To the Law and to the Testimony
SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus
Introduction: What I would like to do this morning is not exactly expository preaching but rather what is called in seminary, “Biblical theology,” as opposed to “Systematic theology.” In Systematic theology the Bible student gathers all the material available from Genesis to Revelation on a particular doctrinal issue and systematizes it. For example, he may take the subject of Heaven or the Holy Spirit or sin, and work toward presenting a complete analysis of that topic.
In Biblical theology, on the other hand, the scope is more limited. It is generally restricted to a particular book of the Bible or a specific author’s viewpoint. For example, one might study the concept of love in 1 John, or Paul’s view of marriage and divorce, or the principles of parenting in Proverbs.
Today I want us to do a Biblical theology of Isaiah’s view of the Word of God. Not that Isaiah’s view of God’s Word is any different from or opposed to the view of the other biblical authors. It is not. But I believe it will be helpful as we spend the coming weeks and months in this great prophetic book, to see and understand the implicit faith this prophet had in the Word of the Lord.
Of course, the Word of God comes to us in a different form than it came to Isaiah. For him it was direct revelation; for us it is indirect, written revelation. Therefore, one of the first things we need to do is to establish the connection between the Word of the Lord which Isaiah talks about and the Word of the Lord which we hold in our hands. Then we will examine some principles about the Word which Isaiah taught and which should impact our own lives.
The relationship between the word of the prophet and the Word of the Lord.
The question we are asking here is simply this: When a prophet spoke, in what sense was that a Word from the Lord? To answer that question, we need to notice first that …
The prophet claimed to speak for God. That was the essence of the prophetic office. A prophet was a spokesperson, one who claimed direct contact with God and who relayed the information he received to those who did not have such direct contact. Of course, there have always been false prophets, as well as true ones—those who claimed to speak for God, but were actually deluded, or were even spokesmen for Satan. Therefore, in our next three points we restrict our attention to the true prophet.
The true prophet’s message originated with God. (2 Peter 1:20-21) For him it was not just an idle claim, a figment of his imagination or a strong delusion. It was true that his message came from God. Let’s turn to 2 Peter 1:20 and see what light the Apostle offers regarding the true prophet. “But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture becomes a matter of someone’s own interpretation,for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.”
Several things need to be clarified about these verses, because they are difficult to understand in our English Bibles. First of all, the word “prophecy” here does not mean a prediction of the future, but rather is being used in the more general sense of a proclamation or revelation. I think it is even legitimate to translate it that way. “No Scriptural revelation is a matter of one’s own interpretation.”
The second point that needs to be clarified is that this verse is not telling us that the lay person shouldn’t try to interpret Scripture himself. The Catholic church for centuries used this verse to keep their people from Bible study, alleging that Peter here forbids the laity to interpret Scripture and leaves that task up to the church hierarchy. But the original Greek makes it clear that the interpreting here is not the reader’s but the prophet’s. In fact, the term “interpretation” really means “unraveling.” What Peter is saying is that when a prophet of God gave a Scriptural revelation, it wasn’t the result of his own unraveling of the truth; the prophet didn’t originate the message. As though to emphasize that fact he goes on to say, “for no prophecy (i.e., no true prophecy) was evermade by an act of human will.” In other words, no true prophet of God said to himself, “I think I’ll give a prophecy!” or “I think I’ll write some Scripture.”
No, it goes on, what happened is that “men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.” When a prophet shared a revelation, either spoken or written, it was because the Holy Spirit moved him to do so and the content came from God.
And that brings us to the next point, namely that
The true prophet’s message was protected from error by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The word “inspiration” is found only in 2 Timothy 3:16, where it says that “all Scripture is given by inspiration of God.” It means literally that all Scripture is “breathed out by God.” But though the term “inspiration” is not found in 2 Peter 1, the means of inspiration is given there, namely that the Holy Spirit “moved” the prophets, the authors of Scripture. The term translated “moved” is a nautical term used of a ship being borne along by the wind. When the wind moves a ship, it doesn’t change the ship; it doesn’t affect the cargo; it just directs the ship. So also, the Holy Spirit in moving the prophets and apostles didn’t change their character or their educational level or their personal style. He simply directed them toward the truth so that they would not make mistakes when they spoke or wrote the message of God. The result was that the true prophet’s message could be trusted implicitly. Which brings us to our fourth point:
The true prophet’s message was vindicated and validated in history. (Deut. 18:20-22). In Deuteronomy 18 the major distinction between the true prophet and the false prophet is given.
