In 1940, Theodore Geisel, under the pen name of Dr. Seuss, published an illustrated children’s book, Horton Hatches the Egg. The nonsense of an elephant by the name of Horton being tricked into sitting on an egg in a nest in a tree to give Mayzie, the mother bird, a break, where she finds herself traveling down to Palm Beach, is the fanciful humor of the story. Horton must undergo ridicule, privation, and capture by humans to fulfill his promise to sit on the egg. Horton repeatedly asserts, “I meant what I said, and I said what I meant. An elephant’s faithful, one hundred percent!” Without the ridiculousness of the storyline, you can easily see this depicting God’s integrity.
“Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God” (Luke 4:4 NKJV).
What does it mean to take God at His Word?
God means what He says.
This goes beyond a debate between a figurative versus literal interpretation of Scripture. Classic conservative Christianity is inclined to take Scripture more literally, while typical liberal theology is compelled to receive Scripture more figuratively, both firmly believing they promote obedience to God. “I could not go beyond the word of the LORD my God, to do less or more” (Numbers 22:18).
It is a question of God’s integrity.
Taking God at His Word emphasizes His integrity. Can God be trusted as seeking our highest good, while we seek His kingdom first? We tend to compare God to the people we know, but we sense the awkwardness of limiting the Almighty to such a low standard. Admitting the integrity of God keeping His Word compared to our difficulty of doing what we say, Does not the creation of man in His image guarantee the possibility of a similar integrity in humanity? “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? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?” (Numbers 23:19).
Taking God at His Word is our necessity.
Taking God at His Word is required by His Law, because it is our necessity and would demonstrate our integrity. God’s Law promotes the highest good of His being and the good of our neighbor as ourself. Our prosperity and success depend upon it. Meditating upon this day and night must be an integral part of our very existence. “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success” (Joshua 1:8).
Our repeated failure to demonstrate the integrity of taking God at His Word is the very reason for the New Covenant.
“Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah” (Jeremiah 31:31).
“I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them” (Ezekiel 36:27).
Jesus did not come to abolish the law, but to further implement the plan which had been in place from the very beginning. An All Wise God knows our capabilities as well as our shortcomings, which we would manifest throughout the Garden, the Flood, the Tower, the Patriarchs, Egypt, the Wilderness, the Conquest, the Judges, the Kings, the Prophets, the Captivity, the Second Temple, the Silent Years, the Apostles, the Early Church, the Persecuted Church, the Institutional Church, the Missionary Church, the Lukewarm Church, the Tribulational Saints, and the Final Spiritual Rebirth of the Nation of Israel at His Second Coming. The history of the Saints is a carefully orchestrated program of an All Wise God marshaling His resources in the Unseen Realm against the Adversary and his hordes, while masterfully moving throughout time and space to produce a people, who will magnify Him throughout eternity.
“6 But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises. 7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second. 8 Because finding fault with them, He says: Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah— 9 not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded them, says the Lord. 10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 11 None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, Know the LORD, for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. 12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more. 13 In that He says, A new covenant, He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away” (Hebrews 8:6-13 NKJV).
Taking God at His Word becomes Spirit-inspired obedience, when understood correctly, in this New Testament Age.
“I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them” (Ezekiel 36:27).
“For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13).
“He will again have compassion on us, And will subdue our iniquities. You will cast all our sins Into the depths of the sea” (Micah 7:19).
“Your words were found, and I ate them, And Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart; For I am called by Your name, O LORD God of hosts” (Jeremiah 15:16).
From the beginning, man was created with the ability to reflect and obey God, but we have been inconsistent at best. After the first sin, humanity experienced the continual death of the physical creation, both of our mortal body, as well as our physical environment, i.e., Second Law of Thermodynamics (Romans 8:22). We retain the ability and necessity of obedience, which is pointedly, taking God at His Word. God said, “Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:17). Physically, they were still alive, though their bodies began to experience the degenerating effects of physical death, but they were already spiritually dead. Just as physical death is separation of the soul from the body, spiritual death is separation of the soul from God. They “hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden” (Genesis 3:8), separated from the life of God and “dead in trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1). Spiritual regeneration must be restoring our separation from God through Christ. “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive” (1Corinthians 15:22).
Taking God at His Word is a restoration to obedience.
How does God affect such a change in us?
The New Covenant or New Testament inspires us to walk in obedience.
