Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum

There are situations in life where it is easy to question what the point of it is.  It is easier to justify a difficult situation or experience when there is reason or something good that comes from it.  In most good books, movies and stories there is a difficult thing or plotline that makes it all worth it in the end.  The movie wouldn’t be as good without the challenge and lessons learned through the struggles.  But the struggles come and go and the end of the book or story is never the real end.  It may end with a “happily ever after,” but it should probably end as “happily ever after for now,” as life difficulties continue and the joys of the story fade.  I’ve been thinking on this lately as I contemplate life and look back over the last year or forward to the upcoming year.  There are always good things and hard things in life, but it does make me wonder sometimes, what comes from it?  What’s the point of this time period?  What remains that is valuable as everything is sifted through?
 
I’ve thought of this often while pondering where to spend time and effort in life.  Do I focus on work, church, relationships and pouring into others or my own health?  We all have loves in life that are reflected in how we spend our time.  What lasts beyond us?  When the things we love in life such as work, church, relationships and health fail us, what remains?

This last year saw the 500^th anniversary of the reformation for my church.  I was encouraged by a Latin motto from the Lutheran Reformation that states, “Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum” meaning “The Word of the Lord endures forever.” 
 

It is a good reminder on what actually remains.  The motto comes from 1 Peter 1:24-25 where it states:

  ²⁴ for

“All flesh is like grass
    and all its glory like the flower of grass.
The grass withers,
    and the flower falls,
²⁵ but the word of the Lord remains forever.”

And this word is the good news that was preached to you.

This doesn’t seem like the most encouraging verse in that it tells us we are like grass and wither.  Most of us would rather hear that we are strong and will have a legacy but this verse calls out exactly what we all know but tend to avoid, that our time is finite and we as humans fail.  We don’t have long on this earth and the one thing I hear from older generations repeatedly is that it goes by quickly. 

It also says that this word is the good news.  Flesh withering doesn’t seem like the best inspirational poster material, but it is encouraging that it is not dependent on us and our flesh.  In spite of our flesh withering, the word of the Lord remains.  In spite of us. 

This verse from 1 Peter comes from a section on our calling wherein verse 13 states, “Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”  Thank God for his continual grace that remains even when our flesh withers and fails us. 

 

There are situations in life or experiences that can’t be explained.  There are situations where we never will see a good resolution or receive an answer to the constant “why” question.

1 Peter is actually quoting another section of scripture from Isaiah 40.  The Isaiah passage is written to a people in exile.  This wasn’t exactly the glory days of God’s people.  In Isaiah, though He brought them low, He was still their God and identified with them.

 

The later part of Isaiah 40 has served as a reminder to me lately that not only does God’s word stand forever, but God’s greatness continually exceeds my own expectations even when I can’t answer my “why” questions or see the lessons.  He still remains.

Isaiah 40:9-31

The Greatness of God

⁹ Go on up to a high mountain,
    O Zion, herald of good news;^[e]
lift up your voice with strength,
    O Jerusalem, herald of good news;^[f]
    lift it up, fear not;
say to the cities of Judah,
    “Behold your God!”
¹⁰ Behold, the Lord God comes with might,
    and his arm rules for him;
behold, his reward is with him,
    and his recompense before him.
¹¹ He will tend his flock like a shepherd;
    he will gather the lambs in his arms;
he will carry them in his bosom,
    and gently lead those that are with young.

¹² Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand
    and marked off the heavens with a span,
enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure
    and weighed the mountains in scales
    and the hills in a balance?
¹³ Who has measured^[g] the Spirit of the Lord,
    or what man shows him his counsel?
¹⁴ Whom did he consult,
    and who made him understand?
Who taught him the path of justice,
    and taught him knowledge,
    and showed him the way of understanding?
¹⁵ Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket,
    and are accounted as the dust on the scales;
    behold, he takes up the coastlands like fine dust.
¹⁶ Lebanon would not suffice for fuel,
    nor are its beasts enough for a burnt offering.
¹⁷ All the nations are as nothing before him,
    they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness.

¹⁸ To whom then will you liken God,
    or what likeness compare with him?
¹⁹ An idol! A craftsman casts it,
    and a goldsmith overlays it with gold
    and casts for it silver chains.
²⁰ He who is too impoverished for an offering
    chooses wood^[h] that will not rot;
he seeks out a skillful craftsman
    to set up an idol that will not move.

²¹ Do you not know? Do you not hear?
    Has it not been told you from the beginning?
    Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?
²² It is he who sits above the circle of the earth,
    and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers;
who stretches out the heavens like a curtain,
    and spreads them like a tent to dwell in;
²³ who brings princes to nothing,
    and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness.

²⁴ Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown,
    scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth,
when he blows on them, and they wither,
    and the tempest carries them off like stubble.

²⁵ To whom then will you compare me,
    that I should be like him? says the Holy One.
²⁶ Lift up your eyes on high and see:
    who created these?
He who brings out their host by number,
    calling them all by name;
by the greatness of his might
    and because he is strong in power,
    not one is missing.

²⁷ Why do you say, O Jacob,
    and speak, O Israel,
“My way is hidden from the Lord,
    and my right is disregarded by my God”?
²⁸ Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
    the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
    his understanding is unsearchable.
²⁹ He gives power to the faint,
    and to him who has no might he increases strength.
³⁰ Even youths shall faint and be weary,
    and young men shall fall exhausted;
³¹ but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
    they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
    they shall walk and not faint.