“But the prophet who speaks a word presumptuously in My name, a word which I have not commanded him to speak, or which he speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.’ 21 And if you say in your heart, ‘How will we recognize the word which the Lord has not spoken?’ 22 When the prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, and the thing does not happen or come true, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you are not to be afraid of him.”
In other words, the difference between a true prophet and a false prophet is that the true prophet’s message is always vindicated in history, whereas the false prophet blows a few, maybe a lot! I can say on the authority of this passage that Jean Dixon is not, and never was, a prophet from God, for though she turned out to be right on a few unusual predictions, she missed on many more. And if she only missed once she would eliminate herself as a prophet of the Lord.
So, what have we established? I believe we have established that the word of a true prophet is identical to a word from the Lord. It originated from God, it was protected from error by the Holy Spirit, and it came to pass just as it was spoken.
But there’s another matter we must touch upon, and that is the relationship between the Word of the Lord and the Bible.
The relationship between the Word of the Lord and the Bible.
There’s an awful lot of fuzzy thinking going on in this area in theological circles today. Some are suggesting that the Bible contains a word from the Lord, but it is just one of many witnesses to His truth, along with other holy books, good literature and even fine music. Others are saying that the Bible becomes the Word of God as it impacts one’s life at a particular point. So, in essence, Isaiah 8 may be the Word of the Lord for me today, but not necessarily tomorrow. Or it may be the Word of the Lord for me, but not for you. Still others are suggesting that the Bible is just a good book with a lot of lofty human wisdom. We should take it seriously, but not too seriously.
In evaluating the relationship between the Word of the Lord and the Bible, we need to start by recognizing that …
Not every “word of the Lord” is incorporated in the Bible. And please listen carefully as I explain. The prophets and apostles spoke many messages from God that didn’t make it into our Bibles, because God did not deem them necessary for our salvation or spiritual growth. In addition, we must acknowledge that the Lord may speak to any one of us in our daily devotions, but such a “word of the Lord” to us is not in the Bible. (It must, of course, not be contrary to the Bible, for God doesn’t contradict Himself).
However, even though not every word of the Lord is incorporated in the Bible, every word in the Bible is a word from the Lord.
But every word in the Bible is a Word from the Lord. (2 Tim. 3:16). “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable.” In some passages God is speaking directly; in others He speaks indirectly through His spokesmen; in still others, an individual or even Satan speaks something contrary to God, but even there the record of what is spoken is given to us by God as something we need to know, and in that sense, it is a word from the Lord.
Now a third fact we must take into consideration is that …
The same degree of authority and accuracy ascribed to the prophet’s spoken words was ascribed by Christ to the written Word. (Matt. 5:18). When Isaiah or any of the other prophets of God spoke, they spoke with God’s authority and they promised sanctions on those who disobeyed their word. The people ignored them only at great peril to themselves. Consider Moses’ words in Deut. 30:15-20:
“See, I have placed before you today life and happiness, and death and adversity, 16 in that I am commanding you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, so that you may live and become numerous, and that the Lord your God may bless you in the land where you are entering to take possession of it. 17 But if your heart turns away and you will not obey, but allow yourself to be led astray and you worship other gods and serve them, 18 I declare to you today that you will certainly perish. You will not prolong your days in the land where you are crossing the Jordan to enter and take possession of it. 19 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have placed before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, 20 by loving the Lord your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding close to Him; for this is your life and the length of your days, so that you may live in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.”
The important thing I want us to understand is that the same authority that attached to the spoken words of Moses or Isaiah should be ascribed by us to the entire written Word of God, the Bible. For Jesus said in His great Sermon on the Mount, “Until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass away from the Law until all is accomplished.” The reference to the smallest letter or stroke of the Hebrew alphabet makes sense only if Jesus was ascribing allegiance to the written word of God. So just as we would have been obligated to obey the words of Moses or Isaiah had we been standing there when they spoke to the people of Israel, so are we obligated to obey the written word of God.
One more statement should complete our train of thought.
We believe that God completed His normative revelation for the church when the last book of the New Testament was written. I prefaced that statement with the words, “we believe,” because this is an article of faith rather than something I can positively prove to a skeptic’s satisfaction. By normative revelation I mean revelation for the whole church, revelation which all believers are required to follow. Certainly, God sometimes does reveal to individual people what He wants from their lives in terms of major decisions, but my point is that He is not in the business of revealing to me what he wants you to do, or vice versa, except as we both find it in His written word.
