Reliable Witnesses (Isaiah 8:2)

 


Tuesday, December 10, 2024


Psalms 76; 82

Isaiah 7:18-8:4

Mark 7:1-23


Reliable Witnesses (Isaiah 8:2)


A virtue that I am sure everyone will agree with is to speak the truth. No-one likes a liar, and they are soon found out, and when they are, great is the collapse. Today, Isaiah is making sure that everyone understands that his prophecies do indeed come from God. And so, he collects a couple of reliable witnesses so that when what he prophecies comes to pass, everyone will know he was speaking the truth.


We have a more insidious attempt at lying floating around us today in matters of religion and spirituality. It concerns the truth of God: of who he is, and what he likes.


For those of us who read our Bibles and pray to Holy Spirit to reveal its meaning to us, we gain an understanding of God. Of course, God is infinite, and we will spend not only this life, but our eternal life always learning more and more about God. But still, God wants to make himself known to us, and he has given us the Bible and Holy Spirit to do this. We might know only a little about God, but what we do know, we know to be true.


Yet there are voices who would respond that it is prideful hubris to make such a claim. God is completely unknowable, and to claim otherwise is close to blasphemy, is the accusation. To that we respond: is that not in itself a statement about who God is? And so we have two sides of an argument: that God is (somewhat) knowable, against the idea that God is completely unknowable.


Bring two reliable witnesses, like the prophet Isaiah did. This is God’s way; he commands it in the Old Testament Law (Deuteronomy 19:15; Numbers 35:30), and Jesus refers to it when he asserted himself as God (John 8:12-18). We have two reliable witnesses telling us about God today: the Bible, and Holy Spirit. When we talk about God to other people, we should speak the truth about him. And to know we are speaking the truth, we check with our two reliable witnesses: the Bible and Holy Spirit.


What do you know for certain about God? Where in the Bible could you point to prove it? When did you last ask Holy Spirit to tell you something about himself?


O Holy One, you reveal yourself to us in the Word made Flesh, Jesus of Nazareth, and you have left us a sure and certain testimony about yourself in your word, the Bible. Grant us the grace of Holy Spirit so that we may know the truth about you, and the boldness to speak your truth to your world.


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