"God's Library"

“God’s Library”

In early March I received an email from our local library that my card needed to be renewed. (The Coronavirus crisis hit about that time which put this and many other things on hold.) Soon afterwards I heard Dr. David Jeremiah speak about God’s books on his radio program “Turning Point”. I don’t remember what he said but I thought, “What books are in God’s library?” So I did a little research about libraries and books mentioned in the Scriptures.

The Library of Congress was established in 1800 and began with 740 books and three maps. Today its collection consists of some 16,000,000 books and 120,000,000 other items. The New York City Public Library was founded in 1895 and today has 92 branches housing 53,000,000 books and other materials. In 2016 there were 9,057 public library systems across our nation. (By contrast in the same year there were 14,146 McDonalds’ restaurants but since many local libraries have multiple branches they likely outnumber the “Golden Arches”.) Estimates of how many books are published annually in the U.S. range between 600,000 and 1,000,000. Solomon was right when he observed, “Of making many books there is no end….” (Ecclesiastes 12:12).

With the help of my trusty concordance I found the following books mentioned in the Book of Books, the Bible: the book of the annals of the kings of Israel/Judah (cited 32 times in 1 and 2 Kings); the book of the chronicles of Xerxes’ reign (Esther 6:1); the Book of the Covenant (Exodus 24:7); the Book of Jashar (Joshua 10:13); the Book of the Law (2 Kings 22:8); the Book of Moses (2 Chronicles 25:4); the Book of Psalms (Luke 20:42); the Book of Truth (Daniel 10:21); the book of the vision of Nahum (Nahum 1:1). Most of these refer to parts of God’s Word but some are likely ancient historical records which have been lost.

You may have noticed one missing from the above list: The Book of Life. (Growing up our family had a several volume set of Bible stories by this name.) According to the website Christianity.com, “In essence, the Book of Life serves as a testament to those saved who will enjoy eternity with the Lord.” This is vividly seen in Revelation 20’s description of the Great White Throne (sometimes referred to as God’s final judgment): “…Books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life…each person was judged according to what (he or she) had done…If anyone’s name was not found in the book of life, (he or she) was thrown into the lake of fire (Verses 12,13,15).

All will spend eternity with or apart from God. Which book from God’s library describes where you’ll be?

Grace and Blessings!

Jim McMillan