Now let’s review this second major point. The relationship between the word of the Lord and the Bible is that while not every word of the Lord is incorporated in the Bible, every word in the Bible is a word from the Lord, and every word that God wanted the church at large to have for faith and practice is in the Bible.
So, what conclusion do we derive from all this?
Therefore, we should give the same allegiance to the Bible as Isaiah ascribed to the Word of the Lord.
The relevance of all this is that we are now going to look at four key principles which Isaiah shares about the Word of the Lord. I hope that because of the reasoning we have offered, you will be able to say that whatever Isaiah said about the Word of the Lord is something you should believe about the Bible in your hand.
With all that as background and foundation, I turn your attention to the heart of my message today, “To the Law and to the Testimony!” The prophet Isaiah had much to say about the Word of the Lord. I have chosen just four of his affirmations about it for us to consider and to digest. The first is:
Isaiah believed in the incomparable sufficiency of God’s Word. Turn with me, if you will, to Isaiah 8. In the first part of the chapter Isaiah is delivering a judgment against the people of Israel for their sin. The judgment is delivered by means of the sign of Maher-shalal-hash-baz, who was the prophet’s second son. His name meant, “Swift is the booty, speedy is the prey.” In verse 4 Isaiah says that before the boy can say “mommy” or “daddy,” the king of Assyria will have plundered the northern kingdom of Israel (its capital was Samaria), as well as Syria (whose capital was Damascus). According to verse 8, the destruction would also eventually reach the southern nation of Judah.
The problem was that the people were afraid of the political upheavals around them and they sought to make international alliances rather than trust in the Lord. Not only that, but they were also consulting mediums and spiritists to determine what the future would hold. Whenever the times are bad because of political unrest or economic stress, the sale of astrology books goes up. People want hints about the future, and literally billions of dollars are spent in our society in efforts to discover it—even though God condemns every such effort.
I don’t think a Christian should ever spend a dime on an astrology book or a palm reader or fortune-teller. Why? Isaiah tells us. “When they say to you, ‘Consult the mediums and the spiritists who whisper and mutter’ (i.e., they speak in ambiguous terms), should not a people rather consult their God?” After all, if you’re going to have a god, you might as well pay some attention to him, especially in a time of difficulty! What’s the point of consulting the tired old worthless astrology charts that represent absolute spiritual deadness and never brought anyone anything of value? It’s as senseless as hiring a blind man to teach you birdwatching or to hire a deaf man to give voice lessons.
I like Ray Stedman’s comment that “Christians must continually reduce every argument we hear today to this simple thing: Am I to accept this person’s word, or the word of Christ? If this agrees with that He says, fine, it is truth. But if it does not, then I must decide whether the challenging authority is greater or less than Jesus Christ.”[i]
The people of Isaiah’s day liked slogans, like the one in verse 19: “Consult the mediums and the spiritists.” But Isaiah suggests a better slogan for them: “To the law and to the testimony!” When times are tough, go to the Word. Tragically we will go almost anywhere first before we turn to the Word of God. We will go to the Better Book Room first and we will spend a bunch of money on books that tell us how to handle life’s stresses. We will go to a shrink first, so he can analyze our early potty-training and help us understand why we’re a terrible husband or always depressed. We will turn to the Pastor for counseling or to some charismatic experience for meaning or to pleasure-seeking to drown our sorrows. Should not a people rather consult their God? Isn’t His Word sufficient?
Abraham Lincoln wrote, “I believe the Bible is the best gift that God has ever given to man. All the good from the Saviour of the world is communicated to us through this Book. I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go.”[ii] He believed in the incomparable sufficiency of God’s Word.
But Isaiah has a message not only for those who are seeking answers from sources other than God’s Word; he also has a message for those giving answers that are contrary to God’s Word. The end of verse 20 reads, “If they do not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn,” or perhaps better, “they are in darkness.” It is probable that Isaiah is not giving the reason but the result of their failure to speak according to the Word. “If they don’t speak according to the Word, they are in darkness.” And how true that is. Over in chapter 41 and beginning in verse 21 the prophet presents a challenge from the Lord to those who pretend to have answers about the future but are really in darkness.
