2 Corinthians 3:3

And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

What does that have to do with scribes?

The Hebrew word for scribe is סָפַר çâphar, saw-far’; a primitive root; properly, to score with a mark as a tally or record, i.e. (by implication) to inscribe, and also to enumerate; intensively, to recount, i.e. celebrate:—commune. By function scribes were assigned the task of copying the scrolls meticulously so that all the synagogues had exactly the same words to be read to those attending. Parchments were expensive and fragile. Accuracy in transcribing was important or the transmission of God’s Word would be useless.

Over time the importance of scribes was elevated in human terms i.e. self-worth, pride as recounted in the New Testament by Jesus Himself.

 In their regime piety was reduced to external formalism. Only that was of value which was governed by external precept. Life under them became a burden; they themselves sought to evade certain of their own precepts, Mat 23:16, ff.; Luk 11:46; by their traditions the Law, instead of being a help in moral and spiritual life, became an instrument for preventing true access to God, Luk 11:52. Hence the Lord’s stern denunciations of them and the Pharisees.

Reference source Strong’s Definitions

As I write this, I copy and paste from internet sources I trust and I do not alter them. In that sense I am a scribe. I add personal comments, in that sense I am a scribbler.

What I know to write comes from what is written in my heart. The Spirit gives voice to the Living Word by faith. I have no idea what is needed for any reader, but He does.

I am no teacher and I do not pretend to be one. I think of myself as a secretary taking dictation. I resisted the temptation to become a scribe once I learned that they were an instrument of preventing true access to God.

“Show that you are a letter from Christ” is a matter of living out this life in Christ with all the integrity we can muster, failed humans that we are but chosen to deliver His Word.

Exodus 33:5

For the Lord had said to Moses, “Say to the people of Israel, ‘You are a stiff-necked people; if for a single moment I should go up among you, I would consume you. So now take off your ornaments, that I may know what to do with you.’”

We have just encountered Resurrection Sunday where Jesus has taken onto Himself the sins of all mankind for all time. Our sin is no longer an obstacle to a relationship with God.

Here in Exodus 33, God is speaking to that generation of people He has just set free. They follow Him but why? If their intentions are to follow God for forty years in the wilderness why is it that only Joshua and Caleb got to enter into the Promise Land?

Ornaments are about appearance, the personality they want to portray to others. There are a number of reasons why people do that just as there was more than one reason only Joshua and Caleb were the only two entering into the Promise. Moses and Aaron failed God in different ways and were denied. It is reasonable to assume there were many masks those people hid behind.

The last sentence above only makes sense to us, the observers of His Word. God always knew the heart of the ungrateful, stubborn and proud people He denied access to His promise.

The lesson here more than God’s promises is to be real with God. No one likes a phony and whatever they have to say will be heard with a fair amount of doubt.

Here we are on this side of the Cross and the same can be said of this journey we take because of the promises God has made in Christ. If we haven’t seen some of those we should look within ourselves and see if we are being real with God.

Luke 20:46

“Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and love greetings in the marketplaces and the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts,

Am I a scribe or a scribbler? A little of both if I am going to be honest with God and with you.