Lord,
What a terrible punishment that would be—to have your word taken from us. To see the wells of wisdom dried up and to have a famine of truth. Surely our bones would wither and our souls would waste away. For your word is the word of life.
Yet are we not ever in danger of facing this curse of curses? Have we not so often acted like the Israelites? Haven’t we treated the Sabbath in much the same way? Here is a day when we could drink deeply from the cisterns of your Word and be instructed in the way of godliness. But we have wasted these days away and longed for it to be over so that we could go about our worldly pursuits.
Here too we have Bibles in our laps, and the freedom to study their contents. But O how we have failed to tend to them as we ought and find the fear of the Lord. Yes, we have too often neglected this sweet fountain of knowledge and chosen instead a diet of frivolous entertainments.
Father, you have been gracious to give us the Scriptures and many godly teachers. But we fear that these good gifts might be lifted from us. We pray that you would not let this devastation come to pass. We pray that we would find mercy with you. That you would enlighten our eyes and make your word to dwell in us richly. Revive us again, O Lord. And renew us in the fear of you.
