Hearing the Word

By Cal Cook

When I think of how many times I have read a passage and discovered something new it boggles my mind! It’s almost as if I have never read it before, yet I can remember reading it and receiving insight from it before? Am I slow or forgetful, or is this how the Holy Spirit works within us?

As I read the scriptures this week I’m reminded of how many times we do forget…or turn away from the word of the Lord. Certainly the Israelite people serve as an example of our own hearts. Nehemiah and Ezra serve as the conduit to remind the people of the Law and their own history. The Bible tells us that the people wept as the book of the Law was read…maybe because they were reminded of their forgetfulness.

I’m not sure what it is about the human heart that causes us to be forgetful but we certainly need to be reminded again and again! Maybe that’s how and why the Holy Spirit speaks to us differently each time we read a passage? He reminds us of how we have failed to keep the Word from the last time we read it. Not in a condemning way (like we would do) but as a gentle reminder of what we have been missing. Encouraging us to take this new revelation and live it out again…and again, and again.

Today as I read the passage from Luke 4:14-21 I was reminded of how Jesus reads from the scroll of Isaiah the prophet and then stops mid-sentence.

Isaiah 61:2-3 to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion—to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.

Now of course during the time of Jesus they did not have the chapters and verses numbered so that really is irrelevant. Although I am not fluent in Greek or Hebrew it is obvious that the declaration in Isaiah 61 goes on to say:

Isaiah 61:2-3 He has sent me to tell those who mourn that the time of the LORD’s favor has come and with it, the day of God’s anger against their enemies. To all who mourn in Israel, he will give a crown of beauty for ashes, a joyous blessing instead of mourning, festive praise instead of despair. In their righteousness, they will be like great oaks that the LORD has planted for his own glory.

Jesus knows full well the destruction awaiting Jerusalem as He tells the Disciples about the stones of the Temple:

Luke 21:6 "As for what you see here, the time will come when not one stone will be left on another; every one of them will be thrown down."

So what we learn from the passage that Jesus reads in the Synagogue in Nazareth is that Scripture in itself has a slow revealing to it. Of the first part of the passage Jesus says, “The Scripture you’ve just heard has been fulfilled this very day!” Yet obviously not the rest! The day of God’s anger has not come yet…vengeance is yet to be fulfilled!

So just as scripture is revealed in our personal lives, speaking to us differently according to our needs at the time, it is also revealed to the whole world in waves of fulfillment. Some partial some full, some with huge gaps in between them and some in rapid succession.

The Word of God is alive and active in the hearts and minds of His followers. Hearing the Word brings revelation after revelation if we are only willing to receive them in faith…are you listening?