Devotion for Wednesday 4 August
Dear Readers and Listeners, Friends in Jesus Christ,
Our watchword for today is taken from Psalm One Hundred and Nineteen, verse One Hundred and Sixty Two, “I rejoice at your word like one who finds great spoil,” (NRSVB). The writer of this psalm, King David, was a skilled warrior and demonstrated his marksmanship already at a young age, when he felled the giant, Goliath. In our watchword David uses the language and metaphor of a warrior. He describes the great joy that he finds in pondering the word of God, wrestling with the meaning as a warrior, to find great and life affirming treasure. The word spoil, in the context of our watchword, means the bounty that the warriors share after they have victoriously battled their enemy. Finding the meaning of God’s word, and the application of this word on his daily life, brought David great joy, more than the joy that a victorious warrior experienced after he received his bounty. When we come to the word of God and treat it with awe and reverence, we come into communion with God. He speaks to us through his word. Wrestling with his word is our honourable duty, for in prayerfully reading and re-reading, the Spirit of God comes to us and brings the celestial light of understanding to the word of God for us. God’s word is true and living and waiting to be performed at his command as God assured the prophet Jeremiah, “For I, Your God, am alert and active , watching over My word to perform it,” Jeremiah Chapter 1 verse 12, (Amplified Bible).
When we were taught to read, how excited were we not when we could discern the letters of the alphabet correctly. How delighted we became when we could put the letters together and spell words and construct sentences! None of these skills came without effort and constant practice. It is the same practice that we have to apply to the word of God as we read his book – the history of the world and the plans of God for a future of hope and peace. We have to sound out the letters, if the word is new! We have to delve in the sentences if we find that we are filled with doubt. We have to keep on returning to God’s word, as we fight our enemies of doubt and suspicion. God’s word is not a pronouncement of punishment, but a call out of his loving mouth, to assure us of his waiting for us to return to him. He has planned our futures, it is filled with hope and forgiveness, joy and comfort. God’s word is filled with comfort for the warrior, the doubtful and the weak. As we wreck our minds and try to apply our human thoughts to the divine word of God, the Spirit comes to us and opens our understanding, and turns our eyes heavenwards. The Word of God can only be received in all its breath and depth and height through the understanding of the new creature’s mind. The new creature in Christ experiences God’s word as words of life, words of great treasure, the spoils of the victory won. The old creature tries to use the letters and alphabet, the sentence construction and understanding of the language of earth. Applying the wrong language code will not open the store-house of the Word from Heaven. Christ, the Word of God, the Logos, will reveal to us through the Spirit of Truth, the majestic performance of God’s word in our lives.
When Jesus taught his disciples and followers, he shared with them that he was the heavenly Bread, the Manna from heaven, given to bring truth and nourishment to believers. The Israelites ate the manna in the desert and it sustained them. However, they died, despite eating the gift of nourishment that God performed everyday for them in the desert, giving bread from heaven. Jesus Christ, the Bread of Heaven, the Manna, was broken for all and gave himself as the Gift of Life to all humankind, for he fell in the ground and conquered death. He became the victorious warrior over the enemy of death, decay and condemnation, and rescued for us the spoil, the spoil of everlasting life. After Jesus shared this lesson, many of the followers left, for his words were too difficult to understand. We read in the Gospel of John, Chapter 6 verse 68 that Jesus asked his disciples, “Will you also go away? Do you also desire to leave Me? Simon Peter answered: Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life!” Jesus Christ has spoken his eternal “Yes” over us when he died on the Cross. The “Yes” of Christ, is the lens that we must apply when we read the word of God and we will find the joy of his word, living daily in us.
Father, how perfect is your word, how wonderful your promises, how awesome the power of your performative word of yesterday, today and tomorrow! We thank you that you come to open the eyes and ears of our hearts to understand your heavenly Word, Amen.
