WHAT IS THE WORD OF GOD LIKE?
“A Picture is worth a thousand words” – Saying from Chinese Proverb
- Bible often portrays various visual images or pictures to describe themes or topics (Psalms 23:1, Psalms 18:1 etc).
- Prov. 25:11- A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver
- Old Testament is full of images or visual representation of the things to come. In fact, Bible offers different images for the ‘Word of God’ itself.
- We find at least 10 different images for the Word of God in the bible.
- Like an Anchor:
- Hebrews 6:17-19- “Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath: That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil;”
- Like a Double Edged Sword:
- Hebrews 4:12: -”For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged 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.”
- Like Fire:
- Jer 23:29: – “Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?”
- Like a Hammer:
- Jer 23:29: – “Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?”
- Like an Anvil:
- I Pet 1:24-25- “For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.”
The Anvil of God's Word
Last eve I passed beside a blacksmith's door
And heard the anvil ring the vesper chime;
When looking in, I saw upon the floor,
Old hammers worn with beating years of time.
And heard the anvil ring the vesper chime;
When looking in, I saw upon the floor,
Old hammers worn with beating years of time.
"How many anvils have you had," said I,
"To wear and batter these hammers so?"
"Just one," said he; then with a twinkling eye,
"The anvil wears the hammers out, you know."
"To wear and batter these hammers so?"
"Just one," said he; then with a twinkling eye,
"The anvil wears the hammers out, you know."
And so, I thought, the anvil of God's Word,
For ages, skeptics blows have beat upon;
Yet, though the noise of falling blows was heard,
The anvil is unharmed - the hammers gone.
For ages, skeptics blows have beat upon;
Yet, though the noise of falling blows was heard,
The anvil is unharmed - the hammers gone.
-John Clifford
- Like Lamp and Light:
- Ps 119:105: – “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.”
- Like Food:
- Matt 4:4: – “But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”
- 1 Pet 2:1-2: “Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby.”
- Like Seed:
- 1 Pet 1:23: – “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.”
- Like Water:
- Eph. 5:26- “That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,”
- Ps. 1:1-3- “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.”
- Like a Mirror:
- James 1:22-25: – “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.”
