The Word of God

The word of God is living and active.  Sharper than any two-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart (Heb. 4:12).

 

If we take a look at the opening pages of the prophetic books, we find something remarkable -- all of them begin with the same idea:

 

• the vision concerning Judah and Jerusalem that Isaiah, son of Amoz, saw during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
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• The words of Jeremiah, son of Hilkiah, one of the priests at Anathoth in the territory of Benjamin.  The word of the Lord came to him in the thirteenth year of the reign of Josiah ... and through the reign of Jehoiakim...down to the fifth month of the eleventh year of Zedekiah, son of Josiah, king of Judah, when the people of Jerusalem went into exile.
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• In the thirtieth year, in the fourth month on the fifth day, while I was among the exiles by the Kebar River, the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God. On the fifth of the month --- it was the fifth year of the exile of King Jehoichin -- the word of the Lord came to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, by the Kebar River in the land of the Babylonians.  There the hand of the Lord was upon him.
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• ....During the night, the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision....
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• The word of the Lord that came to Hosea, son of Beeri, during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and during the reign of Jeroboam, son of Joash, king of Israel.
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• The word of the Lord that came to Joel, son of Pethuel....
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• The words of Amos, one of the shepherds of Tekoa --- what he saw concerning Israel two years before the earthquake, when Uzziah was king of Judah and Jeroboam, son of Jehoash, was king of Israel.
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• The vision of Obadiah.....
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• The word of the Lord came to Jonah, son of Amittai:....
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• The word of the Lord given to Micah of Moresheth during the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah --- the vision he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.
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• An oracle concerning Nineveh.  The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.
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• The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet received....
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• The word of the Lord that came to Zephaniah, son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hezekiah, during the reign of Josiah, son of Amon King of Judah.....
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• In the second year of King Darius, on the first day of the sixth month, the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel, son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest.....
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• In the eighth month of the second year of Darius, (king of Persia), the word of the Lord came to the prophet Zechariah, son of Berekiah, the son of Iddo.....
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• An oracle:  The word of the Lord to Israel through Malachi..... 

All of the prophets either saw visions or "the word of the Lord came to [them] saying..."

  And all of the prophets could pinpoint the exact day, hour, and month of the revelation, when the "word of the Lord" came to them.  This was no vague musing of the mind --- this was a moment, an event, a happening:  "The word of the Lord came to me saying....."  The word of God is "living and active," not an "idea" or a "thought."

 

Jesus, "the exact image of the invisible God"(Col. 1) is also "The Word of God, living and active."  He is the Word made flesh, Who accomplishes all He says.  Most of us to whom the Word of God has been made manifest know the exact day and hour when "the word of the Lord" came to us.  It was not an idea we had, nor a thought born of human desire or musing --- it arrived with power, transforming the thoughts of our hearts in an instant. 

 

If we read the biographies of modern day "prophets" like Thomas Merton and C.S. Lewis, or even of the more traditional "prophets" like St. Augustine, we see a moment of conversion out of which grows an entire changed life.  We see a moment when the person "just knows" that God has a claim on their lives, and we see how that moment has changed their primary orientation from the world to the kingdom of heaven.

 

I would love to gather together a group of the faithful -- the Bible calls them "the saints" ---- to hear them reflect on the moments of their lives when "the word of the Lord came to them saying...."  (Sometimes, it is not 'hearing' but 'seeing' or 'experiencing' that changes our direction.)  What a remarkable study that would be!