He watches over His Word…

The Lord said, “I am watching over My word to perform it. (Jer.1:12)

“For I the Lord will speak, and whatever word I speak will be performed.” (Ezek.12:25)

“Like apples of gold in settings of silver is a word spoken in right circumstances.” (Prov.25:11

The Hebrew word for “WORD” in these verses is Dabar (Strongs #H1697) The definition, is (Speech, word, subdue, speaking, promise, teach). When I go to the Bible (the word of God), I am assured that He is speaking to me through His word. Hebrews 4:12 says this: “The word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” So, in every situation we face in life, we know that the word of God is quick to answer, discerner of thoughts and the intentions of our heart. I’m reminded of the times I read the word and it cuts me to the core of my being. Or when we listen to a Pastor and you think he’s speaking directly at you? That’s the word of God piercing and dividing asunder of soul and spirit!

The word “Torah” (first five books of the bible) means, instructions, teaching, direction, guidance and law. The Hebraic definition of Torah is “a set of instructions, from a father to his children, violation of these instructions is disciplined in order to foster obedience and train his children.” Proverbs 1:18 says this, “Listen, my son, to your father’s instructions and do not forsake your mother’s teachings.” The bible is our daily instructions for life sent to us from our Father in heaven. But did you know, it was never God’s intention for man to live out of a book, nor was it ever meant for man to follow the teaching of other men? But rather out of daily communion with God Himself! This was His heart, and His plan all along.

His Plan From The Beginning:

If I can take you back to the beginning, when man met with God in the cool of the day. When the fellowship was sweet, and they had a one-to-one communication. The relationship was a personal one. Can you imagine able to talk with the creator on a one-to-one basis? In the beginning there was nothing that man would lack. Everything was provided by the father, and man trusted and loved God. And God said it was very good! Until the relationship changed, man fell, and sin entered this perfect union, and this right here was a turning point in His-Story! God’s desire has always been that mankind would have a daily communion with Him, to have a people that would hear His voice and know His ways. God knew beforehand the fall of man, knowing the end from the beginning. You might say, Why then did He continue with man, why didn’t He just start over? It says in Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a future and a hope.” Not only is God sovereign but He sees every decision that you ever made or ever will make plus the decisions you could have made, He sees them all. God has always provided man with a detour or access to a U-turn in the road you are traveling on.

But as the first man is concerned, God spoke and it was so, He never turns back from His word. In the beginning He said it was good, and His word never comes back void without accomplishing what it was sent out to do. This is why salvation was always in place even before the foundations of the world!

The Great I Am:

So, let us fast forward from Genesis to Exodus 3:14, Moses is asking God who shall I say you are when the people ask me your name? In which God replies, “I Am Who I Am” Thus you shall say to the children of Israel “I Am” has sent me to you. In this He was saying, I am the self-existent one, the one who is always present, there is no one in comparison, for there is No other God besides me. Egypt had many god’s but the one true God and He was about to show the people His power!

Now Moses goes to Pharaoh, and what did Pharaoh say? Exodus 5:1 “Who is the Lord that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord and I will not let Israel go.” He could not except that there was a God that was higher and greater than all his gods.

So as we read on in the book of Exodus chapter 14 verse 1-4 we read of Moses leading the people out of Egypt up towards the north and God tells Moses to make a U-turn and camp opposite of Baal Zephon! He will harden Pharaohs heart so he would go after them and not let the people go. I always wondered about this verse. I remember the verse that God can turn the heart of a king whichever He wishes. So my question was why didn’t He just turn the heart of Pharaoh? But looking at the Hebrew word for “harden” is the word “Chazaq” meaning strengthened, fasten upon, to seize, to fortify. In other words God only strengthened what was already in Pharaohs heart in the first place. As the scripture says, that God looks to and fro strengthening the hearts of those who truly are His. So whatever is in your heart He will strengthen!

Now up to this point God had destroyed every god that the Egyptians worshiped. Now the children of Israel face Baal Zephon with the Red Sea and the Egyptians behind them! Baal Zephon was a pagan god (god of the waters) in which the Egyptians sacrificed their babies to. So what did God do? He opened up the sea and allowed His people to pass on dry land and when that last child of God was just about on the other side, He closed up the sea again so the Egyptians drowned at their crossing. Pharaoh saw all this, that Moses did indeed served the true I Am!

God’s Mighty Voice:

Now we fast forward to Exodus 19, when the children of Israel were at Mount Sinai. This was the first Shavuot (Pentecost)! When God gave His commandment and spoke directly to His people. I have always pictured the movie “The Ten Commandments” I use to watch it every year. But really, when you read this it was not like the movie, for God told Moses to go down with the people, with Aaron and the priest and God would talk with them individually. The ancient writings in Hebrew would tell the story of how God spoke to the people in 70 different languages, 70 elders represented the 70 nations vrs 24. He spoke to the people in all of their languages with tongues of fire! Sounds familiar?

