![A Peculiar Glory: How the Christian Scriptures Reveal Their Complete Truthfulness by [Piper, John]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41Q82%2BbUAKL._SY346_.jpg)
THE THREADS AND THE TAPESTRY
Piper wants us to know that he’s not claiming the Scriptures are true simply because they claim to be. At the same time he’s not denying the importance of what God himself says about his Word.
“I will argue that those truth claims are threads in a tapestry whose divine glory is self-authenticating” (Piper, p. 90). But in this chapter and the immediately following, he wants us to see those threads as clearly as possible.
THE OLD TESTAMENT WRITERS ARE IN THE DRAMA, NOT OUTSIDE OF IT
The writers were aware God was speaking to and through them, but they never commented on the Old Testament from outside the whole. Instead, they were actors on the stage God was directing.
The writers tell us “about the way God was revealing himself to them and to others through them” (Piper, p. 91).
Piper alludes to God’s greatness in holding galaxies in place and calling billions of stars by name (Isaiah 40:26)—and that he condescends to speak to us. It’s astonishing, Piper muses, that God wills to speak to us in human language.
GOD SPEAKS IN HUMAN LANGUAGE
When he speaks, he speaks to humans directly . . .
“Now the LORD said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you’” (Genesis 12:1).
“God spoke all these words, saying, ‘I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery’” (Exodus 20:1,2).
The Scripture never explains how God speaks. Furthermore, notes Piper, it’s doubtful that we could make sense of his “explanation”. This has led some to be skeptical that God actually speaks at all. Rather, they see God communicating through events.
But, the late James Barr (Scottish Old Testament scholar) protested: “If we persist in saying that the direct, specific communication must be subsumed under revelation through events in history and taken as subsidiary interpretation of the latter, I shall say that we are abandoning the Bible’s own interpretation of the matter for another which is apologetically more comfortable” (Piper, p. 92).
GOD SPEAKS TO PEOPLE THROUGH PEOPLE
Example: God said to the prophet Nathan, “Go and tell my servant David, ‘Thus says the LORD: Would you build me a house to dwell in?’” (2 Samuel 7:5).
Example: God said to Isaiah, “Go and say to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the LORD, the God of David your father: I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears; behold, I will add fifteen years to your life’” (Isaiah 38:5).
Instead of speaking directly to David and Hezekiah, the LORD speaks to them through a prophet. Again and again he does this. However, the words remain the very words of God . . .
“You shall speak my words to them whether they hear or refuse to hear, for they are a rebellious house” (Ezekiel 2:7).
They are God’s words because God directs the prophet’s speaking so his mouth is like God’s. We see this ideal in the prophecy of the ideal prophet to come . . .
“I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him” (Deuteronomy 18:18).
Often in this connection between God’s words and the prophet’s words, the prophet speaks in first person singular as if God himself were present speaking in person . . .
“I am the LORD, and there is no other; besides me there is no God” (Isaiah 45:5).
“The Old Testament is saturated with the explicit claim that our Creator and Sustainer and Redeemer is actually speaking intelligibly to the world he has made” (Piper, p. 94). “Thus says the LORD” occurs 417 times and the phrase “declares the LORD” occurs 358 times in the Old Testament. Stunning.
Equally stunning: that the eternal, infinite Creator actually speaks in a way mere creatures can understand.
GOD INTENDS FOR HIS REVELATION TO BE WRITTEN
He says to Moses, “Write this as a memorial in a book . . . “ (Exodus 17:14).
Again: “Write these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel” (Exodus 34:17).
Similarly, the prophetic books begin by indicating they are a composition of the prophet’s revelations from God . . .
“The words of Jeremiah, the son of Hilkiah, one of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, to whom the word of the LORD came in the days of Josiah . . . “ (Jeremiah 1:1). . . “The word of the LORD that came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah . . . “ (Micah 1:1).
THE SUM OF YOUR WORD IS TRUTH
“What emerges from this survey of the Old Testament’s self-attestation is a culture in Israel that know itself confronted by God through his all-authoritative word, which comes not directly to every individual, but through persons chosen by God and enabled to speak his word reliably, including its written form . . . And as this collection of writings emerges, it would be handled with extraordinary care, because not only did the writings claim to be the word of God, but they also made explicit one of the clear implications of that fact, namely, their complete truthfulness” (Piper, p 96).
God is not a man, that he should lie,
or a son of man that he should change his mind.
Has he said, and will he not do it?
Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it? (Numbers 23:19).
OUR EXPECTATIONS ARE HIGH
Jesus claimed to be the fulfillment of the Old Testament. Therefore, we are highly expectant as we ask, What was his estimate of these writings?
* * *
We are asking, “Is the Bible the word of God—true and trustworthy and free from error?” Answering isn’t a simple process and sometimes not spine-tingling. But we’re wise to endure it, because haven’t you sometimes asked the question? Maybe when its teaching is radically counter-cultural. Or when you’re suffering and God’s promises seem a fantasy.
This study isn’t meant to answer every question. But it’s meant to offer a preponderance of evidence on which to ground our faith. This evidence—the claims the Old Testament makes for itself—is a big chunk toward that end.
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