A Word About Words
In private conversations that took place during the
2008 presidential campaign, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid
referred to then-candidate Barack Obama as a "light-skinned" black
man "with no Negro dialect unless he wanted to have one." His
comments were quoted in "Game Change", a recently
published book about the
2008 campaign. Reid apologized for "using such a poor choice of
words." The President accepted his apology.
Reid’s poor choice of words is a teachable moment
that has absolutely nothing to do with any alleged attitude
regarding race. It has every thing to do with the importance of
words and how we employ them in our daily lives. Words mean things!
They can be a means of blessing or come back to bite us!
The Word of God is a virtual encyclopedia on the
subject of “words.” The plural form occurs 548 times in the KJV.
Among them are the words that God speaks to man, the words spoken by
men to God, and those spoken by men to other men. Let’s consider a
few of its usages.
Atop the list are references to scripture. David
said: “The words of the Lord are pure words: as silver tried in a
furnace of earth, purified seven times” (Psalm 12:6). The word
pure signifies no admixture of error. The silver metaphor
stresses the absence of impurity. The words of the Lord are an
extension of his holy character! And because they are impeccably
pure, they shall be eternally preserved (Psalm 12:7; Mark 13:31). No
sinner is at risk who stakes his or her eternal destiny upon the
veracity of those words!
The words of God serve as our primary source of
spiritual enlightenment. Again, David writes: “The entrance of
thy words giveth light” (Psalm 119:130). The word entrance
conveys the idea of a declaration or an unfolding that is clear and
precise in its presentation. For three years Peter lived
twenty-four/seven under the influence of those light-giving words.
On a day when DINO’s (Disciples In Name Only) were abandoning his
ministry, our Lord asked the twelve: “Will ye also go away?”
(John 6:67). Peter responded: “Lord, to whom shall we go? thou
hast the words of eternal life” (6:68). Peter’s rejoinder
teaches us that (1) the blue-collar believer is capable of profound
spiritual insight, and (2) the Bible is the only book on the planet
with these kinds of words!
The scriptures teach us that contempt for the words
of God is at the core of spiritual rebellion. According to the
Psalmist, those who sit in darkness do so because “they
rebelled against the words of God, and contemned the counsel of the
most High” (Psalm 107:10-11). The Lord through Asaph likewise
rebuked the wicked ones that “hatest instruction, and
casteth my words behind them” (Psalm 50 17). It may sound
simplistic, but the single determining factor in one’s eternal
destiny comes down to how he or she responds to words...God’s words!
There are several contexts in which words are
directly related to prayer. Mark 14:32-39 relates the experience of
Jesus in Gethsemane on crucifixion eve. His soul was exceeding
sorrowful as he anticipated the coming trauma as our sin
offering. With his will yielded to the Father, he explored the
possibility that the cup of suffering might be taken away. He
returned to find the disciples sleeping, and “again he went away,
and prayed, and spake the same words” (14:39). His repetition of
words is evidence of a laser-like focus upon the task at hand as
opposed to some shallow tactic to gain the Father’s ear (Matthew
6:7). It teaches us that the repetition of words in prayer is never
a vain exercise when coupled with surrender to the will of God.
God’s spokesman Hosea issued the following prayer
invitation to a backslidden Israel: “O Israel, return unto the
Lord thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. Take with you
words, and turn to the Lord” (14:1-2). Those words were
to include a petition to take away their sins and receive them
graciously. The prophet told them what to expect if they approached
the Lord with such heart-felt words: “I will heal their
backsliding, I will love them freely; for mine anger is turned away
from him” (14:4). There’s only one thing that prevents a
backslidden child of God from experiencing deliverance and renewed
freedom in the Lord Jesus—a lack of the right words!
The interaction between Moses and brother Aaron
teaches us that words can have a stewardship (Exodus 4:27-31). The
Lord instructed Aaron to go into the wilderness to meet Moses at the
mount of God, where Moses told Aaron all the words of the
Lord. They gathered the elders of Israel together, and Aaron spoke
all the words that the Lord had spoken unto Moses. There was
a sacred chain of custody. Moses got words from God. Aaron got them
from Moses. The elders got them from Aaron. It was critical that the
words given by God were the exact words heard by the elders. The
stewardship of words has many applications, but none is greater than
that of the man of God whose job it is to study the words of God
diligently and preach them with exactitude!
Words play a vital role
in our lives. Whether we’re studying the Word of God, engaging in
prayer, or interacting with others, we are dealing with and handing
words! May the Lord enable us to place the proper value on those
words in every aspect of our lives!
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