One morning
this week, my time in God’s quarry was a distinctively frustrating, surprising,
wonder-filled, experience. No sooner had I begun to feel an overwhelming sense
of delight in a treasure-thought that had come to my attention, when taking
this treasure in hand uncovered another treasure of wisdom and knowledge that
demanded equal time and attention. Each time this repeated, my heart was filled
with joy at the new thought, and multiplied in joy as it connected with the
other gems exposed in the quarry.
I will briefly
share about these gem stones of truth, hoping the collection will bless you as
it did me, and that it would encourage your own time spent in the treasure-filled
word of God. May the “word of Christ
dwell in you richly.”[1]
Treasure 1: “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy
laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for
I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my
yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”[2]
Younger oxen
were trained by yoking them to older oxen. The mature ox was the master of the
team, and the young ox the apprentice. The mature ox’s strength could keep the
young ox’s energy in check until the younger finally surrendered to the older
and found rest by matching his stride to the master.
Jesus called
out to those who were weary of their self-dependence and offered them rest. If we
would accept his easy and light yoke, the gospel of grace, we would experience
rest for our souls that would never be found by any variation of
self-achievement. When our unruly selfishness submits to the lordship of Jesus
Christ through the gospel, denying ourselves as Jesus’ clarified,[3] we
come to an experience of rest that only Jesus can give. If we will “keep in step with the Spirit,”[4] Jesus
will give us “righteousness and peace and
joy in the Holy Spirit.”[5]
Treasure 2: “For as the rain and the
snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making
it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so
shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but
it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for
which I sent it.”[6]
When
God speaks of his word, he describes it in an “As-and-So” picture of similarity
to the rain and the snow that come down upon the earth. Season after season,
year after year, century after century, and millennium after millennium, everyone
sees that the rain and snow come down for a purpose. Both the rain that brings
immediate effect, and the snow that brings a later effect, work to “water the earth”. It is the design of
God.
What
the moisture that comes down from heaven accomplishes, is that it brings forth
the plants that we need to sustain life. It causes the earth to sprout with
food. The food grows and gives seed to the sower, enabling people to
continually reproduce crops of food to eat, and it gives bread to the eater,
meaning that the crops are turned into the food that we rely on for life.
With
this imagery of the precipitation coming down, bringing a constant supply of
food to the earth, God tells us that the same thing happens with his word.
Treasure 3:“‘Man shall not live by
bread alone, but
by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”[7]
God’s
words include the constant allusion to this reality, that, as he designed
things so that the precipitation comes down to water the earth in its seasons,
and from this moisture the earth produces the food we need to perpetuate
physical life, so the word of God comes down to sustain and perpetuate
spiritual life. In the same way, we cannot live on bread alone (the fruit of
the rain and snow), but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.
The
word of God proceeds from the mouth of God. It is “God-breathed” as Scripture so clearly reveals.[8] God tells us, “my word that
goes out from my mouth,” and it does not return to him empty. It is
unthinkable that the rain and the snow would fall to the earth without bringing
about great benefit to people. It is even more unthinkable that God would speak
words that would fail to do what he has spoken.
What
God promises to do with “every word that
comes from the mouth of God,”[9] is to “accomplish that which
I purpose.”[10] It is as though the rain and the snow, and the seasons of growing
food that happen around the planet, are all announcing to our hearts that we
can live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God, because his words will
not return to him empty. They will accomplish what he has purposed, and succeed
in the thing for which he sent it.
Treasure 4: And God said, “Let there
be light,” and there was light.[11]
In
the beginning, God spoke his words, and accomplished what he purposed. When he
spoke his words of purpose on each day of creation, he successfully brought
about the thing he sent his words out to do.[12]
The
whole universe is a constant message to us that when God speaks, it is so. When
God speaks, he does what he has spoken. It is ludicrous to consider the whole
universe that God brought into existence by his word, and then judge him as
unable to accomplish his word in our world, in our day.
Treasure 5: “Come, everyone who
thirsts, come
to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and
milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that
which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen
diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline
your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with
you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David.[13]
We
are to come to God because his words call us to that which he is doing. He
calls us as Jesus calls us. The call is to the weary and heavy laden.[14] The call is to those who are hungering and thirsting for a
righteousness they do not have in themselves.[15] He calls to the poor in spirit, [16] those who have no money, and he calls them to buy and eat, to drink
the wine and the milk that he offers to sustain their souls.
