when Moses
destroyed them, God took the initiative to rewrite them and make another copy.
Moses was instructed by God to
take the initial section of his writings and place them in the Ark of the
Covenant for safekeeping. Moses’ text-in-progress was committed to priests from
the tribe of Levi, who were singled out by God for the key responsibility of
keeping the Book.
*****
The purpose of the Jewish priesthood was literally to teach the
people doctrine out of the Word of God. II Chronicles 15:3 reveals the
priesthood became corrupt and “for a long season Israel hath been without the
true God, and without a teaching priest, and without law.”
Jordan explains, “What
happened is the priests forgot the doctrine but kept the ritual. Now, where’ve
you ever seen that before? Most every Sunday, if you go to the wrong place.
“Malachi 2:7-9 demonstrates the priesthood’s failure to do what
God told them to do in teaching the Word: ‘For the priest's lips should keep
knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth: for he is the messenger
of the LORD of hosts.
[8] But ye are departed out of the way; ye have caused many
to stumble at the law; ye have corrupted the covenant of Levi, saith the LORD
of hosts.
[9] Therefore have I also made you contemptible and base before all the people, according as ye have not kept my ways, but have been partial in the law.’
[9] Therefore have I also made you contemptible and base before all the people, according as ye have not kept my ways, but have been partial in the law.’
“From this passage you see the function of the priest and what
he’s supposed to be about. It says ‘the priest’s lips should keep knowledge.’
“If you wanted to know what
God’s Word said, that guy’s job was to always have and maintain the Word and have
it ready for you when you needed it.
*****
“Another passage on the corruption of the priesthood is in Micah
3:11-12: ‘The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for
hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean upon the
LORD, and say, Is not the LORD among us? none evil can come upon us.
[12] Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest.’
[12] Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest.’
“Do you see it says they ‘teach for hire,’ and the prophets
‘divine for money,’ but ask piously, ‘Is not the Lord among us?’
“The were doing it for money, position, fame, reputation, and yet they
were always real pious to say, ‘Is not the Lord among us?’ Nuts!
“These guys are thinking, ‘None evil can come upon us,’ but God’s
going to destroy them. What the priests had done—they had become a part of
Satan’s policy of evil against the Word of God.
"You see it in operation there
when you see these 'judges' of the people doing it for money; the priests
teaching for money and the preachers preaching for money, not for the Lord.
“Do you remember that scribe over in Jeremiah 36:12 who’s actually
got a special chamber all to himself in the king’s palace? Well, what’s the man
of God doing in the king’s palace?!
"That fellow belonged down in the temple. He
was supposed to be writing out and copying that Book, and taking care of that
thing, teaching it. What in the world’s he doing in a king’s palace? Money.
“Later in the chapter, we see that the king begins to cut up the
Word of God with his pen knife and destroys it. The king’s destroying the Word
of God and yet he’s got a scribe living in his house with a special room to
himself!
*****
“Alongside Satan’s policy of evil to corrupt the Word of God runs
God’s policy of preserving His word through faithful scribes and priests.
“Hezekiah was a godly king who wrote portions of the Word of God
and was responsible in large measure for much of the collecting together of it.
“We know from Isaiah 36:22 and Isaiah 37:1 it was during the reign
of Hezekiah that Isaiah the prophet prophesied.
“Isaiah, along with a great number of other godly men, was in a
situation where much of the Word of God was being produced, and so there’s a
great host of interest.
“Hezekiah has a guild of
scribes; godly, faithful men recognized by the Crown who want see the Word
prosper and flourish. My point is there’s a faithful group of people even when
the priesthood is apostate.
*****
“David, for example, had his very own scribe and II Samuel 8
refers to the official governmental position of the scribe. I Kings 4 lists the
scribes (plural) David’s boy Solomon possessed when he set up his reign. They
had the ‘AUTHORIZED version,’ put it like that.
“By contrast, Jeremiah 8 says, ‘How do ye say, We are wise, and
the law of the LORD is with us? Lo, certainly in vain made he it; the pen of
the scribes is in vain.’
“Jeremiah prophesies before the Babylonian captivity hits and what
he’s saying is, ‘You folks claim to be wise, and you claim to know the Word of
God, but if you’re so smart, and you know so much about the Bible, why don’t
you know judgment’s coming? I mean, even the birds know the times, and the
season’s change, and what’s going to go on, and when it’s time to do this or
that. If you guys are so cotton-pickin’ smart, well, why don’t you know the
wrath of God’s fixing to fall on Israel? Why are you standing up saying peace
and safety and how nothing’s going to happen?’
“If they’d known about all the curses in Deuteronomy 28-32 and the
things that were going to happen to the nation Israel, they’d have known God
Almighty was fixing to clean their plow to a fair thee well! But they didn’t
have a clue.
“Notice he talks about the ‘pen of the scribe.’ You know what he’s
talking about? Copies. They’ve got copies of the law but they’re not
heeding them. They reject them. Verse 9 says ‘they have rejected the word of
the LORD; and what wisdom is in them?’ Now, there’s a good verse to learn!
They’ve rejected the Word, and, buddy, they don’t have any wisdom!
(new article tomorrow)
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