Why is it Important?
Maybe you have been reading all these past posts about Oral Bible Translation and wonder why Bible translation is important? Especially when people have a near language they can understand already? Is that not enough?
Anyone who has worked with languages other than their own will no doubt have seen how the tears of joy come, or all out weeping, when you speak to someone not just in the language they understand, but the effect it has when you address them in their mother tongue, especially when sharing what God says in His Word.
Maybe some of you will recall the post I wrote about what happened when a translator heard the narrator telling (in a final recording) the book of Ruth in her mother tongue? The video, which I cannot post here, was so amazing. The presence of God felt in the room was so rich and strong when all those present in the Bel language were hearing this newly-translated book for the first time spoken in their heart language.
Translation is important, because it goes deeper than deep. It touches the central core of a person’s being when they hear God speaking in their language.
But it’s more than that. There’s an enemy at large in the world. Even while we were present on the YWAM base in Madang town with 70 translators (at the time) living among us, an attack happened on a poor woman on the street outside.
It was nighttime and some translators were outside enjoying the evening cool and debriefing the passages of Luke with one another which they had heard earlier in the day. Some children were also present. It was calm, so beautiful and a peaceful night.
Suddenly in front of them all a man with a bush knife was slashing at and attacking a woman from the neighbourhood. The horrors and hopelessness of those without Christ was immediately front and centre.
When I was growing up in the ‘70s they used to say, “Back to the Bible or back to the jungle!” Maybe not politically comfortable nowadays, but, the reality is, if we abandon or have never had an encounter with the Word of God in our language then our life (not transformed by Scripture) continues living for self, violent and in many vices as sin proliferates around us as “living for Number One” becomes more important.
When people do not understand about loving God and loving our neighbour, and that it is based on a relationship with Jesus who died to make us whole, then life remains empty (no matter what religious veneer with which we paint it), and that person continues in self-centred living. Instead of serving others, as we wish (demand?) that others serve us.
Many are concerned about today’s world. We have nations that even venerate the Name of Jesus, but are violent, vile and vengeful. PNG is one of those places. It’s beautiful, the people lovely, but there are rascals out there ‘in the jungle’ working horrible mayhem and, below the surface, there is fear on every side here. Jesus warned of such things we see in the world around us.
When I grew up I remember days when we left those house keys in the front door, because the neighbour might want to drop by, and, we kept car keys in the ignition because it was thought wise—just in case you would lose them! My dad would not recognise the world of today in which his great-grandchildren are growing up.
Some years ago, I remember seeing an MP walking out of the House of Commons and, before being interviewed, he said ‘live’ to National BBC TV news reporters outside, “Not unto us, O LORD, not unto us, but unto Thy Name give glory” (partly quoting Psalm 115 verse 1 after a major bill protecting righteous freedom was passed in our government). Today they might edit that out and maybe even call it ‘hate speech’.
Why is it important to translate the Bible? Because if we want to make disciples of nations (not just make Christians in name only), people are going to need the Word of God taught and available in their mother tongue so that it convicts and transforms them profoundly in the deepest recesses of their being.
Back to the Bible or … ?