The Power of Spoken Words

 

When at Bible college, one course was about communication. We read a book called “The Humiliation of the Word” by Jacques Ellul that examined how visual reality has superseded verbal truth. In applying it to Scripture, the bottom line is that divine and human words declaring divine truth are sinfully dominated by all sorts of idolatry, which is visual. In other words, sight replaces faith. In simple terms, seeing is more convincing to the sinner than hearing or reading. Because “faith comes by hearing” this is a disastrous departure from the salvation offered by God.

While this was a difficult book to read (it can be found as a free download) it has stayed with me, partly because our assignment was a book report that did not use words! This made me deeply aware of the truths Ellul writes about and how even written words can become pictures or images in our minds, such as stop signs, the letters on public bathroom doors, and thousands of emojis that take the place of entire sentences.

Why is this important? For one thing, God speaks in words, not with graphics, paintings, or symbols. His book is called the Word of God for a reason. This book is a result of God breathing or speaking truth into the hearts of human authors and also into the hearts of readers:

2 Peter 1:20–21. “First, no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”

2 Timothy 3:16–17. “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”

While written so we can read it, those who truly listen can testify that in the reading it often seems as if God is standing nearby saying those words. They are verbal and deeply affect the listener’s heart and life. He says:

Romans 10:17–18. “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed they have, for ‘Their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.’ ”

Those who hear Him speak are dramatically affected. For one thing, we repeat what we hear because hearing God and faith are like that — what we hear from God must be shared.

1 Thessalonians 1:8. “For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything.”

1 Corinthians 9:16. “For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!”

Not only did the words of God become printed pages and our Scriptures, the Word of God also became flesh and lived among us, our Emmanuel. He knows our propensity for the visual, our desire to see before we believe, so He gave us Himself in a form we could lay our eyes on and know that He is who He says He is.

John 1:1–3; 14. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made . . . . And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

1 John 1:1–3. “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us— that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.”

GAZE INTO HIS GLORY. God could have thundered His words from the sky or wrote them on the sides of mountains, but He did not do that. Instead, in love, He became one of us so we could see Him. He is no longer walking this earth, but He gave us Scriptures so we have a record of our creation, His dealings with us, and how we can have a rich and eternal relationship with Him. Our part? Read it and hear Him speak with intention to believe what He says.

Satan does much to humiliate God’s Word. His tactics put it on a shelf gathering dust so the owners have no idea that the God who made them is speaking to their deaf ears, revealing Himself and ready to change their lives. Like Samuel, how important to read it and say, “Lord, speak for your servant is listening.”