Threads from Henry's Web

Tag: Word of God

  • 1 Peter 1:24-25 – Endures

    1 Peter 1:24-25 – Endures

    So

    All flesh is like grass
    and all its glory like a flower in the field.
    The grass has withered and the flower has fallen,
    But the Word of our God lasts forever.

    Isaiah 40:6, 8


    This is the word which was proclaimed to you.

    1 Peter 1:24-25

    I’ve decided to change my way of selected texts for these meditations, but to continue writing meditations. First, I’m going to do these only Monday through Friday, with the option of skipping holidays. Second, Jody is going to send me passages she’d like me to comment on, and I’m going to meditate on those. Today’s passage is the second she’s sent me, after John 16:30-33 yesterday.

    I formatted the text today to show just how much of this passage is actually a quotation taken from Isaiah 40:6 & 8. There it serves as part of the powerful introduction to what is sometimes called 2nd Isaiah. Up to this time we’ve been largely thinking about Judah around the time of Hezekiah, with some passages earlier and some later. In Isaiah 40 we are suddenly transported to the time of the exile and given the proclamation that Judah will return and be restored. This is God’s plan.

    But one of the clearest messages of 2nd Isaiah is that this restoration is a work of God, and not an accomplishment of the people. People fail; God’s word endures and prevails. At a time when many of the people felt that God’s word had already failed, the message is proclaimed that God’s word is still powerful and will prevail.

    We often quote this passage about the Bible. Everything else is temporary, but the Bible will last. This is one of those things that makes us feel very holy, because we can point to a book and call it the word of God. Then we hold something eternal in our hands. You may be getting tense as I speak disparagingly of such a view.

    My intent here is not to minimize the value of the Bible, but rather to maximize the word of God. God’s word is not just the Bible. God’s word is what created everything. God’s word is what saves. God’s word is what acts from creation to new creation and even further, from eternity to eternity.

    At the time these words were written, the New Testament had not taken form. Many of the books, probably most, had been written, but they had not been collected, and were not regarded as part of scripture as we would see it today.

    This passage points to something else that is God’s word–the gospel message proclaimed to the recipients of this letter by which they had been converted. That message was that of a crucified and risen savior, and God’s Spirit empowering and giving life to the church.

    You see, I don’t believe that we elevate the word of God when we try to limit it to written scripture. What we generally intend is to provide a standard against which people can judge ideas, something solid, something widely accepted, something we can know is God speaking. Its good to have the written word in the role of a core standard.

    But all too often what we’re really doing is making sure that we have control of what the Word of God is doing. We want God’s word to be in our hands and under our control. People like me, who have studied the biblical languages can lord it over others by claiming to have a more accurate knowledge of God’s will due to our intellectual knowledge.

    But God’s word is superior to church laws, doctrinal statements, administrative manuals, sermons, and claims to superior knowledge. God’s word is actually eternal, and when people abuse God’s word, when they turn the form into an idol, and make their interpretations into idols, God’s word will still stand.

    It’s important that the events in view in the quoted passage come from the time of exile. You see, religious people had created a doctrine that gave them control over what God could do. They thought that Jerusalem and the temple could not be destroyed. If they were living near the temple, they would be safe.

    The idol of a human interpretation of the text took over from the word of God, in this case presented by Jeremiah. Jeremiah challenged this view in Jeremiah 7, particularly verse 4, but the entire chapter makes the point.

    Here in 1 Peter, we are being told that the gospel proclaimed was also God’s word, and that the gospel proclaimed was and is eternal.

    We like organizations, structures, and documents that settle what the Bible means. Many churches have a history of starting out with a simple statement that they believe the Bible, and then they add doctrinal statements. Why? Because people see different things in the Bible, so they have to specify just how you’re supposed to understand your Bible.

    Soon, verses are being judged against doctrinal statements and interpretations channeled into precise channels previously approved by the theologians.

    But just like the grass and flowers in the field perish, so will everything that is not, in fact, eternal.

    I want to encourage you to study the Bible, because there you will find God’s word. But spend your time primarily in going directly to scripture and not in letting others define you into a corner. There were good “scriptural” reasons not to accept Jesus as God’s son. Yet God’s word proclaimed him so. Read Hebrews 7 to see just how this works. In that chapter we see that Jesus, our High Priest, couldn’t be a priest according to the scripture of the time. Yet, Jesus became our High Priest, by which the author lets us know that God’s word stands forever, even if we have to change our understanding, our cherished understanding , in order to see what’s really going on.

    What in God’s word has become withered and fallen because you’re clinging to the idolatry of your own opinions?

    Let God move you past that dead ground and onto new, eternal ground.

  • Psalm 119:38 – Raise Up Your Word

    Psalm 119:38 – Raise Up Your Word

    Carry out your word to your servant,
    the one who fears you.

    The Hebrew word I translate “carry out” carries a variety of freight in a variety of uses. One option is simply to build and establish. I might loosely render it as “Make your word real.”

    As I study and meditate on scripture, I find more and more that it’s God’s word coming and going and everywhere in between. I think this verse can become a very important and powerful prayer. I don’t mean powerful in the sense of bolts of lightning and claps of thunder, or mountains moving around. Well, at least not in the short term!

