The Living Word

"And he said, So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground; And should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how. For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear." (Mark 4:26-28)

In the scriptures, the things of the kingdom of God are often compared to things in the plant or animal kingdoms. That is more than allegory; or perhaps more accurately, the plants and animals are themselves the allegories.

In that light, consider how plants and animals are made. What constructs them? Underlying all the growth of living things in the natural world is something we call DNA. Now DNA is, of course, the genetic code; and one way of describing the amazingly intricate information contained in that code is to say that it is made up of words. Yet those words are not dead things, graven in stone; they are alive. The genetic code is truly made up of living words- yet not in the spiritual, but in the natural.

Living words, therefore, are the foundation of every living thing; without those words, there could be no life. It should be no surprise to find that so, for all living things were in the beginning made by the word of God.

"And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, [and] the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed [is] in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. (Genesis 1:11)

Even though the whole Creation has been corrupted by sin, and groans and travails in pain together until now, yet all around us still are living words, crying out that God spoke them. They can be heard from the quiet beauty of trees, from the exquisite artwork of flowers, from the joyful songs of birds- indeed, from every living thing; and all is God's poetry, written in living words. The world is full of living words declaring the glory of the LORD.

"But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee: Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee: and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee. Who knoweth not in all these that the hand of the LORD hath wrought this? In whose hand [is] the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind." (Job 12:7-10)

These things are, therefore, an allegory of the Living Word of God, ministered by the Spirit, from which the new creatures that we are in Christ are constructed, as it is written:

"Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. For all flesh [is] as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you." (I Peter 1:23-25)

Peter continues, to show what ought to be done with that knowledge:

"Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: If so be ye have tasted that the Lord [is] gracious." (I Peter 2:1-3)

Seeing that we are compassed about in the Creation with so great and many witnesses of the power and wonder of living words, we ought therefore, in the faith that we are a new creature born of incorruptible seed, desire the Living Word of God- which is far more beautiful, and far deeper, than the allegory God gave of it in natural things.

"I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh [himself] with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth [herself] with her jewels. For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations." (Isaiah 61:10-11)