Matthew 7:24 "Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock”
In Greek and Hebrew, the words “listen” and “obey” have the same root word and could in many cases be used interchangeably. The sense when we read about “listening” to God in Scripture, is that if we don’t obey or put in to practice what we “hear”, then we actually haven’t heard in the first place. Jesus so often talked about having ears to hear such that the hearer would then re-order their life or their thinking. Jesus in the Gospel of John is presented as the Word, who was from the beginning, spoke the universe into being, and continued to speak creativity and life and power through his human voice while on earth. When we read the Bible, at times we lose that sense of this “Living” Word sitting behind and within the text. The words on the page are communication from someone living and dynamic, similar to us reading a letter from someone, with the knowledge of the person who sits behind the pen.
Eugene Peterson says that when we lose a sense of the “Living Being” and “Word” behind Scripture, the text itself is like a dried or desiccated object that is devoid of life and flavor and bursting juiciness. Rather than nourishing us, it can suck the life out of our mouths so to speak and leave us more dehydrated than we started. Jesus is the living water and the life that sits within and behind the text. So as we read the Bible, we should approach it with ears to hear that living voice of Jesus. And with a heart attitude that comes open to be re-ordered based on the voice which will speak to us through the otherwise dry words on the pages. Paul writing to Timothy says that Scripture is “God breathed”, again giving us that sense of the Spirit or “wind”, or breath of God that is seeking, not to give us regulations and rules, but to communicate his essence and breath his life once again into his beloved dust.
I have been reading through the Bible once a year for the past 7 years, and this has been a really good discipline for me, and very helpful on many levels. Yet I must confess that as I lie in bed reading every night, I don’t always come with an expectation of encountering that Word of life, or with ears to hear and a desire to allow God to re-order my life and heart and thinking through his Word. But I am trying to do that more and to see the person behind the words as I would someone I know who has written a personal letter to me. In recent months when I have woken up early I have tried to get into the habit of not just lying in bed and thinking, but instead getting up to spend time in the psalms. I grab a coffee, sit on the couch, and still my heart seeking to slowly read a psalm several times. In between readings, I seek to be open to God’s presence, to his voice, to his personhood and desire to communicate to me. However, this needs to be paired with a humility to hear and then to obey and allow him to re-order my thinking or day or attitudes. As I have practiced this, Andrea has commented and noted that on those days, something is different in my spirit and being. I feel it too, and that gives me encouragement to keep going and to know that this Word is alive and is able to change me if I am simply open to come and to be, and to hear.
So can I encourage you to enter this “Word”, to come to Scripture seeking to hear and encounter the one behind the words on the page. The Spirit who has spoken from the beginning, and continues to speak now, and desires to communicate to you such that we might draw near to him and order our lives around his life, which is living water and life to the full. This does not mean everything becomes easy, that our troubles disappear, that our difficult relationships instantly become easy. But it can change us and help us approach this things more lightly and freely in the Yoke of Jesus.
Grace and Peace - Garry