Bullets for the Battle

The Bullet of Scripture: Story Telling, Old and New

Let’s travel back in our imagination a couple of thousand years. You are one of the followers of Messiah Jesus. It is a clear evening. The sun has just set and you and your friends make yourselves comfortable around a brightly flickering camp fire. It’s been a long day. You’ve had a good meal. Everyone is ready to relax for awhile before going to sleep. You are enjoying a well deserved rest after a fatiguing day of walking, healing, ministering and listening to the Word of God spoken by the Master. Everyone quiets as the Savior begins to tell a story. This is a good one even though He has told it before: “There was a man who was a beggar. His name was Lazarus …”

This “Man,” Jesus, Who tells Lazarus’ story (Luke 16:19-31) never wrote a book. In fact, this well-loved account was not written down until after His death. It was at that time transferred from memory to “paper.” There were options even then. Writing could be done on parchment with a bamboo “fountain pen” invented by the Romans. Another common way of writing was to use wooden tablets covered in wax. Writing was created by incising the wax with a stylus. This was a pencil-sized instrument of iron (as noted in ancient Roman texts on writing) or bone or wood or other hard materials that could leave an impression in the wax. A stylus could even have an “eraser” end to smooth away errors or unwanted text.

The years passed. The text was copied over and over again by different hands using a variety of papers and writing instruments. From somewhere around 700 A.D. onward, the quill pen was commonly used to make these handwritten books. By the year 1424, the library of the great university of Cambridge, England, had a total of 122 parchment books, each worth the price of a farm or vineyard!

Then there was a revolution; spurred by the increasing demand for reasonably priced books by a growing, educated middle class. This new technology of the printing press was as earthshaking as the gift of writing itself. At the forefront of this technological revolution was a German goldsmith by the name of Johannes Gutenberg. He is credited with inventing the first European printing press with moveable type in the year 1440. His first substantive project … the famous Gutenberg Bible … included the story of the beggar Lazarus!

Just over a half-a-millennium later a new revolution is changing the way people interact with this ancient story. In preparing this article, we searched for and then read the text of Luke off a computer screen. The experience of receiving the story of Lazarus and his rich neighbor has changed. There are several fascinating implications in this change but, above and beyond all other considerations, is the fact that after some 2,000 years his bit of history is still being told. The stunning revelation of this story is not so much in its content. It is the fact that when God in flesh walked the earth He took the time to select this particular story and tell it instead of thousands of other options! That the Messiah Himself should use such an illustration of poverty, hopelessness, sores and dogs is as astonishing and remarkable as the story itself! What a wonder is the Mind of God!

“There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich man's table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores…” Luke 16: 19-21

The point of this great piece of biography is that no matter how bad things are for you on earth they are temporary. They cannot keep you from spending eternity in the Presence of God. Quit complaining. Have no pity parties. The depth of your poverty and suffering could be the very instruments that opened up your eternity to the Lord of Life. Read the Scriptures … this one from Luke and the hundreds of other verses where the Lord has spoken clearly! Put your hope in God’s Voice, not miracles, not circumstances, not the temporary. Lazarus listened, evidently sought to obey, even in his poverty, and waited! For 2,000 years now millions have heard his story. It is the story of a nobody who became somebody because Jesus called his name! Our Lord is saying this is the destiny of all who will listen and think the way Lazarus did!

“The Father said that if people won’t listen to Moses and the Prophets (the Scripture), they won’t listen to someone even if he comes back from the dead!” … “When Lazarus died the angels took him into the Presence …” Luke 16:22, 31