A Closer Look

The first microscope was not intended to be a scientific instrument by its creator, but more of a novelty. The Romans used glass in the first century to make objects appear larger, and the Italian Salvino D’Armate later created the first eye glass in the thirteenth century. But the first person to create a compound microscope (two lenses used together in a hollow tube) was a Dutch spectacle maker, Zacharias Jansen, in the 1590s. Magnification was only around 9 times, and images were blurry.

It was a Dutch scientist, Anton van Leeuwenhoek, who took the microscope to a whole new level. He painstakingly polished more than 550 lenses to create a superior instrument with a magnifying power of 270x. Van Leeuwenhoek made many biological discoveries with his new microscope and drew pictures of things never before observed by the naked eye, including bacteria, yeast plants, and blood corpuscles in capillaries.

As we seek to more clearly understand God, we must admit that our vision is blurred by sin. Though we can observe many of His qualities in the natural world, there is much more we may discover through a closer look at the Bible. The Word of God, both the Old and New Testaments, brings God up close and is a specific revelation. First through prophets, and then even more clearly “in these last days … by His Son”, we may read the Scriptures and see the truth about God’s love for lost humanity.

The Bible is like a microscope, giving us a superior picture of God. When we peer deeply into this special revelation, we learn much more about sin, the great controversy, and the plan of salvation. The Scriptures magnify eternal truths beyond what our human minds can comprehend and bring the messages from heaven to a whole new level.

Apply It:

Using a concordance, look up all the words in the Bible under “Scripture” (and “Scriptures”). Prayerfully reflect on the purpose of God’s Word.

Dig Deeper:

Daniel 10:21; John 10:35; Acts 18:24

Key Bible Texts

God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, (Hebrews 1:1 KJV)