This summer I’ve taken the challenge to read through the Bible in 90 days. I’ve also added to it the challenge to listen to the Bible in that time. I’m finding it interesting what listening to the Word adds to my experience. I tend to be a pretty visual guy, needing to and wanting to see something. I like to read things because I can mark them up and write on them and go back and re-read them. I also love to listen. I love hearing good preaching and I’m a fan of most types of music. But this summer I’m being reminded of how important it is to listen to the Word.
In a very practical sense, the Bible was written mostly to an aural culture. The Word was originally communicated through retelling the stories. The people would gather and listen to the Word as it was read to them. Individual households didn’t have books and scrolls. Most people weren’t literate as we think of it. They listened to the Word. How blessed we are that we can have our own personal copies of Scripture. In my house we have numerous translations of the Scripture, a Hebrew Old Testament, a Greek New Testament, numerous children’s’ versions, and on and on. How blessed we are to have so many ways to encounter the rich words of Scripture. But sometimes I forget that it’s good to hear it, too. And so this summer I’m falling in love with just hearing the Word of God. I’m catching things that I often miss when I read it.
But more than that, in a deeper sense, as I listen to the Word I keep hearing phrases like “they did not listen to God” or “they turned away from God and ignored His voice”. I currently have a CD of the Bible playing on my computer and I just finished listening to the book of Judges. In the corner of my screen it displays the author/composer of the music or story that plays on the screen. So on my screen was this little phrase: composer – GOD. What a great reminder that I’m not just listening to stories about people or listening to laws from long ago. I’m listening to the very Word of God. I don’t want to be like the Israelites who listened and then forgot, or who refused to listen. I don’t want to be stiff-necked or hard-of-heart. I want to be sensitive to what God would communicate to me. I don’t just want information, or even just inspiration. I want transformation. I want the Word of God to be part of me, living inside me, steering me in the paths of righteousness.
Fitz – I agree that listening to God’s word can add a powerful dimension. I recently used a dramatized audio version of the book of Philemon with my SG. First, I shared the high points of a modern day scenario based on the people and events in Philemon. The names were changed to disguise the true story. The group members heard me describe the situation and they were outraged that the “letter writer” would be so arrogant and insensitive, while the “offender” should have had the guts to reconcile on his own. Later, after finding out that Paul was the letter writer and the offender was a runaway slave, they started to think differently. When they heard the compassion and love in Paul’s voice (dramatized audio) they began to really understand his motivation. The discussion time was great. It opened up so many personal applications of this somewhat quirky little book tucked away at the end of the NT. As a SG leader it was a high point for me to “listen” to the sound of minds and hearts making new discoveries.