the Word came first

The Word for today:
Joshua 20, 21

mark this: Joshua 21:45
Not one word of all the good promises that the LORD had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass.

and this: John 1:1 / NLT
In the beginning the Word already existed.

God IS:
Then Moses said to God, "If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' what shall I say to them?" God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM." And he said, "Say this to the people of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.'" (Exodus 3:13-14)

What that means (among other things) is that God never WAS NOT:
Then the Jews said to Him, "You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?" Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM."  (John 8:57-58)

God is the self-existent one; he has no source, because he is the source. He doesn't depend on anything or anyone, for everything depends on him. There is nothing he rests his weight upon; the whole deal leans on him.

So God can only be explained in terms of himself. He has no sufficient analogy or metaphor:
To whom will you compare me or count me equal?
To whom will you liken me that we may be compared? (Isaiah 46:5)

Like author, like book.
The Word of God, like its author, cannot be explained in terms of anything other than itself. That's why so much Bible teaching and commentary must resort to quoting scripture in order to prove scripture! In any other academic discipline, validation by self-reference is called circular reasoning, and thereby disqualified.

But not so with the Bible. Its precepts are its own. They have not been gotten elsewhere, so their validation must be inherently derived.

Whew! Stand in the Rain doesn't like to get so philosophical. But today is one of those days, because today we've set out to uphold the Bible with external evidence--the witness of the physical senses.

So here's what mine eyes have observed:

Not one word of all the good promises that the LORD had made to the house of Israel have failed; all came to pass. (Joshua 21:45)

With all the earnestness I possess I can say, with Joshua, that nothing I have seen has ever contradicted the promises of scripture.

Not one of God's words--no, not one--have I ever seen invalidated. To the contrary, my senses are inundated--yea, baptized--every day with corroborating confirmation of God's truthfulness.

Because I concur with Joshua that not one of God's words has failed, I can agree with the Apostle Paul that we should Take heart, for I believe that God will do exactly what he told me. (Acts 27:25)

And, with Mary, I have made this my prayer:
"Let it be to me according to your word." (Luke 1:38)

That's the prayer that made me a prophet. And anyone who prays it will become a prophet, too; for the future -- just like the past did and the present does -- will unfold in accordance with the Scriptures. (1 Cor. 15:3-4)

Before the facts were, the Bible AM.
God's Word, you see, doesn't just report the facts. First God's Word creates the facts, and only then does it report them:

God spoke: "Light!" And light appeared. (Genesis 1:3 / Message)

The future happened before it came to pass.

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