Present your case,” the Lord says.
“Bring forward your evidence,” the King of Jacob says.
22 Let them bring them forward and declare to us what is going to take place;
As for the former events, declare what they were,
So that we may consider them and know their outcome.
Or announce to us what is coming;
23 Declare the things that are going to come afterward,
So that we may know that you are gods;
Indeed, do good or evil, that we may be afraid and fear together.
24 Behold, you are less than nothing,
And your work is less than nothing!
He who chooses you is an abomination.
I would like to suggest to you that Isaiah is here arguing for the incomparable sufficiency of God’s Word in contrast to the very best of human sources. It is sufficient for the future as well as the present. It is sufficient in time of political instability as well as in time of peace. It is sufficient in time of moral upheaval as well as in time of reasonable observance of traditional standards. It is sufficient in times of adversity as well as in times of prosperity. It is incomparably sufficient.
Isaiah believed in the total reliability of God’s Word. (40:6-8; 24:3) God’s Word is not only sufficient for any answers one might need; it is also completely reliable. When one finds an answer in the Bible, he doesn’t need to wonder if it’s true or if it’s relevant. If God spoke it, it can be relied upon.
Isaiah 40 is a chapter of comfort following the prediction of exile and destruction of the nation. Turn there with me, if you will. The greatest comfort offered by the prophet comes from the realization of the character of God and of the reliability of the Word of God. In verse 5 the people are promised that “the glory of the Lord will be revealed and all flesh will see it together.” How can they be sure? “For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” But, someone might say, “I need more than that. The mouth of the Lord may have spoken it, but how can I be sure? After all, I’m not used to being able to rely on anyone’s word.”
Well, in the next three verses the frailty of man is contrasted with the enduring character of God’s word.
A voice says, “Call out.”
Then he answered, “What shall I call out?”
All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field.
7 The grass withers, the flower fades,
When the breath of the Lord blows upon it;
The people are indeed grass!
8 The grass withers, the flower fades,
But the word of our God stands forever.
Yes, people and their promises are frail and unreliable, but the word of our God stands forever! Numbers 23:19 states, “God is not a man that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent; Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?”
Back in Isaiah 24:3 I see a typical statement of Isaiah’s that is profound because of its very simplicity. Let me read it: speaking of the coming Great Tribulation he says, “The earth will be completely laid waste and completely despoiled, for the Lord has spoken this word.” He feels no compulsion to back up his prediction with an evaluation of the signs of the times or with rational arguments. It’s enough that the Lord has said so, because the Lord’s Word is totally reliable.
Is that the way you view the Word of God? I know that’s what our doctrinal statement says. I know that’s what conservative evangelicals are supposed to believe. But do you really? When the Bible states something clearly and without ambiguity, does that settle it? I was recently talking to a young eligible bachelor who had suffered a divorce. He had not wanted it but he was unable to talk his spouse out of leaving. Feeling that he had been wronged he felt quite justified in looking for a new wife, and, based upon human reason alone, we might agree that he had every right to do so. But recently he came to the firm conclusion that there was no biblical basis for his divorce and therefore there was no biblical basis for his remarriage. And, as much as he would like to be married, the debate for him was over.
Friends, it’s when we accept what the Bible says, even when we don’t like it, that we demonstrate our true allegiance to it. That’s when we have admitted its total reliability and therefore its total authority.
Isaiah believed in the complete effectiveness of God’s Word. (55:10-11) The theological term used by the erudite is “efficaciousness,” but it simply means effectiveness. We’re talking about the fact that the Word works. The writer of the book of Hebrews believed that. He wrote in 4:12: “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” And Isaiah too believed that the Word works. Turn with me to the 55th chapter. This is easily one of the greatest chapters in the Bible. While our thoughts are going to be centered upon verses 10 & 11, I think we should read some of the verses leading up to that portion. Let’s start in verse 1.
You there! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters;
And you who have no money come, buy and eat.
Come, buy wine and milk
Without money and without cost.
2 Why do you spend money for what is not bread,
And your wages for what does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good,
And delight yourself in abundance.
3 Incline your ear and come to Me.
Listen, that you may live;
And I will make an everlasting covenant with you,
According to the faithful mercies shown to David.
Skip down to verse 6.
6 Seek the Lord while He may be found;
Call upon Him while He is near.
