On This Day: The Word That Silences Accusations

   One Sabbath he was going through the grainfields, and as they made their way, his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. And the Pharisees were saying to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” And he said to them, “Have you never read what David did, when he was in need and was hungry, he and those who were with him: how he entered the house of God, in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those who were with him?” And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”  (Mark 2:23-28)

 

   I look back on my decades of getting to know God through his word and marvel at how it has become increasingly personal over the years. That is why something will stand out in a distinctive way at a certain time in our lives. It might be because we are about to go through something and God is preparing us to face it. Or it could be that we have gone through something and God wants to settle into our hearts his perspective on the matter. Whatever the case, God’s word is “living and active”, so we must watch for how personal God gets in applying it to our lives.

   Part of the personal side of this is that almost half of this year of 2024 involved a journey through a book of false teachings entitled “A More Christlike Word”.[1] As I read the author’s claims, I was appalled at his blatant misrepresentation of what God had written in the Scriptures.

   However, what was such a blessing to me was to read those Scriptures in context, look up words from the original languages to have a better understanding of any nuances of meaning that applied, and feel the delight of Jesus as “the Word” using “the word of God” we have in the Scriptures to silence his critics and accusers. And that’s when I was so tickled (slang for “joyfully blessed”) that the English word “read” in the above Scripture clearly meant to read something out loud.

   Jesus’ accusers in this case were the very men who read aloud the Scriptures to the congregations who gathered in the synagogues to hear the word of the LORD (Yahweh). Jesus was asking the professional readers, if you will, if they had paid attention to what they themselves read to the people who gathered to worship God. And specifically, a scripture that was an example of how God’s care of his people allowed for a clear limitation to be graciously excused due to the level of need that was presented at a certain time.

   Because these “On This Day” sharings of mine are not to exhaust everything a passage of Scripture means, but to encourage us to hear what God is speaking to us about in his word each day, I leave you with one more example of how personally God speaks to us through his word, the Scriptures we now have in the Bible.

   And part of the blessing of this for me today is the simple delight of reading about Jesus “the Word” turning the professional readers of God’s word back to something they themselves had read from God’s word in an encounter that is now added to the word of God we have in the New Testament Scriptures!

   That is why I take it so seriously that we are to “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly” (Colossians 3:16) because “faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17).

   My faith has been built up today. Does anyone need help with your faith because the accusations against God’s word you struggle with the most are the ones in your own mind? I would be happy to help you get to know God’s word as the word of life it truly is to all who receive it.

 

© 2024 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

 

---

[1] When I discovered some new friends were sharing things online that contradicted everything I had learned about God’s word, they asked me to read this book by Brad Jersak. I had already heard the man and concluded he was a false teacher. My journey through his book proved my suspicions were valid. You can read all about my journey in the posts I shared under the heading “Countering Counterfeits”.

 (Print version) A More Christlike Word © 2021 by Bradley Jersak Whitaker House 1030 Hunt Valley Circle • New Kensington, PA 15068 www.whitakerhouse.com (Kindle version) Jersak, Bradley. A More Christlike Word: Reading Scripture the Emmaus Way. Whitaker House. Kindle Edition.