THE PRE-EMINENCE OF SCRIPTURE IN THE OT: SOLA SCRIPTURA

Scripture had to be over all other forms of truth and authority. This didn’t mean that other facts were not important. However, it did mean that God’s Word had to be above all else, judging everything that came into the lives of the Israelites. They were to have no other God or authority above their God:

·       Exodus 20:3-6 (ESV) “You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

This also meant that nothing was to compete with the Words of God:

·       Deuteronomy 4:1-2 “And now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the rules that I am teaching you, and do them, that you may live, and go in and take possession of the land that the LORD, the God of your fathers, is giving you. You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God that I command you.” (also Deut. 12:32)

Consequently, Israel could not deviate from the Word, even in the slightest way. When God commissioned Joshua, He instructed him that courage and faithfulness was a matter of not deviating in the slightest from His commands:

·       Joshua 1:7-8  “Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.”

Since God’s Word was Israel’s guiding light and the very foundation of their relationship with their God, God’s Word had to be carefully followed and guarded. It had to stand above and critique every other word of command. Consequently, any prophet claiming to speak His words had to be examined. God promised that He would send another Prophet like Moses. He knew that Israel would what to know how they would be able to recognize Him. Therefore, He warned that:

·       Deuteronomy 18:20-22 “…the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.’ And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word that the LORD has not spoken?’—when a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the LORD has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him.

God’s Word had to be jealously protected. All future prophecies would have to be judged according to what God had already revealed to Israel:

·       Deuteronomy 13:1-5 “If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass, and if he says, ‘Let us go after other gods,’ which you have not known, ‘and let us serve them,’ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the LORD your God is testing you, to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. You shall walk after the LORD your God and fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice, and you shall serve him and hold fast to him. But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has taught rebellion against the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you out of the house of slavery, to make you leave the way in which the LORD your God commanded you to walk. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.

Nothing could rival God’s Word. It was to be more authoritative than even the performance of miracles. Consequently, even if a self-proclaimed prophet was performing miracles and if his message didn’t conform to what had previously been revealed, he then had committed a capital offense.

Israel was to love their Savior God, but they could only express this love in one way – by keeping His commandments:

·       Deuteronomy 6:5-6 “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.”

·       Deuteronomy 11:1 “You shall therefore love the LORD your God and keep his charge, his statutes, his rules, and his commandments always.”

Israel’s entire welfare depended upon their faithfulness to His every Word:

·       Deuteronomy 11:8-9  “You shall therefore keep the whole commandment that I command you today, that you may be strong, and go in and take possession of the land that you are going over to possess, and that you may live long in the land that the LORD swore to your fathers to give to them and to their offspring, a land flowing with milk and honey.”

This same principle of loving God by keeping His commandments above all was completely carried over into the New Testament:

·       John 14:23-24 Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words.”

Scripture had to remain the Christian’s greatest authority. All claims and philosophies had to be judged and brought into conformity to the Word:

·       2 Corinthians 10:4-5 For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God [Scripture], and take every thought captive to obey Christ.

All human traditions had to be examined against Scripture. In contradiction to this principle, the Pharisees elevated their traditions to the level of Scripture. Therefore, Jesus castigated this practice:

·       Matthew 15:3-9 He answered them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ But you say, ‘If anyone tells his father or his mother, “What you would have gained from me is given to God,” he need not honor his father.’ So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God. You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’”

All of this attests to the fact that Scripture must reign supreme, the ultimate judge against all other contenders. According to Jesus, when it doesn’t, we worship God in vain.