7 Let the wicked abandon his way,
And the unrighteous person his thoughts;
And let him return to the Lord,
And He will have compassion on him,
And to our God,
For He will abundantly pardon.
8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord.
9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways
And My thoughts than your thoughts.
10 For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven,
And do not return there without watering the earth
And making it produce and sprout,
And providing seed to the sower and bread to the eater;
11 So will My word be which goes out of My mouth;
It will not return to Me empty,
Without accomplishing what I desire,
And without succeeding in the purpose for which I sent it.
The message of pardon and forgiveness here must have been very difficult for the people to accept, considering all the messages of judgment in preceding chapters. God admits that His thoughts are not ours and our ways are not His. We wouldn’t pardon guilty sinners if it were left to us. But just as surely as rain and snow come down from heaven and don’t return there until they have accomplished their mission, so God’s Word, which has come from Him to us through the prophets and apostles, will accomplish the purpose for which it was designed.
The implications of this are important and far-reaching. First, when the Word is preached faithfully and accurately, it is not necessary for it to be accompanied by heavy emotional appeals and high pressure. It will do its work. Second, when the Word is distributed in our pagan world, whether by means of Bibles sent behind the Iron Curtain or Scriptures translated into native languages in South America or Christian radio broadcasts into the pagan cities of the United States, it will accomplish the goal that God has set. People will be saved and believers will be matured even when there is no missionary or preacher available.
There is an evangelical mission known as Bibles for India. Their philosophy is that what India needs most to combat the unimaginable evils of Hinduism is the Bible. Not missionaries, not seminaries, not even churches, but Bibles. Now they’re not opposed to those other things, but they are happy to let other groups work in those areas. They feel called to distribute Bibles. I suppose the Gideons’ philosophy is similar. I think Isaiah’s would not be greatly different.
Still a third implication of our faith in the complete effectiveness of God’s word is in respect to Christian maturity. God isn’t going to force His word into my life, but if my desire is to mature and to become more Christlike, then the only way to achieve that goal is to spend time in this book. Jesus said, “Sanctify them in the truth; Thy Word is truth.” (John 17:17)
And that brings us to the last affirmation of Isaiah’s concerning the Word that we are going to consider today.
Isaiah believed in the absolute necessity of God’s Word. (Is. 59:21). Please turn with me to Is. 59. The 21st verse reads,
And as for Me, this is My covenant with them,” says the Lord: “My Spirit which is upon you, and My words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your offspring, nor from the mouth of your offspring’s offspring,” says the Lord, “from now and forever.”
That reminds me of Deut. 6:4-9. Moses was speaking:
“Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart; and you shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. And you shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”
The point is simply this: if the words of the Lord are true, sufficient, and reliable, then they ought to be part and parcel of our everyday lives. Yet many believers go looking for their Bibles every Sunday morning, only to find them where they left them the previous Sunday afternoon. And they wonder why life is so dull and difficult. Some complain that the Bible is hard to understand, but they need to remember the words Mark Twain supposedly offered: “Most people are bothered by those passages of Scripture which they cannot understand; but as for me, I have always noticed that the passages which trouble me most are those which I do understand.” Others complain that they always forget what they have just read. Well, whenever you pour water over a sieve, no matter how much you pour, you don’t collect much. But at least you end up with a clean sieve.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s parents disapproved so strongly of her marriage to Robert Browning that they disowned her. Almost weekly Elizabeth wrote love letters to her mother and father asking for a reconciliation. They never once replied. After ten years of letter writing, Elizabeth one day received a huge box in the mail. She opened it. To her dismay and heartbreak, the box contained all her letters to her parents. Not one of them had ever even been opened! Today those love letters are among the most beautiful in classical English literature. Had her parents opened and read only a few of them, a reconciliation might have been brought about.
God has written some love letters to us, as well as some letters of other kinds. 2 Timothy 3:16,17 says, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” That is, it tells us what’s right, what’s not right, how to get right and how to stay right. But it won’t accomplish any of those things if it isn’t read, studied, loved and lived.
I return to the words of Isaiah 59: “My words, which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart from your mouth from now and forever.” May God help us take these words to heart. “To the Law and to the Testimony.” Amen!
DATE: July 15, 1984
Tags:
Bibliology
Inspiration of Scripture
Sufficiency of Scripture
Reliability of Scripture
Efficiency of Scripture
[i] Citation lost
[ii] https://www.azquotes.com/quote/677052