The graying college professor was watching television—but not really. He was casually interested but not enough to give it his full attention so he pulled a volume of the 1911 edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica off the shelf and began to browse. He came across an article on Nebuchadnezzar. Knowing Nebuchadnezzar was once the king of Babylon, which is modern day Iraqi, gave the article a modern day connection. The article even gave the name of Nebuchadnezzar’s younger brother Nabo-sum-lisir. The old prof had never seen this before and thought it would be great fun to put this name on his door at school along with the promise of a ten-dollar reward to the first person to correctly identify him. Just to make sure it was not too easy he went to www.google.com and typed in Nabo-sum-lisir. In eight tenths of a second there on his computer screen was a copy of the very page in the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica. Obviously, he did not offer the reward.
The lesson is obvious. If anyone with an Internet connection can now identify Nebuchadnezzar’s younger brother in the blink of an eye, the wonder and mystery of God knowing everything about us is gone. More than ever it makes us grateful for the promises of grace and forgiveness because with God there are no secrets. “For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing….” Eccl. 12:14.
“It is by grace you have been saved.” Eph. 2:5 Lord, we are so grateful!
Written by Roger Bothwell on January 28, 2003
Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574
rogerbothwell.org