Confirmation of His covenant with us is by the sealing of the Blood of Jesus. It shouldn’t surprise us, but we should advocate before the Courts of Heaven, which is prayer, that the shed Blood of Jesus from His sacrificial, substitutionary death, is the only foundation for restoring our obedience. And, we commemorate this when we take Communion. “This cup is the new testament in My blood, which is shed for you” (Luke 22:20). The Blood of Jesus is God’s antidote for sin, and it is received by faith. “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6).
Ours is not a natural progression to obedience, but it is the response to the pervasive influence of God throughout our life and the whole of human history, not to force us to obedience, but by a gentle persuasion, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, to cause us to walk in His statutes (Ezekiel 36:27), which means we are taking God at His Word. “I will bring the blind by a way they did not know; I will lead them in paths they have not known. I will make darkness light before them, And crooked places straight. These things I will do for them, And not forsake them” (Isaiah 42:16). Whether referring to obedience under the Old Covenant or New, only the influence of the Spirit of Almighty God can secure our obedience. No formula, creed, or tradition is capable of breathing life into any people. Trust in no man. If God comforts us with His Word, we are saved. If God comforts us not, we are lost. “Behold, I will do a new thing, Now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness And rivers in the desert” (43:19). Active faith alone is able to receive the promise of Scripture. If we cannot take God at His Word, how can we trust or obey Him?
Taking God at His Word is to rely upon the integrity of God to keep His law, Gospel, promises, and prophecies.
From the outset, ONLY Jesus can save us. Love alone can secure our heart, but a people without understanding knows not whom to trust or from whom to flee. Secure the promise. “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him” (James 1:5). Understanding is built a little at a time until it is a refuge to which even others desire to flee.
God ’s Moral Law: is and always will be: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one! You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength” (Deuteronomy 6:4-5). Jesus repeated the essence of this irrevocable law: “Jesus said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37-39). If taking God at His Word is not keeping the Moral Law, then of what value is it to take God at His Word? And remember, Jesus saves us from our not having kept that law, but the gift of His Spirit now is available “both to will and to do for His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13). Now we will successfully take God at His Word by walking in obedience.
God’s Gospel: is the Good News of a Second Chance, which the devil never had. Remember, God never owed anyone a Second Chance, so rejoice in His mercy. “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15). The suffering, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ is only significant, if we believe, repent, and obey the Gospel. Peter instructed his listeners at Pentecost: “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38). Obeying the Gospel is doing whatever Jesus said you are supposed to do, which is consistent with your faith in Him. Because the rich young ruler had such an attachment to his wealth, Jesus told him he couldn’t go to heaven without giving up his wealth. “17 Now as He was going out on the road, one came running, knelt before Him, and asked Him, Good Teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? 21 Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow Me” (Mark 10:17, 21).
God’s promises: “For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us” (2Corinthians 1:20). If we take God at His Word, then we will believe His promises, “by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust” (2Peter 1:4). The sanctifying effect of God’s promises must be evident in our present hope of salvation, our conduct in this world, and in our hope of heaven. “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1Thessalonians 5:23).
God’s prophecies: are part of His promise of imminent return. The Jews of Christ’s day acknowledged the idea of a coming Messiah, but they were not spiritually ready for Jesus, or they would have understood the prophecies that foretold His coming. This indictment of their lack of spiritual walk, as well as, their lack of Scriptural understanding of the OT prophecies should motivate us to balance both in light of His Second Coming and Rapture of the Church. Paul indicted the Thessalonians for their lack of employing themselves in the daily process of feeding themselves and their families through secular employment. “For even when we were with you, we commanded you this: If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat” (2Thessalonians 3:10). This same Paul had just instructed the same Thessalonians about the Antichrist. “5 Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? 6 And now you know what is restraining, that he [Antichrist] may be revealed in his own time. 7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He [Holy Spirit] who now restrains will do so until He [Holy Spirit] is taken out of the way [at the Rapture of the Church]” (2Thessalonians 2:5-7). Taking God at His Word is believing the prophecies of Jesus’ return. “So Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation” (Hebrews 9:28).
Father, we ask that You would make us to be a people, who take You at Your Word. May we not be those who claim to know You, but do not walk in obedience. Help us to build Your kingdom in the smallest act of faith to the largest ambition of taking the Kingdom of Heaven by force of Your Spirit. Cause us to magnify Your integrity. May we never tire of offering You praise for Your faithfulness. Lord Jesus, return quickly. In Your name, we pray. Amen and amen.
