The Word of the Lord and the Knowledge of God
John Kitchen
Jesus, addressing his Father, said the essence of eternal life is that “they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3, ESV). How does that knowledge increase in a believer’s life? How do we grow in our knowledge of God?
Consider the witness of the prophet Ezekiel. Forty-nine times in his prophecy we are confronted with the expression “The word of the Lord came to me.” Elsewhere in the Bible, the phrase is found ten times in Jeremiah and then only three other times. Clearly, Ezekiel’s entire life and existence was bound up under this controlling encounter. This simple, but oft-repeated line, tells us he was a man defined and controlled by revelation (“the word of”), living under authority (“of the LORD”), by grace (“came to me”), and that this was profoundly personal (“to me”) in its implications.
The coming of God’s word as revelation.
Why did God use words to reveal himself? Is this why he was so set against “images”? God has set himself before us not primarily through visions and dreams but through words. He did not have to reveal himself at all. Yet he has. And he chose to do it through words of propositional truth and divinely guaranteed promises. This is one reason for the enduring relevance of Biblical religion. God used words to pronounce woe and doom and judgement over the surrounding nations (Ezek. 25ff; cf. Isaiah 13-23, Jeremiah 46-51). Except for Egypt, none of those nations exist today. Yet Israel does. Those nations received God’s word of judgment. Israel received God’s promise.
The coming of God’s word with authority.
This is not just any “word”; it is the word “of the LORD.” Yahweh, the self-existing, independent, non-contingent, eternal, covenant-making, covenant-keeping God, has spoken. His voice brought into existence everything we know. Now he has addressed “me”! There has never been and never will be words like his. I must listen.
The coming of God’s word in grace.
These words, Ezekiel testifies, “came to me.” They have arrived at my ear by grace, entirely by divine initiative. I did not ask for them. I didn’t seek them. I wasn’t expecting or listening for them. I did not know they existed. I didn’t think of this as a possibility. God took gracious initiative. I was going along, doing my own thing, and God interrupted me; God broke in on me with his “word.” I am an object of and a debtor to his gracious initiative.
The coming of God’s word personally.
All this came “to me.” Not simply to us, but to “me.” I cannot farm out any resulting responsibility; it falls upon me. When “the word of the Lord” comes to you, you are, from that moment and by that “word,” an owned man or woman. You have at that moment lost all personal will. You are a captive. A glad captive but a prisoner, nonetheless. You suddenly stand in light you did not know existed before that moment. You see in a way you never saw before. You have heard and can’t unhear. When “the word of the LORD” comes to you, you are from that moment gripped and held captive to “the LORD” who has spoken. There exist no chains, shackles, zip ties, prison walls, or contracts that could hold you more securely than this “word.” You are owned.
Indeed, “the word of the LORD came to me” is the controlling tagline for Ezekiel’s life. The phrase speaks of historical encounters. It occurred again and again in specific moments. By each experience, he was immediately constrained and restrained by “the word of the LORD.” It was a past event that of necessity governed and controlled his present and future moments.
The Knowledge of God
Yet this is not the most frequent line in Ezekiel’s prophecy. Even more frequently we are confronted with the repeated demand that those who hear that word “will know that I am the LORD.” This occurs seventy-two times in Ezekiel. It speaks of the effect that the fulfillment of God’s word through Ezekiel would have on those who had heard him. Each occurrence of the expression pointed to a future event. When “the word of the LORD” that came to Ezekiel (and which he then obediently spoke) came to pass, then those who heard him would “know that I am the LORD.”
That “the word of the LORD came to me” is a report of a personal encounter. It is a report of revelation given. But the promise that the hearers “will know that I am the LORD” is a divine guarantee about what will come of that revelation and those to whom it has been made known. When God speaks, it can’t not happen. When it does, those who heard it will later realize they missed the boat; they should have listened.
“The word of the LORD came to me” is the moment for listening. “You will know that I am the LORD” is the moment of reckoning.
When “the word of the LORD came to” Ezekiel, he listened. When he spoke the Lord’s word to the people, they didn’t. Ezekiel already knew the Lord. His listeners didn’t. But their unwillingness to hear did not lessen the effective power of God’s word. It would come to pass, and then they would come clearly to know the identity of him who had spoken through the prophet.
God is known through his word. If he is not known when it is spoken, he will be known through the fulfillment of his word. But by then, it may be too late. There is no more hopeful moment than when God speaks his word with Spirit-given illumination and understanding. At the same time, there is no more dangerous moment than when God speaks his word. When God speaks, everything hangs in the balance.
So, go open your Bible. Bow your head. Ask the Author of this book for light as you read. And “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts” (Psalm 95:7b-8a; Heb. 3:7, 15; 4:7). Then go live in confidence of that word’s authority and surety. May God thus mercifully lead us ever deeper into the eternal life that is found in a growing knowledge of him.
A final encouragement from A.W. Tozer,
Remember that the Spirit of God inspired the Word and He will be revealed in the Word. I really have no place in my sympathies for those Christians who neglect the Word or ignore the Word or get revelations apart from the Word. This is the Book of God, after all, and if we know the Book well enough, we will have an answer to every problem in the world . . . The Holy Ghost wrote the Word, and if you make much of the Word, He will make much of you. It is through the Word that He reveals Himself. Between those covers is a living Book. God wrote it and it is still vital and effective and alive. God is in this Book, the Holy Ghost is in this Book, and if you want to find Him, go into this Book [1].
John Kitchen - International Church - Middle East
[1] A.W. Tozer, The Tozer Pulpit (Camp Hill, PA: Christian Publications, 1968), 2:116-117.