It must have been a sight for the people for they were so afraid. I can only imagine the fire, the cloud, the thunder and lightning, God’s mighty voice speaking. For God only gave them the ten commandments because in verse 18 they said to Moses “You speak to us and we will hear but let not God speak to us least we die!” The people was afraid, so they stood a far off but Moses drew near… Why was Moses not afraid yet the people were afraid to face the Lord? Because Moses drew near. This can be true with us all, we tend to back off and fear the presence of God when we are lost in our sins but when we draw near, God makes Himself known to us in such a beautiful way!

God sees the end from the beginning, and right here is another turning point in His-Story. For up to this time God would speak to His people as of all the patriarchs in the past but now, God listens to the voice of the people who says “Do not let God speak to us!” For they were afraid of His voice, I was thinking about this after I read these verses and thought of my own children. We sometimes come to that point where they don’t want to hear the voice of their parents or they tend to drift away not wanting to talk to you as much as they use to, it can be heart breaking at times and I’m sure this was just as heart breaking to God. For He knew that someday His voice will not be heard or even desired by the people. The scriptures say That He stretches out His arms day in and day out to a rebellious people, for they do not even know His name. (Isaiah 65:2)

So here at this point in time He preserved His Word by giving the Torah! Shavuot is a feast day in remembrance of the giving of the Torah! Its interesting to note that on this first Pentecost when the Law was given with tongues of fire, 3000 people perished on account of the golden calf! But after Yeshua rose and ascended the day of Pentecost came and Holy Spirit was given with tongues of fire and 3000 souls were saved! It’s also important to note that after this God would only select a few to speak on behalf of God, these were called prophets. No longer would He speak to all of His people, for God watches over His word to perform it.

He Preserves His Word:

So now lets fast forward to the Babylon Captivity, this was after the destruction of the Temple and the children of Israel could not hold true to the appointed times of the Lord. So they were led into captivity, this is where the oral Torah began where the people spoke the word to their sons and daughters. There is a tradition at Passover called Hagada…which means “the telling.” This is how Israel preserved the word from one generation to the next! Ezra and Nehemiah in the ancient books were one volume, one book because this was a very important part of history to the Jews.

Cyrus was far from being a believer he was a pagan King. Yet God watches over His word to perform it! Cyrus allowed the children of Israel to go back to their home land and rebuild the Temple and the walls of Jerusalem! Nehemiah wanted to preserve the word of God and told Ezra the priest to read the Torah in front of the congregation and as he read the law they wept! Here was another turning point in His-Story. Because from the time of Nehemiah to this very day, every Jew on every Shabbat reads a portion of Torah, from New York to California to Russia to Jerusalem, they read the same portion of scripture. In the Hebrew it’s called “Parasha” the weeks Portion of the reading of Torah. The Torah is taken out and given to be read out loud by someone from the congregation. This is a way that the Jews remain plugged in and kept the law and the Torah. This was started by Nehemiah and kept to this day.

His Word Fulfilled Through Christ:

Luke 4:16-21 we read Yashua at the synagogue and he was picked to read the Parasha for that week. And He says; “today this parasha is fulfilled in your hearing!” Something really interesting to note is the period between the old testament and the new testament is 400 years, considered to be the silent years. Now how long was the children of Israel held as slaves in Egypt? 430 years in a land that was not theirs. Here Yashua (Jesus) was 30 years old when He read this out loud for all to witness. He was declaring their freedom from sin and captivity of slavery of this nature into a newness of life through Him! But His people did not listen, they did not realize that He was the Torah, He is the Word that was made flesh! John 1:1 says: “In the beginning was the word (Hebrew, “Debar”, Logos in the Greek) and the Word was with God and the Word WAS God!”

Yashua (Jesus) says when you see me, you see the Father. He also said whatever I say is not my own initiative but the words of my Father in heaven. Hebrews 1:3 says that Jesus is the exact representation of God’s nature. He is God’s Spoken Word made flesh! Wow, when we really get that into our own spirit, we will understand God’s desire for man was not to live by a book, but out of depth of fellowship daily and continually, to hear the voice of God in our own lives. In Christ He made a way for us to come back to fellowship with Him through Yashua. And now it’s all about the summing up of all things unto Christ. Ephesians 1:9-11 That someday in the fullness when He completes His purpose to unite all things in heaven and on earth in Him who paid the price for sins. This is the final turning point in His-Story, when He sums all things up and brings all things back to its original order from the beginning, for He watches over His word to perform it in you and I.. How wonderful to know God who knew all things spoke redemption into place so that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ.

In Conclusion:

I hope you can see through out this study God’s great Love for mankind and that because He watches over His word through out history we can obtain the inheritance being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to His will. (Ephesians 1:11) You can now enter into His presence without fear and truly know His voice. From the beginning His purpose throughout history was not to create a perfect world, but to perfect us His imperfect people, so that we could be worthy to spend eternity with a Holy and perfect God!

Shalom