The handiest added feature of my mobile phone? Not the camera or the GPS, although both are great. It’s the flashlight. When I’m in a dark places that little light proves invaluable.

Peter points out this feature of the scriptures, especially those written by the prophets: We have something more sure, the prophetic word, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place.

When I go to God’s Word to light my path, I turn first to the Psalms, and next to the Gospels. I rarely get around to the Prophets.

But Peter underscores their power: No prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

Wild-eyed mouthpieces spoke and recorded divine words burned into their souls. Listen to Jeremiah describe the feeling: But if I say, “I will not mention his word or speak anymore in his name,” his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot.

That blaze within Jeremiah’s inner core now lights our outer paths. In the Old Testament prophets we uncover hot spots ready to flare into wildfires. John Brown the abolitionist and Martin Luther King Jr. drew sustenance and power from the prophets.

Today may these combustible words continue to shine in dark places, including the deep recesses of our own hearts, moving us beyond ourselves and into the world.

2 Peter 1 in reading the Bible cover to cover in 2022

Photo by De an Sun