“Torah (law) is God’s words that hit the target of the human condition. The noun torah comes from a verb, yarah, that means to throw something, a javelin, say, so that it hits its mark. The word that hits its mark is torah. In living speech, words are javelins hurled from one mind into another. The javelin word goes out of one person and pierces another. Not all words are javelins; some are tin cans, carrying information from one place to another. But God’s word has this aimed, intentional, personal nature. When we are spoken to in this way, piercingly and penetratingly, we are not the same. These words get inside us and work their meaning in us.”
(Eugene Peterson, ‘Answering God’ P 25)
Living words – javelins soaked in truth,
Hurled forth from eternity by a loving God,
Stopping us dead in our tracks.
Piercing us with the tip of truth,
Reaching our inmost parts,
Dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow.
These words cut like the surgeon’s scalpel,
Incisively, penetratingly,
Exposing the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
Like a sword, they cut deep, bringing forth the
Jolt of pain and shock as blood spurts out.
Our instinctive reaction is to gasp, winded.
We try to staunch the flow of blood with sticking-plasters:
Well-meaning phrases of comfort designed to mask our true selves,
Aimed at placation, not restoration,
Failing to understand that the clotting agent of comfort is provided
Only by the Holy Spirit,
Not by our refusal to treat the problem wisely.
Winded, gasping, rigid with the pain of truth searing into our bloodstreams,
Our veneer of respectability stripped by the word of truth,
We stand naked, defenceless, cowering, quivering,
Anticipating the final blows of the triumphant warrior.
Instead, we find the gentle healing of the surgeon,
removing the cancer,
cleansing with hyssop,
sewing us together with practised skill.
How we need Your word!
“For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” (Heb 4:12-13)
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