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Psalm 119:105 ESV

It’s amazing to me that when I was young I didn’t really do a lot of thinking. Until I was five years old no one challenged me to think.

I mostly played with my toys and drew silly pictures.

We went to church every Sunday and I knew the Bible Book was special. We had a Bible scripture every Sunday. My teacher told us the Bible wasn’t like other books…it was the special word of God to us.

Little did I know those early lessons when I was 4 years old would guide me all the days of my life.

Psalm 119:105 tells us, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”

When I was four I didn’t think about the importance of scripture and how it guides us, but later I knew. Looking back I can see how scripture was a light that pointed to the way God had for me.

There have been times when my path looked dark and dreary but when that was the case God was there to show me the way. The scriptures I memorized as a child have stayed with me now for seven decades.

While our path may seem hidden from time to time, God knows the way. Even when we are unsure and afraid God holds onto us and provides light for the way.

The most interesting element about that is we do not often realize God is holding onto us.

Jesus knows the way. Scripture gives is daily guidance, miraculous long-term guidance, and ultimately protection in a dark world.

The term light and lamp has ancient roots and has been an important part of our story. At the time this was written a small torch would be held near the feet showing the path ahead. We are reminded when this was written there were no flashlights. The only way to light a path in the darkness was by using a hand-made clay bowl filled with oil to make a lamp or a torch which was made of a stick with wrapped cloth that had been dipped in animal fat so it would burn.

Both the bowl filled with burning oil and the stick were relatively temporary sources of light.

In ancient times a lighted path symbolizes the Word of God as a lamp in a world filled with darkness. The writer knew the word of God given to him pointed the way to the future God had for Israel.

Once again context is king. The scripture or Word referred to the Torah (the Law of Moses) and possibly other early writings held in the Temple in Jerusalem. Access to the a word was limited to Priests and Levites, Kings and Royal Scribes, and Prophets.

At the time this was written there was no rabbinical school for boys to attend. Fathers taught their sons using scripture they had memorized. Almost everything was passed down orally from generation to generation.

We have to remember that common people did not read. They worked. Boys were taught scripture by their father and they were also taught the trade of their father.

If your father was a carpenter you were taught to be a carpenter.

And so it was.

Tradition was important because the way of the Hebrew father was taught to the sons. That’s the way it had always been.

Then one day everything changed.

A tiny babe was born. He was taught how to build like his father was taught before him. But the boy became a teacher instead of being a carpenter.

That would have been a shocking change but that was just the beginning.

The boy Jesus who came WAS the light and WAS the lamp to the world. Scripture is our daily guiding light to show us the way to our path in life.

Deborah

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