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THE PROPHET AND THE WORD OF GOD WHENEVER the prophet spoke, his voice flared " like fire " and struck "like a hammer shattering rock" (Jer. 23: 29) . He whipped "a whirling storm that bursts upon the heads of the wicked" (Jer. 23: 19). His words came " from the mouth of the Lord," for the prophet "has stood in the council of the Lord, . . . has heeded His word, so as to announce it" (Jer. 23: 16, 18) . God's word, heard through the voice of the prophets, not only shattered rocks of stubbornness and prejudice, but it also pulled down mountains of pride, and turned the rugged terrain of persecution into the broad valley of peace. God's word laid towards the revelation of "the glory of the Lord" (of. Is. 40: 3-5). Biblical religion, established by the vigorous power of God's word, surrounded its worshippers with peace and security. Never, however, did the true prophets confuse peace with sleep! Though thanking God for the " comfort " and the " delight " of his word, the psalmist still prayed: . that I might be firm, . let me not stray. . I cling to your decrees. . I was prompt and did not hesitate (Ps. 118) .1 For many Israelites of Jeremia's day, as for many Jews and Christians today, God's word erects a wall of false security around a hunchbacked, snub-nosed religion. A lazy, sentimental people think to rest safely within the wall of God's promise, and they say to one another, "Peace shall be yours!" "No evil shall overtake you!" (Jer. 23: 17). Jeremia thunders, "There is no peace!" (Jer. 6: 14). The hammer of God's word had shattered their mind, and 1 This text is from Ps. 118 (119), which was composed under a strong prophetic mfluence. 133 134 CARROLL STUHLMUELLER they had stopped thinking. The prophet crying out the word of God prepared a super-highway so straight and so well paved that even believers raced down it lulled by the monotony of the way, many of them dozing off and crashing! Because of a superstitious trust in the security of the Word of God, the chosen people of Old Testament times provoked Jeremia's scornful indictment: They grow powerful and rich, fat and sleek, They go their wicked way (5: ~7 f). Nothing so quickly deforms and destroys the message of the prophets than to accept it passively, with a yawn. Regretfully, God confessed to Isaia, that his word can "make the heart of this people sluggish, to dull their ears and close their eyes " (Is. 6: 10) . Many persons today accept the phrase, " The prophets, God's voice," with a shrug of the shoulders. "Oh, yes!" comes the soft drone of their reply, "What God speaks, the prophet repeats. The Bible, consequently, is the word of God." Is the word of God, we ask, just an eternal truth, whispered into the prophet's ear and then solemnly mouthed with human sound? How can such a word crash down like a hammer shattering and pulverizing? How can it lift valleys and pull down mountains and heroically change men's lives? God's word, in fact, does more than change men's lives; it even asks the sacrifice of life. God's word comes forth" a sharp two-edged sword" (Apoc. 1: 16), cutting deeply, through the demands which it makes, and if it encounters resistance, then, as God declared through the prophet Osee, " I slew them by the words of my mouth" (Os. 6: 5) . There must, however, be more to God's word than idea and sound. The apostle St. John declared that God's word was such that it could not only be heard but it would also be "seen with our eyes" and "felt with our hands" (1 John 1: 1). God called his word " spring rain that waters the earth " (Os. 6: 3), "a mist covering the earth" (Sir. ~4: 3), a river THE PROPHET AND THE WORD OF GOD 135 running over like the Euphrates with understanding and like the Nile sparkling with knowledge (Sir. 24:24 £.) . The word has the" miraculous" power of water. No sooner does water touch the dry...

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