IT IS RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU
The Word Forgotten
There was a woman named Athaliah who was about as bad as they come. Because when she saw that her son, the King of Judah, had been murdered, she tried to kill off the rest of her family so that she could rule the country alone. She succeeded in murdering all of her relatives except one of her infant grandchildren named Joash. A priest named Jehoiada had hidden Joash in the temple of God and for six years that’s where he stayed. After that those six years had passed, Jehoiada the priest rallied the country behind Joash, placed this last grandson of Athaliah on the throne, executed Athaliah for her wickedness, and continued to raise Joash in the Word of the Lord. In fact, as long as the priest Jehoiada lived, Joash remained a believer and faithfully carried out God’s will according to his Word. But you now know what happened after Jehoiada died: Joash almost immediately forgot the Word of God and, consequently, fell away from the faith. And when Jehoiada’s son, Zechariah, confronted the king with the Word of God, Joash murdered him right there in the temple. And we wonder: How could that have happened? How could he have murdered the son of the man who had saved his life? How could Joash have forgotten the Word of God so quickly? He had been trained in it! He had been raised by it! It was right there in front of him and he threw it away!
Centuries later, long after Joash had lived and died, long after the Assyrians had come and destroyed the northern land of Israel, long after the Babylonians had come and decimated the southern land of Judah, even after a group of God’s people were allowed to go back to the Promised Land from their exile in Babylon, another man named Zechariah was sent to the people. This Zechariah was a prophet, not a priest, but he too preached the Word of God. And in his book of “Zechariah” near the end of the Old Testament, there are perhaps more gospel promises per chapter than in any other prophetic book of Scripture. He certainly preached the law too, of course, but the 14 chapters of his book are so rich in gospel proclamations that it can only be paralleled by Isaiah and the Psalms. But you now know what happened to this Zechariah too: Jesus mentions that he was murdered by the leaders of the people between the altar and the Holy Place of the temple. How could that have happened? Zechariah spoke such wonderful words about the grace of God and what he would do for their salvation! Zechariah’s message was largely one of hope and peace and deliverance! How could the leaders of God’s people murder someone like that? They killed Zechariah the prophet for the same reason they had killed Zechariah the priest 300 years before: they had forgotten the Word of God that had been preached to them. They had forgotten it even though it was right in front of them. And ironically, in the middle of the book of Zechariah the Lord warned them of that very thing so that they would not do it again:
The word of the LORD came again to Zechariah: “This is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor. In your hearts do not think evil of each other.’ But they refused to pay attention; stubbornly they turned their backs and stopped up their ears. They made their hearts as hard as flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the LORD Almighty had sent by his Spirit through the earlier prophets. So the LORD Almighty was very angry. ‘When he called, they did not listen; so when they called, I would not listen,’ says the LORD Almighty. ‘I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations, where they were strangers. The land was left so desolate behind them that no one could come or go. This is how they made the pleasant land desolate.’”
The Lord had warned them through the prophet Zechariah about what had happened to them in the past: they had once been driven away from the land of their forefathers because they had refused to listen to the Word. They had once been forced to live in different countries that they were not familiar with because they had rejected the Word. They had come back to a homeland years later that had been devastated by armies and was still wallowing in the after-effects of war because they had forgotten his Word. And the Lord did not want that to happen again. The Word of God was right in front of them; he did not want them to give it up as they had before. Unfortunately for Zechariah, they did.
The Word Ignored
We have the Word right in front of us too. And not just here. Not just right now this morning as we sit in the middle of a worship service. Not only do we have the Word right in front of us in a weekly sermon and Scripture lessons and in the hymns and psalms and songs and Bible studies; we have the Word of God right in front of us in our own homes every day. I made a quick count the other day of the number of Bibles we had in our house - different translations, different languages, kids’ Bibles, etc. And by my estimate we have at least 18 different Bibles! And that’s not counting the number of children’s books we have that tell only one story of the Bible. That’s not counting the commentaries and the volumes of dogmatics books and the lexicons and the catechisms and the hymnals and the publications and the devotions books that are in my office that utilize Scripture on every page. 18 different versions of the Bible! And although you might not have 18 Bibles in your home, I’m sure you have at least a few. Your own personal Bible, another one you picked up years ago, an Old King James version that was handed down to you by your mother… No matter how many Bibles you have in your house, you have access to at least one Bible 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. And even if you didn’t, even if you didn’t have a physical Bible in your home right now, we have plenty of them right here. Or you can go to the internet and find dozens and dozens of different translations that you can read through for free in hundreds of different languages. We have the Word of God right in front of us like no other nation of people has ever had before. It is available; it is in our common language; it is freely distributed without restrictions. Very rarely have all three factors happened at the same time. But they are happening right now in this country. We have the Word. And we can have it any time we want.
