The precious Word of God
Hello,
This week the Wycliffe Bible Translators produced a report titled State of the Bible 2024. Their vision is to see ‘A world where everyone can know Jesus through the Bible,’ and the findings are very encouraging.
Bibles and New Testaments in a new language are being produced at the rate of two a week, and for the first time in history over half of all known languages have some scripture with over six billion people having access to the Bible in their language.
One comment from the Nteng community in Nigeria read, ‘People are excitedly sharing about hearing God speak in their language in church services, in schools and even in the marketplace, while those in the community who can read are reading it aloud to those who can’t.’
Having the Bible translated into different languages is a reminder that God values all languages and cultures and wants to speak to all people intimately and personally.
The apostle John’s vision is that there will be a time when there will be ‘a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb.’ (Revelation 7:9 NIVUK). What a day that will be.
As positive as the distribution of Bibles is, more work is still needed. Currently, 1 in 5 people still do not have access to the Bible in their language, which led me to think, ‘How much do I value the precious word of God sitting on my bookshelf?’ How about you?
In Christian love,
Barry Robinson