Chapter 2

A Letter from God

TELL me, which book do you like best of all?⁠— Some children would pick one that tells about animals. Others would choose a book with lots of pictures in it. It can be fun to read those books.

But the best books in all the world are the ones that tell us the truth about God. And one of those books is more precious than all the others. Do you know which one it is?⁠— The Bible.

Why is the Bible so important?⁠— Because it came from God. It tells us about him and about the good things that he will do for us. And it shows us what we should do in order to please him. It is like a letter from God.

Now, God could have written the whole Bible in heaven and then given it to man. But he didn’t. The ideas came from God. But he used his servants on earth to do most of the writing.

How did he do that?⁠— An example can help us to understand. When people hear a voice on the radio it is from someone far away. They cannot see him, but they can hear what he says, can’t they?

Men can even go all the way to the moon in their spaceships, and they can send messages  back to the earth from there. Did you know that?⁠— If men can do that, can God send messages from heaven?⁠— Of course he can! And he did it long before men had radio and television.

Moses was one man to whom God spoke. Moses could not see God, but he could hear the voice. Millions of people were there when this happened. They saw it when God caused a whole mountain to shake, and there was thunder and lightning. They heard it when a voice came from heaven. They knew that God had spoken. God spoke to Moses again later on, and Moses wrote down the things that God said. What he wrote is in the Bible.​—Exodus 19:3-20:21.

It was not only Moses that wrote. God used about forty men to write parts of the Bible. They wrote down things that God was going to do in the future. How did they know those things before they even happened?⁠— God had talked to them.

By the time that Jesus, the Great Teacher, was on earth, a big part of the Bible had been written. Now, remember, the Great Teacher had been in heaven. He knew what God had done. Did he believe that the Bible was from God?⁠— Yes, he did.

When Jesus talked to people about the works of God, he read from the Bible. Sometimes he told them from memory what it said.

Jesus also brought us more information from  God. He said: ‘The very things I heard from God I am speaking in the world.’ Jesus had heard many things from God because he had lived with God. And where can we read those things that Jesus said?⁠— In the Bible. It was all written down for us to read.​—John 8:26.

Of course, when God used men to write, they wrote in the language that they used every day. So part of the Bible was written in Hebrew, some in Aramaic, and quite a bit in Greek. Most people today do not know how to read those languages. Do you?⁠—

That is why the Bible has been copied into other languages. Today there are parts of the Bible in over one thousand four hundred languages. Just think of that! The Bible is God’s letter to people everywhere. So it has to be in many languages. But no matter how many times it has been copied, the message is from God.

What the Bible says is important for us. It was written a long time ago. But it tells about things that are happening today. And it tells  us what God is going to do in the near future. What it says is exciting! It gives us a wonderful hope.

The Bible also tells us how God wants us to live. It tells us what is right and what is wrong. You need to know this and so do I. It tells us about people who did bad things, and what happened to them. So we can avoid the trouble they had. It also tells us about people who did right, and the good results that came to them. It was all written down for our good.

But to get the most out of the Bible, we need to know the answer to a question. The question is this: “Who gave us the Bible?” What would you say?⁠— Yes, all of it is from God.

But some people do not listen to what God says in the Bible. They just live the way they want to. Do you think that is right?⁠— Do you think that anyone knows more than God does?⁠— The way to show that we are really wise is to listen to God. And then we ought to do what he says.

So we need to take time to read the Bible together. When we get a letter from someone that we love very much, we read it again and again. It is precious to us. That is the way the Bible should be to us, because it is a letter from the One who loves us most. It is a letter from God.

(Take a few more minutes now and read these scriptures that show that the Bible truly is God’s Word, written for our benefit: 2 Timothy 3:16, 17; 2 Peter 1:20, 21; Romans 15:4.)