In
God’s kindness he leads us to repentance.[17] He leads us to stop spending our money on things that do not
satisfy. We have hungry souls, but we buy things that cannot feed us. We labor
for things that cannot satisfy our inner beings. We are busy buying toys and
possessions, things that give us the momentary brain-rush of
pseudo-satisfaction, only to find that none of these things satisfy.
Instead,
God wants us to “incline” our hearts
to him, and come to him. He wants us to hear every word that proceeds from the
mouth of God so that our souls may live. Instead of trying to live on bread
alone, while ignoring the words of God, we are to enjoy the bread that reminds
us of how the rain and the snow feeds the earth to give seed to the sower and
bread to the eater, and also live on every word that proceeds from the mouth of
God. As we eat the bread that is the fruit of the unceasing cycle of the
seasons, so we must eat the words of God that give us an everlasting covenant
of love for all those who will come and take what is offered by God, rather
than what is offered by the gods of the world, and the god of this world.
Immediately
following the exhortation to live by the words of God comes this promise of
God’s words:
Treasure 6: “For you shall go out in
joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall
break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their
hands.”[18]
God
wants us to believe that his words will do all that he has promised because we
have to wait for the promise. There was a time coming for Israel when they
would go out in joy, but they would need to endure the present discipline in
faith that such a day would come. They would one day be led forth in peace, but
out of a land that had held them captive because of their rebellion and sin.
Even while they were heading into the loving discipline of God, they were given
words to hold on to, a Father speaking to his rebellious children, telling them
of a coming day when they would come out of the land of captivity with joy, and
they would be led forth from the land of bondage in peace.
Since
we have God’s own assurance that his words will accomplish that which he purposed,
“the thing for which I sent it,” we
can look at the promises of God and believe that he will do them. Which means
that, when he calls those who “labor and
are heavy laden” to come to him for rest, he is calling those who “hear” these words and realize that they
have the weariness of soul Jesus was talking about. Jesus is speaking to them
about the rest he will give to their souls, so they come to him as needy,
desperate people who find their hope in him.
Treasure 7: “Jesus said to them, ‘My
food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.’”[19]
Jesus
wanted his disciples to know that he could by-pass the bread they had brought
out from the village because he had been sustained by every word that came from
the mouth of his Father. There was a will and a work that God was doing, and
Jesus would do the will of the Father, and accomplish his work.
Jesus
is called the Word of God, who comes from the Father, full of grace and truth.[20] The way we are to think of Jesus as the Word of God is the same way
we are to think of the written words of God. Jesus the Word, and scripture the
word, both proceed from the Father. Both are full of grace and truth. Jesus,
the Word of God, also lived by every word that proceeded from the mouth of God.
When
Jesus did not eat the bread the disciples brought out to him, he was giving a
living picture of what he had earlier said to the devil, that man does not live
by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. He then
demonstrated that living by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God
means doing the Father’s will, and accomplishing his work.
Part of the
difficulty in writing this, that frustrating thing I mentioned at the
beginning, is even after watching one thought build on another with hardly any
time to consider the wonders of each gem, I had to walk away to other things
with the awareness that I had just noticed a whole bunch of other treasures
uncovered by those I had picked up in my hands. I know that the things that did
speak into my heart will lead me through this day, while the others will remain
as witnesses that the same thing can happen all over again tomorrow.
Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
but his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law he meditates day and night.[21]
© 2014 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517,
Merritt, BC, Canada, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted,
Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English
Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good
News Publishers.)
[1]
Colossians 3:16
[2]
Matthew 11:28-30
[3]
Matthew 16:24; Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23
[4]
Galatians 5:16, 25
[5]
Romans 14:17
[6]
Isaiah 55:10-11
[7]
Matthew 4:4; from Deuteronomy 8:3
[8]
II Timothy 3:16-17
[9]
Matthew 4:4
[10]
Isaiah 55:11
[11]
Genesis 1:3
[12]
Genesis 1:6-7, 9, 11, 14-15, 20-21, 24, 26-27
[13]
Isaiah 55:1-3
[14]
Matthew 11:28-30
[15]
Matthew 5:6
[16]
Matthew 5:3
[17]
Romans 2:4
[18]
Isaiah 55:12
[19]
John 4:34
[20]
John 1:1-18; the first few verses identify Jesus as the Word of God, and the
last paragraph expresses how Jesus came “from the Father, full of grace and
truth” (vs 14).
[21]
Psalm 1:1-2
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