Isaiah 30:8 - Homiletics

The written Word endures forever.

There is always a permanency about written, that does not belong to uttered, speech. " Liters scripts manet ," said one Roman poet; " Exegi monumentum osre perennius ," said another, when he had completed a book of his odes. It was to secure continuance to human utterances that the act of writing was invented at the first; and it was probably long employed for no other purpose. The permanency, however, that attaches to ordinary writings is a limited permanency. They are not intended to " endure forever." For the most part they are on a frail and perishable material, which cannot be expected to last a century, and there is no expectation of their being copied and so prolonged in existence. But it is otherwise with the Divine Word. The Divine Word is enshrined in writing, that it may continue as long as the world continues. It is too precious to be lost. When the material on which it is written shows signs of decay, there always have been, and there always will be, pious persons, who will take care that the words are reproduced exactly on some fresh material, and so handed on unchanged. Since the invention of printing, it has become practically impossible that any work held in esteem by any considerable number of persons should perish. The written Word could only pass away by all interest in i[ being lost among all sections of human-kind. Against such a miserable result the promise of God to be with his Church "always, even unto the end of the world" ( Matthew 28:20 ), furnishes an absolute security. Hence we may be sure that "the Word of the Lord will endure forever" ( 1 Peter 1:25 ).