Stumbling on God's Word

Submitted by Alan Marsden on Fri, 11/11/2022 - 00:00

Like a fool, or some geriatric determined to remain in his own home when he needs supported living, I fell down stairs last week. Slumped at the bottom, I silently pondered my situation, assessing what had been broken. It sometimes takes pain a few seconds to register but, thank God, no injuries were sustained. The same cannot be said for the crockery I was carrying, with two dishes and a plate broken into a dozen pieces (two more survived unharmed, like their bearer). Annoyed with myself, I examined what it was that caused me to tumble. It was the Bible.

I had left it on the fifth stair earlier in the evening to remind myself to take it up. I had my hands full on the subsequent ascension, so I had ignored it; on my return journey some hours later, I had forgotten it. Being that leather-bound, pulpit edition from which I preach, it had provided me with a loose footing, smoothly sliding off the stair with my body weight upon it. Thankfully, it too was unscathed, save a tear on the page of a minor prophet's concluding admonition.

Had I diligently placed the scriptures on my desk or in my lap where they belong, I would be three plates better off and would not have looked so foolish, had anyone been present to see it. Upon God’s word I slipped and stumbled. Although it is fairly easy to learn from this mistake and ensure it does not happen again, slipping and stumbling in our spiritual lives is a task demanding greater care. Says the psalmist in 119:165:

Great peace have those who love Your law, and nothing causes them to stumble.

The Lord Jesus remarked in Mark 4:17b:

… Afterward, when tribulation or persecution arises for the word’s sake, immediately they stumble.

Peter comments in 1:2:8-9

“A stone of stumbling

And a rock of offense.”

They stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they also were appointed.

Asaph writes in Psalm 73:2-3, 1:

But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled;

My steps had nearly slipped.

For I was envious of the boastful,

When I saw the prosperity of the wicked.