TREMBLE AT GOD'S WORD

TREMBLE AT GOD’S WORD – PART TWO

"This is the one I esteem : he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word." Isaiah 66:2b

Last week we learned that God calls to Himself students. He calls to Himself disciples. He calls to Himself "disciplined ones" – those who are studying His Word and follow His ways.

God esteems those students who trembles at His Word – those who take His Word seriously.

There are problems God identifies about students who are not "TREMBLERS"

Problem # 1 :
"These are rebellious people, deceitful children, children unwilling to listen to the Lord’s instruction. They say to the seers, ‘See no more visions!’ and to the prophets, ‘Give us no more visions of what is right! Tell us pleasant things, prophecy illusions. Leave this way, get off this path, and stop confronting us with the Holy One of Israel!" Isaiah 30:9-11
What does God call people who are unwilling to listen to His instruction ?

Problem # 2
"For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths." II Timothy 4:3-4
What do people turn their ears to and away from ?

Problem # 3 :
"As for you, son of man, your countrymen are talking together about you by the walls and at the doors of the houses, saying to each other, ‘Come and hear the message that has come from the Lord.’ My people come to you, as they usually do, and sit before you to listen to your words, by they do not put them into practice. With their mouths they express devotion, but their hearts are greedy for unjust gain. Indeed, to them you are nothing more than one who sings love songs with a beautiful voice and plays an instrument well, for they hear your words but do not put them into practice."
What does God say twice about people who only listen to His Word ?

"Do what God’s teaching says; when you only listen and do nothing, you are fooling yourselves. Those who hear God’s teaching and do nothing are like people who look at themselves in a mirror. They see their faces and then go away and quickly forget what they looked like. But the truly happy people are those who carefully study God’s perfect law that makes people free, and they continue to study it. They do not forget what they heard, but they obey what God’s teaching says. Those who do this will be made happy." James 1:22-25

So, where it comes down to is TO STUDY THE WORD OF GOD.
So, where it comes down to is TO GET TO KNOW THE WORD – TO GET TO KNOW JESUS - not through meditation (which is also needed) – not through devotions (which is also needed) – not through just reading (which is also needed) – but through a systematic study of the Word. In Hebrew it is called YESHIVAH!!!

In the church calendar, Shavuot (or Pentecost) was celebrated about one week ago. Historically, this particular feast has long been associated with Torah study and the confirmation of one’s loyalty to the faith.

In certain Jewish communities, particularly in Eastern Europe, it was customary to introduce very young children (3 – 5 years old) to YESHIVAH.

In a modern hymn, we sing, "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, your word is like honey to my lips." Well, on Pentecost (Shavuot), the children were given cakes, honey and sweets "that the Torah might be sweet on his lips".

In a place like the YESHIVAH, a true study of the Word, a person had to think of himself as striving to be a scholar.

But this was not scholarship for its own sake alone but it was a means of bringing about a religious transformation.

HOW TO CONDUCT A YESHIVA ?
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The primary difference between a "yeshiva" and an ordinary church Bible Study is to have the entire group participate rather than a teacher doing all the talking. A yeshiva is a dialogue not a monologue. Ministry is always allowed as the Holy Spirit speaks from the Word being studied.

The students sit at tables (not in a row in the church – not on couches in someone’s home) facing one another with plenty of room to have several books opened at the same time.

As explained last week, taking our example from the book of Ecclesiastes, the teacher, a scholar himself, should prepare an outline listing Scriptures that reveal an important Bible subject. The teacher should have had his own yeshiva prior to the public yeshiva.

The teacher introduces the subject and several passages that support that subject to open the teaching session. The teacher selects a "key word" in a passage and asks the students to work together finding that word firstly in a concordance and secondly in a lexicon. The first students to find the meaning of the key word are asked to read the definition. The teacher then leads the group into discussion about the principles revealed from the definition of the key word.

Questions should be encouraged.

The teacher encourages participation by all. The teacher asks the students to find supporting passages regarding the general subject. A yeshiva can be quite noisy but always following a set order.

The skill of the teacher is very important and is used to allow the group to change the subject to follow what the Holy Spirit is revealing. It is also used to affirm the input of all participants and move the discussions along.

So, the key to a good yeshiva is both homiletics and hermeneutics.

Homiletics means the proper and orderly presentation of a speech and a lesson. A teacher without a lesson plan is not a teacher. A preacher without sermon notes is not a preacher.
Hermeneutics is the science of interpreting the Bible. Again, a good teacher must know when the Bible is speaking literally or figuratively. He must know when a passage is speaking prophetically and when God is speaking to all men or to Israel.

The proper use of hermeneutics is found in II Tim 2:15 :
"Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth."

There are many commentaries written about the Bible. But commentaries are not the Bible, they are not the Word of God. The best commentary on the Bible is the Bible itself.

Jesus did this all the time. For instance, compare Deuteronomy 30:1-10 and Jeremiah 31:33 with John 15:1-17.

Compare Psalm 35:19 and Psalm 69:4 with John 15:25.

Jesus did not need Christian books to give himself an idea to have a Biblical yeshiva – he used the Scriptures to explain the Scriptures.

And we are to use the same Biblical technique – we are to use the same method.

And where does the true yeshiva start in the modern church. In Jesus’ time, it started in the church – at Shavuot, with the children. But in today’s church, it needs to start at home with the parents (or the grandparents).

More about that next week in Part III of this important series.

Deuteronomy 6:7
"Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, and when you lie down and when you get up."

DELIVERED BY PASTOR JOHN FRYTERS AT UNDER THE JUNIPER TREE CHAPEL ON MAY 31, 2009