Open Source Word of God

Joshua 8:30-35

Joshua complete the command given to Moses to renew the covenant with Yahweh in the Promised Land. The primary feature of the covenant renewal was the public reading and public access of God's Word.

God's Word is not a trade secret for the power of the priests.

God's Word is for his people. It is the original open source project. It is the original free speech.

God's Word is to us and for us, for it the foundation of our covenant and the revelation of His character.

Arbitrary Rules

“Screen time”. There is no negotiation here, I am the arbiter of screen time and you get how much I say you get. If I say it’s movie night, you magically get another hour and a half. Boom!

If I say you get none… guess how much you get? “But I haven’t used my half hour!” Your half hour? You get nothing.

And because it’s arbitrary, I have all the power! Bwah ha ha!

But that isn’t the way most of the rules in the house work, is it? Kids need to know the rules, they need to have solid and dependable boundaries. That gives the kids agency, it allows them to make appropriate decisions and navigate successfully in my house.

No food upstairs… so if you bring food upstairs you face my wrath!

If the rules are consistent and the rules are known, they know how to successfully navigate in my world.

If the rules are secret, the person with the secret has the power.

Secret Scriptures

Speaking of secret… there was a long period of time not too long ago when this book (the Bible) was a secret!

Once upon a time you could be arrested and burned at the stake for having this… a Bible printed in English. From the 16th century all the way into the 19th century, it was illegal in Spain to have a Bible in Spanish.

In the 16th century, all the Bibles were in Latin, and no one read or spoke Latin except for priests trained by the Catholic church. Many priests, being sinful humans, used that secrecy for their own gain, extracting and amassing wealth and political power and twisting and manipulating God’s Word when necessary to do it.

Well, some incredibly courageous men and woman, some of them priests and monks in the Catholic church, they studied the Scriptures for themselves and they read it and it didn’t match up with what priests of the time were telling the people. Men like Martin Luther, John Calvin, William Tyndale… these men wrestled with the actual text, the original language, and translated into languages people actually knew… and it changed the face of Christianity.

People were hearing and reading God’s Word for themselves, and wrestling with the understanding, and coming to know and understand God in a new, or rather a rediscovered way. We call that the Reformation and, as Baptists, we are children of that Revolution.

But the idea of the Word of God being given straight to the people did not originate with the Reformation. This was a rediscovery of an old principle, that actually goes all the way back to God speaking His Word to any people ever. God has always wanted His Word spoken and shared with His people, and we get a powerful moment in the story of the people of Israel that illustrates that.

Before the crossing of the Jordan, Moses had given the people of Israel a command to follow in the Promised Land:

Deuteronomy 27:1-3, 8

Now Moses and the elders of Israel commanded the people, saying, “Keep the whole commandment that I command you today. 2 And on the day you cross over the Jordan to the land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall set up large stones and plaster them with plaster. 3 And you shall write on them all the words of this law, when you cross over to enter the land that the Lord your God is giving you, a land flowing with milk and honey, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you.

… and set up these stones… plaster them with plaster… build an altar to Yahweh…. Offer burnt offerings… sacrifice peace offerings…

8 And you shall write on the stones all the words of this law very plainly.

Joshua 8:30-35

30 At that time Joshua built an altar to the Lord, the God of Israel, on Mount Ebal, 31 just as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded the people of Israel, as it is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, “an altar of uncut stones, upon which no man has wielded an iron tool.” And they offered on it burnt offerings to the Lord and sacrificed peace offerings. 32 And there, in the presence of the people of Israel, he wrote on the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he had written. 33 And all Israel, sojourner as well as native born, with their elders and officers and their judges, stood on opposite sides of the ark before the Levitical priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, half of them in front of Mount Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, just as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded at the first, to bless the people of Israel. 34 And afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessing and the curse, according to all that is written in the Book of the Law. 35 There was not a word of all that Moses commanded that Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel, and the women, and the little ones, and the sojourners who lived among them.

Do you hear the stress on all the commandment. Again and again it is “all” the words “all” that is written. And then, 35, He did not miss a word. And it was read before “all” the assembly, even the women (gasp) and children (double gasp) and sojourners. Gentiles among them! (Triple gasp)

God’s Word is for them. God’s Word is to them.

So they need to hear it. They get to hear it. They get to have it posted in a place where they can understand it. Wrestle with it. Maybe even debate about it?

God’s Word is for them. God’s Word is to them. It isn’t the secret of domain of priests and experts. It is God’s message to all His people.

Because ultimately what is God accomplishing through His Word? It does contain rules, just like I have rules for my kids. But those rules are, again, for their good that they might navigate God’s world successfully. That they might have successful relationship with him and with one another.

Dare I say: it could all be summed up “Loving God and loving others?” (I didn’t make that up).

God’s Word is conveying God’s character.

God's Word is to us and for us.

It the foundation of our covenant and the revelation of His character.

And so this scene, Joshua and the people of Israel have this service: and it is a covenant renewal service. This ceremony reflects the covenant on Mount Sinai: I will be your God and you will be my people.

And what is the cornerstone of the ceremony. The public reading and posting of God’s Word.

This is the original free speech. This is the very first Open Source project. God makes sure that everyone gets to hear and see and read and know His Word.

Preaching the Word of God

I preach the Word of God. I read it, I study it, I present it… and hopefully you hear it. But there is no secret here. You are reading it… and you sometimes come to a different conclusion than me about what it means. Maybe about what it means to you… or maybe you just think I am wrong about how I understood it or interpreted it. And that’s great because sometimes I am wrong and I need to hear from you.

Some of you are very good about sharing that :D. For example, someone had the nerve to suggest that a couple weeks ago I told everyone to make 2017 a year of…. When obviously I must have said 2018. No WAY I got that wrong 😉

Our church has this foundational principle: we share in common a few fundamental beliefs, one of which is a belief in God’s word as faithful and trustworthy. But we expect to disagree about all sorts of other things and we strive to do so with respect and love and to strive for understanding where we can’t find agreement.

But we come to this again and again, because we are a people of the Word.

God has given this (the Bible) as a gift to you. It is a precious gift. Just because you can order one on amazon now for a few bucks and face no legal consequences… don’t be confused. This isn’t cheap. And it isn’t easy.

It isn’t supposed to be easy: it is the shaping of your soul. It is the revelation of God’s character. And it is the foundation of our covenant with our God.

We are saved by grace by Christ Jesus our Lord, and how do we know that? The Bible tells me so. And what did John call Jesus? The Word, the Logos, the living self-revelation of God. He is our covenant and He is our Word.

What we do this morning echoes all the back to Joshua and the people of Israel. As we wrestle with the word in our devotions, in our family readings, and here this morning now. We engage in the covenant ceremony of God with his people.

So let’s echo all the way back. We are going to say the first third of the Shema together.

Speak together the Shema, the oldest fixed daily prayer in Judaism, recited morning and night since ancient times.

Deuteronomy 6:4-9

4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.