Breathe on me, Breathe, Oh Breath of God

“The Voice of the Lord”

(2 Timothy 3:16)

16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.

All Scripture

The few words before us are not about our favorite verses. They say something about all the sacred writings, the Scriptures.

The Scriptures begin with the books of the Law. These are the writings of Moses. Every word in those writings form a sacred deposit for the people of Israel. But God was not finished. He also gave us an account through the work of many hands of the history of Israel, from the time of the conquest of Canaan under Joshua through to the life of the Jews in the Persian empire included in the Book of Esther. Every word in those histories together form sacred writings. Add to the Law and the history the writings of David, Solomon, and Job. These varied books of wisdom are holy oracles. The Lord also used many prophets to discipline His people and to speak words of hope to them of the coming ages. We have received all of these books, every word of the original autographs of holy men of old, as entirely authoritative books, teaching the Jews and the church what to believe and how to live.

Then came Jesus, the Word. He lived without sin. He died. He rose again.

After His coming and the pouring out of the Holy Spirit, the Lord was pleased to finish the Scriptures with the gospels, Acts, and the epistles that make up the New Testament culminating in Revelation. False writings were circulating among spiritual communities in the 1^st century, but these have never been received by the church as the Scriptures.

is breathed out

The 66 books of the Old and New Testaments were different that the commentaries of rabbis or the spiritual pronouncements of deep religious thinkers. These 66 were breathed out by Someone, the great Someone alone capable of breathing out to us a message by breathing through holy men of old. This was not a mere dictation. It was an organic message giving. It was the breath of God through people prepared for that breathing out.

How do we know that? We receive what the apostle says by the Holy Spirit. These are matters that can only received by tasting in faith, by breathing in what has been breathed out through others in earlier centuries.

by God...

There is a divine breath Giver who gave us these Scriptures. God speaks. His voice is received today by the Holy Spirit working in the lives of those who hear in faith. The same Spirit that breathed out the words through the prophetic voice, is able to illuminate your heart to hear God's Word.

This good Word, from Genesis through Revelation, is about the Word that came in person, the Son of God. The themes of His death and resurrection are so central to our lives, that they are worthy of every true prophet that ever spoke or wrote and every believer who ever received the Scriptures in faith as the Word of God.

Receive this Word. Love it. Follow it. Take it into your mouth. Believe it in your heart. This is the way to grow in the divine life.