How often do we take advantage of that? Yes, we have weekly worship opportunities here each Sunday as well as five different Bible classes each week. But we also have the chance to visit God’s Word on our own every morning and every night, when we’re sad, sick, lonely, afraid, angry, frustrated, worried, happy, thankful, and during every other emotion that we might run across in a given week. Do we run to the Word every chance we get or do we simply dabble in the Word - and only as long as it’s not inconvenient at the time? Do we relish those moments spent one on one with the Holy Spirit or do we oftentimes pass up those invitations to do something else? Do we use the Word to guide what we say and the decisions we make or is God’s Word an afterthought because we don’t consider it as having a whole lot of application for our day to day lives anyway?
Maybe we need the same warning that God’s Old Testament people did during the time of Zechariah the prophet: when we ignore God’s Word, when we push it aside for other activities, when we refuse to listen to its directives or put it into practice, when we fail to give it the priority it’s due, our lives will suffer for it. And not only will we struggle on this earth more than we need to, the Lord will be angry too! The Lord is actually angry when we bypass his Word! The Lord is furious when his Word is looked over or left unopened because of busy schedules or skewed priorities. The Lord is livid when his own people don’t take full advantage of his powerful Word that is readily available to them at all times! The Word of God contained in Scripture is how God speaks to us. This is how God instructs us and teaches us and comforts us and informs us. And he can’t stand it when his Word is not as important to us as it should be.
The Word Given
Back when Zechariah the priest was murdered by King Joash for preaching the Word, when the leaders refused to listen to the Word, when the entire nation forgot the Word, what did the Lord do? He didn’t take the Word away; instead he gave the Word to them again. The very next king was brought to faith in his Savior through the Word of God. Another prophet was sent to the people to proclaim the Word of God. And for the next few centuries, prophet after prophet was sent with the Word of God to the people, through good kings and bad, whether in the Promised Land or in exile, to tell God’s people what God wanted them to know. The Lord did not give up. He did not hold his Word back. And even after Zechariah the prophet was killed many years later, the Lord still sent more prophets to his people. And not only prophets, but his own Son as well. Despite the rejection of his Word throughout the centuries, God kept his Word and sent Jesus. Because he refused to give up on his people. He was determined to demonstrate his love. And he still does so now.
No matter how many times we have ignored his Word, no matter how many times we have disregarded his Word or underappreciated his Word or blatantly avoided his Word in the past, he still has not taken it away. He has preserved for us the revealing and life-giving words of the cross. He has provided us with the comforting and incredible words of Jesus’ resurrection. He has supplied us with the powerful and effective words of the Holy Spirit. He has presented to us the encouraging words and the gracious words of our full and complete forgiveness as well as the guarantee of a heavenly home. Our Lord has not taken that away from us! Instead, he has showered us with his Word even more! Instead of pulling back in anger he reaches out in love! And he multiplies the ways in which we can be connected with his Word. Because this is it! His Word is the only way we can ever be forgiven or comforted or reassured of what he has done. His Word, read on a page, heard in a voice, felt in the waters of baptism, or tasted in the meal of the Lord’ Supper, is our salvation. And the Lord gives it to us - free of charge. And he will continue to give us his Word in all of these ways as long as there are souls to feed and hearts to sway.
The Word Used
Drink this Word up. Dive into this Word. Immerse yourself in this Word to such an extent that you saturated with it. There is nothing more important than God’s Word. Your own health is not as important as God’s Word. Your own family is not as important as God’s Word. The basic necessities of life are not as important as God’s Word. Of course, God’s Word encourages us to love our families and take care of our bodies and provide for ourselves what we need on this earth. And so all of those other important aspects of our lives will be taken care of through that Word of God. But nothing should replace that Word in the top spot.
There is nothing better I could encourage you to do than to read the Word, study the Word, sing the Word, hear the Word, live in the Word. As your pastor, as your brother in Christ, as your Christian friend, I desperately want you to find your way into the Word as deep as you can go. I want nothing more than to have your heart filled with the salvation that comes through faith in Christ so much that it permeates your words and your actions and your very being. I want you to be so solid on the foundation of your Savior that no temptation, no deception, no attack from the devil will ever be able to knock you down. But that can only happen we you are firmly grounded in the Word of God. Hold on tight. You cannot read it too much. You cannot study it, sing it, or hear it too often. It is your strength, your peace, your calm. It means everything in this life and in the next life. And it is right in front of you. Grab it. Open it up. And do not let it go.
Amen.
“Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.” - 2 Peter 3:18
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