it will do everything!”: Isaiah 55.11 (GNB)
The Word of the Lord………………..
we read that phrase time and time again in the Old Testament….
The Word of the Lord……….
the Word of the Lord came to Ezekiel,
the Word of the Lord came to Isaiah,
the Word of the Lord came to Jeremiah………..
For us, often ‘words are words’, they can be empty words.
Politicians and leaders have been known to use words, not to communicate, but to cover up, to hide what is really happening……
and day by day we are surrounded by words, a sea of words…… if you think about it……..
The Bible has a different approach,
and it
is very important, to try and understand this.
In the Bible, a word does
something.
This might seem very strange to us……..
but for the people of
when God speaks, His word does
something……….
There it is right at the beginning of Genesis….
1st. chapter, third verse: - God
spoke, God commanded, God said:
and this is His Word: 'let there be
light'
and, Genesis tells us, light appeared...............
The Lord speaks, and it happens
The Lord speaks the Word and
the earth is created, human beings are created,
God speaks and the desert becomes a garden, a vineyard, a place of
blossom
When the Lord speaks, in the Bible, this is not simply a word that
echoes, re-echoes, and then fades away…..no
His Word enlivens, nourishes, creates
This is exactly the meaning of what we read in Isaiah 55 this morning:
my
word, says the Lord, is like the snow and the rain that come
down from the sky to water the earth …. making the
crops grow, providing seed for sowing, food to eat……the word that I speak..... will not fail to do
what I plan for it,
it
will do everything!
God's word has creative power. God speaks, and life takes place
things happen,
the Lord speaks and His Word is dynamic, active. He speaks and His Word unfolds in truth, and power and life.
And this, is what we see perfectly in that moment when Jesus stood up
in the synagogue in his home town of
The Spirit of the Lord
has
anointed me to preach good news to the poor,
He has sent me to proclaim
freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind,
to
release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour….
He rolled up the scroll, we are told, and in the silence
of that packed synagogue He said:
Today this Scripture is
fulfilled in your hearing………
Now, if you read on, you will find that there were many things going on
in that synagogue on that Sabbath day,
but I think the most stunning thing, the most glorious thing is this:
that the creative power of God's word and promise was seen that day:
that in that small town synagogue………
the Word of the Lord, given to the prophet Isaiah seven centuries before
that same Word was now breaking through seven centuries later, at the right time, in unfolding truth, and power and life…
focussed
on, gathering round, fulfilled in Jesus !
the Lord says the word that I
speak..... will
not fail to do what I plan for it ……..
what we see there in the synagogue
is the way in which the
Word of the Lord unfolds in truth and power and life
in Jesus Christ, through Him, upon Him……..
The testimony of the Gospel is that
God's word has creative power. God speaks, and life takes place
things happen,
the Lord speaks and His Word is dynamic, active. He speaks and His Word unfolds in truth, and power and life…
What of the Word of the Lord in our own lives ?
We regularly call the Bible, the Word of God,
but what of the Word of the Lord in our own lives ?
I think we only truly have grasped what the Bible is about when
we understand the Bible as the Word of God,
and as we read the Word of the Lord, the Bible, it will unfold in truth and life and power in our own lives.
for the Lord says the word that I speak..... will not fail to do what I plan for it .
The Bible is a living Word………
We can approach the Bible as a history book, and find out interesting information about the history of the Near East two, three millennia ago, we can approach it as a collection of religious books, read it as poetry, as history, as literature, and so on. We can look at the text of the Bible and see what things might interest us.
But to pick up the Bible and read, is to step on to holy ground.
The Bible is a place, a realm we enter – and wait for the living Word to grasp us, where , as we wait in reverence and love, we allow the Word of God to create us.
How does this happen ?
The passage we read in 2 Timothy 3 declares that all Scripture is God breathed. What does this mean ?
Well, the apostle Paul is declaring here, that all Scripture is breathed by God, which means, created through His Spirit, as the Spirit of God moved upon men and women inspiring them, guiding them, teaching them to speak, to write.
No prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation,
Peter tells us - prophecy never had its
origin in the will of man, no, the prophets spoke from God as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.
Because the Word here is given through the Spirit,
this means we can only understand the Word of the Scripture, grasp it, be nourished by it, when the Spirit opens our eyes and our understanding. All our deepest understanding is given by the Spirit – The Spirit spoke of old, the prophets listened, and wrote,
we pick up and read, and it is the same Spirit who opens our ears to hear that message now,
and the same Spirit who opens our eyes to see.
And as the Spirit opens our eyes – what do we see ? As
the Spirit opens our ears – what do we hear ? We see Christ, we hear Christ. For that is the work of the Spirit in us – the Spirit’s work is to point us to Christ.
The Bible cannot be read like a text book, or a book of theories;
its deepest truth is revealed to us as the Spirit works within us, as Christ teaches us, from all the treasures of wisdom that are hidden in Him.
Just as He did on the road to Emmaus with the disciples:
Jesus explained the Scriptures to them, opened their minds so they could understand. So, through His Spirit, Christ opens the treasures of His Word to us. And now, as then, when we do understand what we read in the Scriptures, our hearts burn within us, our spirits are filled, our minds are lifted up, and we know ourselves renewed in life – as in Jesus Christ the Scriptures are opened to us
He is the life, the life that God will reveal to you, as you read.
AMEN.