The Power of Words and The Law of the Lord: Life and Death by Syllable -- PART 1

Dear Senior Burns,

I lost my faith in the power of words a long time ago. 

People who play music are allowed to sit on their own porch and enjoy the guitar. Photographers are allowed to take photographs they show nobody. Painters apply to canvas and stash them or give them away fine and willy nilly.

But to write words means to make money. Words are not to be enjoyed, they are to be monetized. That's the modern ethos. Words are to be bound and sold. If not, they are worthless. Leaves on autumn grounds to be walked over or thrown away.

I've tried to fight this ethos at every bend in the road. And, man, it's an uphill battle. Too few believe in the value of words anymore. Words as morsels of life is a bygone notion. 

Would you believe, Senior Burns, that writing this nonsense to you right here actually rekindled my love for words again? More than anything else in years. How silly is that? How small must I be to find pleasure in something so simple?

We're not doing anything important here. We're not selling ads. We're not saving souls. We're not even all that interesting, you and I. We're just two paddles on a single defibrillator trying to keep the pulse of something irrational alive.

Scripture says the power of life and death is in the tongue -- in words. That means that writing with hope is a source of life. I want to believe that. I want to believe that. I want to believe that. Even if it bucks against the ethos.

Thanks for helping me believe again. 

For the sake of defibrillation, here's the past week's diet -- March 22-28. And to keep the theme of words alive, I'll skip every report except for WORDS.

In fact, I read two things this past week that speak to words as morsels of life. I'll report one here today. Perhaps the other tomorrow.

LEVITICUS: We normally speak about the Law of Moses as God's thumb on us. Jesus set us free from the Law. We are no longer under the Law. The Law is an Old Covenant that we should not allow to distract us from the more important Epistles of the Apostles. 

But the Psalms tell us a different story about the Law. Even the opener, Psalm 1, says that the righteous "delight in the Law of the Lord, meditating on it day and night". Such meditation on the Law allows the righteous to be "a tree planted by a riverbank, bearing fruit in every season, whose leaves never wither." Yes, the Lord's righteousness makes this flourishing possible, but the Psalmist clearly states that meditating on the Law of the Lord is key to our "delight" in God -- and key to avoiding the becoming of "chaff".

And here we are, Senior Burns, back to the power of life and death as found in words. 

David's longest poem is Psalm 119: his love letter to the Law. David was considered a man after God's heart. Was his pursuit of the Law, his love of the Law, central to his pursuit of God's heart? Personally, I believe so. The evidence is in the text. 

The take-away, I believe, is that those who seek the King's pleasure and protection and provision and propagation in the land must strive to see the Law as less His thumb and more His heart. After all, God reveals Himself clearly in the Law, stating frequently in Leviticus "I am the Lord". It is here that we see God say the bits about Himself worth fearing, that are even somewhat unsavory, that remind us that we're not dealing with one who's up for negotiations. His Word stands. His Words bear life and death. Just ask the sons of Aaron.

I am at the beginning of this thought. More is brewing. But it helps to write it out. How odd, Senior Burns, that I found a love for writing words again here on a silly web-page with you and I also found an insatiable love for the scriptures again while reading the Law? Life is full of surprises. The Books of Numbers lies before me now -- all those desert stories that the Prophets and even the Apostles recall -- another Book we begrudge for not being more marketable. We modern humans are truly silly. If it's not winning us more dollars or fame, we think we don't need it. And Numbers feels like a whole lot of just circling the drain. I guess the question, again, becomes in who's circulatory system we desire to be rooted: the American ethos of profitability or the Lord's riverbank of never-winter?

Until tomorrow, Senior Burns, you've given me a Monday morning here that feels like resurrection Sunday. Amen and Selah.

-- ks




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