    I mean it is a fundamental prayer. In creation God spoke (Genesis 1:2). The heavens were made by God’s word (Psalm 33:6-9). God’s word goes out and does not return empty (Isaiah 55:10-11). It’s the call for God’s creative word to be in control.

    I’m reminded of Hebrews 4:12-13, which starts with “the Word of the God is alive and active” and ends with noting that all is laid bare to the one to whom we must give account. What’s lost in many English translations is that the “Word” of the first clause is the same Greek word as the “account” of the final clause.

    Now many commentators see this differently, saying the two word uses are unrelated. I disagree. I see here this prayer, to raise of God’s word (or promise), and to do so to the one who fears God.

    What does God’s Word discover when looking inside to see everything that is there? What is our account to God?

    I’d suggest that this is to be the Word of God, taken in. For us as Christians we say that we are in Christ and Christ is in us. “… [T]o whom God desired to make know the riches of the glory of this mystery among the nations, which is Christ in you all, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27).

    It is God’s Word, which is presented in many ways, but comes from and points to the creator of all things. This is what is to be seen when all is laid bare before God’s Word. That burns away the “scary” part of the fear of God and leaves the awe, wonder, and indeed warmth.

    Word of God, speak to me!

    (The featured image for this post [not the one immediately above] was generated by Jetpack AI.)

  • Agendas, Conversation, and Bible Reading

    Agendas, Conversation, and Bible Reading

    It’s not really a new thing, but in a number of conversations recently, both in person and online, I’ve been noticing agendas. Someone will make a comment or say something in a conversation that really doesn’t seem to make sense in context, but then if you consider a different context, you’ll suddenly see that the comment makes its own kind of sense.

    I know I can do this. If there’s something on my mind that I feel is important, I will tend to tie it into a conversation whether it really fits or not. Other people in the conversation may wonder what’s going on. In real conversations, often the subject just wanders.

    This is a natural process. If you’re trying to discuss something in particular, it can be disconcerting. I find it hard to lead in a meeting because my tendency is to try to figure out what the side comment is about and follow it right off the map! I have often asked my wife to lead meetings because she is good at bringing things back to the planned subject, thus letting us complete our agenda.

    I often comment that God comes to us in Scripture for conversation while we tend to be looking for information. Now there’s nothing wrong with looking for information. There certainly is information in the Bible. But one can come out of the study of Scripture with a great deal of information and no transformation.

    In particular, we tend to come to a book looking for information we believe we need. We come with an agenda. How shall I conduct my life? How should I do business? Is it permissible to do certain things?

    Or there’s the more negative agenda of finding things I can use to condemn my neighbor. Where is the text that tells me that so-and-so is wrong?

    When we come to Scripture in this way, we are likely to be led astray. Just like we edge conversations with other people right off the edge of the map due to our primary agenda, we can get a message from Scripture that is much more formed by our agenda than by the actual message and story presented in the Scripture passage(s) we consult.

    An interesting example of this is the many centuries long search for a precise roadmap to the end of time or the end times. Date setters have repeatedly “found” dates in Scripture. How do they do that? They come to the Word with their own determination of what the Word must tell them. As a result, we have repeated examples of failed predictions, and still we have people looking for more.

    For a Christian, the study of Scripture should be an encounter with God. That means coming ready to listen and coming ready to have your agenda adjusted. That will result in conversation and potentially transformation through the Spirit and God’s creative and powerful Word.

  • Psalm 33:3-9 for the Daily Bible Study

    Psalm 33:3-9 for the Daily Bible Study

    I’m continuing with comments on the scripture passages for this week from the Daily Bible Study, which my Sunday School class uses as curriculum.

    This passage, like most of the passages this week, links God’s Word (whether in words or not) with creation and justice. We are to praise God because his word holds true, his work endures (v. 4). He loves righteousness and justice and his unfailing love fills the earth (v. 5).

    It’s interesting to note that this passage, very much like yesterday’s passage from Proverbs, states the attributes first and then makes the power explicit. “By YHWH’s word the heavens were made, by the breath of his mouth all their host” (v. 6). “He spoke, and it was, he commanded, and it stood firmly” (v. 9).

    I quote it fairly frequently, but I wonder how often we think about who this must be when we talk about being in God’s presence, or hearing God’s voice, or looking at something that we say must surely be the act of God.

    It’s possible for us to affirm the right things about God and never even imagine a tiny fraction of what all this would be like. Perhaps a slightly less casual attitude might be in order.

    The reference “Ephesians 3:14-21” is inscribed inside my wedding band. This is a powerful passage, and I just want to call attention to a few lines: “… that you may be able to grasp with all the saints the breadth, length, height, and depth, (19) to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you can be filled with all of God’s fullness.”

    We often—I often—don’t really get this. It is in the nature of a teacher to explain things, but in this case we have to say we can’t make this clear. It surpasses knowledge. It surpasses our ability to imagine it.

    And then verse 20: “Now to the one who is able to immeasurably more than we ask or conceive according to the power that is working among us …” And that points us back to Psalm 33 and the one who speaks and it is done.

    Do you ever pause and try to imagine this? Or is “we are the body of Christ” just a description of an ordinary gathering of humans?

    Here is a link to a story and a poem I wrote some time ago, but that I believe connect to our lesson this week: It Got Very Quiet up in the Mountains and What Was It Like?

    Featured image credit: Image by Arek Socha from Pixabay