Will Fitzgerald
January 11, 2008
Usually, when we talk about "the Word of God," people, evangelicals especially, mean the Scriptures.
Last week, we looked at the first chapter of John, especially its first verse, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
We examined how Jesus as "the Word" is both the Medium of the Message and the content of the Message, that is, Jesus himself was God's Word to us. His life and his teaching communicates to us, if we will only listen, what God wants to tell us. Jesus himself, in his life and death and resurrection, the medium of the good news God has for us.
So, as followers of Jesus, the Word, we understand Jesus is the primary meaning of "the Word of God".
It seemed valuable to me to investigate other times the expression "the Word of God" is used in the Scripture. I limited myself to just the phrase "Word of God," and used just one translation. This doesn't exhaust the use and meaning of the underlying meanings of the Word of God, but I think it's fairly close.
In the Hebrew Bible, we have the stories of the prophets and other men and women of God who are given messages to deliver to kings and others. The typical expression in the Hebrew Bible is "the word of the Lord," but, as I said, that would take us far afield. "Word of God" appears only four times in the Hebrew Bible, "word of the Lord" over 200 times.
For example, in 1 Chronicles 17:1-15. David wants to build God a house at least as good as David's own, and he tells Nathan the prophet that he wants to do so. Nathan agrees, but that night, the Word of God comes to Nathan to tell him to not build a temple, but to let his son Solomon do it.
But it happens in the New Testament, too; for example Luke 3:2 (the word of God comes to John).
This is used a times in Scripture. For example, Hebrews 11:3, "Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear." This is clearly related to our passage from John last week, "The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made." (John 1:2-3). And of course, the first chapter of Genesis, where God's Spirit, or breath, is moving across the face of the waters, "And God said, let there be light!" and what God says happens, and what God calls this (Day, Night, etc) are the real names of things.
Interestingly, the Scriptures are not very often called "the Word of God." I could only find two clear instances of this. Mark 7:4-13; where the commandments of the Hebrew Bible are called the word of God (v. 13). Aother is John 10:35, worth a look at: "If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken." Here 'word of God','scripture' are connected.
Jesus comes announcing the kingdom of God. The announcement is at times called the "word of God." Perhaps the clearest example is Luke 5:1, "it came to pass, that, as the people pressed upon him to hear the word of God,...". In the parable of the sower and the seeds (Luke 8:4-15), I think it is relatively clear that 'the seed is the word of God' refers to the good news of the kingdom.
The book of Acts is full of this sense. For example, when Paul and Barnabas start preachin in Salamis, (Acts 13:5) "when they were at Salamis, they preached the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews." and so it is used a dozen times or so.
Paul, too, uses it in this sense; for example in 1 Thessalonias 2:13, "For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe."
This is, in fact, the primary use in the New Testament. God speaks to our hearts, perhaps through the words of one of God's messengers, or through the Scriptures, or though some kind of direct inner prompting.
Not counting John 1 (which doesn't use the literal expression "Word of God," it is used once in Revelation 19:13, "His name is the Word of God." Rev. 19:11-13.
So, we have these five primary meanings for "the Word of God."
With this in mind, it is profitable to take a new look at some familiar passages, including "man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word which proceeds from the mouth of God." and "The Word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edge sword." This will be the task for another day.
But for your studying pleasure, I have a checksheet ...it might be useful to use "BibleGateway.com" to look these passage up by searching for "word of God" in your favorite translation.
This week, let us be open to the Word of God, which can lead to a new creation in our own lives and the lives of people we bear a witness to.