The Love Letters
David McCullough wrote a biography on John Adams, published in 2001. In the “Acknowledgements” section, he writes: “The Adams Papers, from which much of this book has been drawn, may be rightly described as a national treasure. There is no comparable written record of a prominent American family” (pg 653).
Many people have probably heard of the love affair, exhibited through letters, between Ronald Reagan and Nancy Reagan. Or, perhaps the love between Lyndon Johnson and “Lady Bird” Johnson.
Of the Adams family, McCullough says the Papers contain documents from 1639 to 1889 and take up five miles of microfilm! “The letters of John and Abigail Adams,” McCullough writes, “number in the thousands, and because they both wrote with such consistent candor and in such vivid detail, it is possible to know them – to go beneath the surface of their lives – to an extent not possible with other protagonists of the time.”
Indeed, as you read McCullough’s biography of Adams, you can experience the devotion felt between John and Abigail. For example, when Adams was assigned to return to France after the revolution, you can hear the pain in her letters, being left alone again.
Now, reflect on McCullough’s words as the sentiment applies to the Bible, the word of God. In the heart of the Old Testament, in the heart of the Bible itself, the prophet Isaiah writes words that apply equally to the whole canon of Scripture: “Truly, the mouth of the Lord has spoken” (1:20).
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Yes, the Bible is God’s “love letter.” Through it, we get to know God. God has revealed Himself through the Scriptures in simple, declaratory statements like Exodus 34:6-7: “Then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.”
God has also revealed Himself through various events, from the creation to the deaths of Nadab and Abihu, to the punishment of Jonah for sulking over the repentance of Nineveh. Every event in which God acts reveals to us the mind, the heart, the emotions, the will of our heavenly Father.
Ultimately, of course, God has revealed Himself through His Son, Jesus Christ. “God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature” (Hebrews 1:1-3).
Just because the Bible is God’s “love letter” to man, however, does not mean we can treat it with flippancy. It is because it is God’s love letter that we obey all of His commands. He gives them to us so that we’ll know how to get to heaven. There is no other way except through His way.
“If you love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15). Because of the nature of the Bible, we ought to respond as the psalmist did: “Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day” (119:97).
