Let’s begin this week with a parable simply called The Anvil. Once upon a time in a land before there were any cars or modern machines – a time when horses and carriages and wagons were common on the dirt roads – there was a blacksmith shop with a large, heavy, well-worn anvil. One day a little farm boy, who had never left the farm, came with his father to town for the first time. Everything was new and different. As he walked with his father down the unpaved main street, he heard a loud clang . . . clang . . . clang. He said to his father, “What’s that?” His father said, “Come, I’ll show you.” He took his son to the door of the blacksmith’s shop. And there the boy saw a huge man, a strong man, lifting a big, heavy hammer with a long handle and a large head on it high in the air, as if to chop down a tree, and then crashing it down on a glowing piece of metal on top of the anvil. He hit the anvil so hard that it made the boy wince with every blow. His father explained to him that this was a blacksmith who made all kinds of metal pieces for wagons and carriages and plows and tools and horseshoes.
But the little boy was fixed on one thing: the long, heavy hammer and the great metal anvil. They met each other with such a loud sound and with such a force that he thought surely this anvil could not last long. The big, strong blacksmith paused for a moment to catch his breath, and saw the boy standing in the doorway. “Aren’t you going to break that thing?” the boy asked, pointing at the anvil. But the blacksmith smiled and said, “This anvil is a hundred years old and has worn out many hammers.”
Here’s the point of the parable. The Bible is an anvil that has worn out a thousand hammers. In every generation, new, huge, heavy hammers are forged against the truth of the Bible. And strong men lift the hammers and pound on the Scriptures. People with no historical perspective – like little boys who’ve never been to town – see it and say, “Surely the Bible will be destroyed.” But others who know their history a little better say, “This Bible was forged in the furnace of divine truth and has worn out many hammers.
There is no doubt the Bible is under attack today, especially in the American culture. The idea of absolute truth is almost unimaginable for some to fathom. But this is not a new reality. For centuries, men and women have tried to destroy the Word of God. In the late 1700s, the French philosopher Voltaire declared, “In 100 years, the Bible will be a forgotten and unknown book.” One hundred years later, the Geneva Bible Society used his home to print Bibles.
In the New Testament, Peter quotes Isaiah 40:8. Mark quotes Jesus in his Gospel saying, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.” (Mark 13:31)
The reality is, there are only two things that will last for all eternity. Those two things are the Word of God and the soul of man. It would be wise on our part to dedicate our lives to both.
- How does it make you feel to know the Scriptures have stood the test of time? How does it make you feel to know they will last forever?
- If the Word of God is one of only two things that will last for eternity, what are some practical ways you can dedicate your life to it?
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