Matthew 24:35 Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.
Every Word We Need to Know
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Matthew 23 records for us Jesus’ stern words for the religious Christ-rejecters, the Pharisees. He closes His words to them, and really His public ministry, by saying, “Behold, your house is left unto you desolate…Ye shall not see me… till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.”
The next chapter continues the story, “And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to show to him the buildings of the temple.” The temple was majestic, and the construction of it was absolutely unbelievable. Few things in the world could have seemed more permanent to these people than the temple, yet Jesus said, “See ye not all these things?…There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.” Then the disciples asked him, “When shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?”
The rest of the passage addresses that question, but you have to think about how massive this revelation would have been to such people. The temple was an icon. It was permanent. Think about icons in America that seem as if they have always been here such as the Empire State Building or the Grand Canyon. We feel as if such icons will be here permanently, yet permanent and eternal are not the same thing, are they?
The words of verse 35 are in stark contrast to the temporal nature of almost everything else we know of in this universe. Jesus said, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.” The temple will pass, the Empire State Building will pass, and the Grand Canyon will pass, but God’s Words will not pass.
Every word Jesus uttered that we need to know has been recorded for us. There are some things we don’t need to know, but everything about which we must know is given us in God’s Word.
Jesus’ words are more certain than anything “permanent.” Many things we call “permanent” do not last forever. Even a permanent marker is not permanent. You may stain some pants with a permanent marker, but you can get out that stain. Jesus’ words are eternal. They transcend time.
Anything you will know of the deepest past, the farthest future, or this present are in God’s Word. Edmund Burke talked of the sublime, by which he meant that which is awe-inspiring or able to inspire terror. Among those things that he called sublime is eternity, precisely because eternity has no apparent boundaries. It is obscure, and we do not understand it.
God is even greater than eternity, yet God Almighty has made Himself more comprehendible. He came as the God the Son, spoke words in human language, and recorded them for us in His Word. The Bible is infinite as to its scope, yet everything God has given us we can find within the covers of that book you can put on your shelf. How incredible!
In other words, you know God, and that is enough. What about the future? What about the past? Oddly enough, the way to know about the deepest, darkest history or furthest future is to go to the Bible. The Bible records things nothing else could because God is the witness.
While I do not know the future, I know the One Who does. God is good, God has made Himself knowable, and God is in control. You can pillow your head at night with that comfort of mind.