The thought is … as they say … “elementary.” Yet it is also a profound truth. Today’s Text is found in Zechariah 7:12, just a clause from that great Verse.

“Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, and THE WORDS WHICH THE LORD OF HOSTS HATH SENT IN HIS SPIRIT by the former prophets: therefore came a great wrath from the Lord of hosts.”

Did you see my emphasis? The Lord has sent His Words (His Word, the Scriptures) to us … via His Holy Spirit!

This is now called the Bible doctrine of “Inspiration.”

The Hebrew verb “hath sent” is “shalach,” meaning “to sow” 3 times in the Bible! Jesus’ Parable immediately comes to mind! “A Sower went forth to sow ….”

The noun for God’s “words” here is “dabar,” meaning “speech, sayings, commandments,” usually verbal communication loaded with meaning, forethought, God’s very “logic!” (To me “dabar” in the Old Testament is much like “logos” in the New Testament.)

The preposition “be” (Hebrew, pronounced “bey”) is here translated “in.” God sent His Word … “in” … the Person of His Spirit. It can also mean “through” His Spirit.

Wow!

Paul echoes the same fact in Second Timothy 3:16. “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” The word list “given by inspiration of God” translates just one Greek verbal, “theopneustos.” Meaning “God Breathed!”

Zechariah and Paul agree, both being directed by the Holy Spirit, of Whom we are speaking. Concerning Whom I am writing.

So when we pick up our Bibles, we must realize afresh the Source of its Truth! God … God the Holy Spirit! And then (it would help) realaize that He is also (the Author of the Word) living within our hearts as Believers in Jesus! No wonder we “see” such Wisdom and Beauty and Practicality as we study the Bible! (The Very Author indwells us, whispers His intent concerning any given Passage … directly into our ears!)

Yet the people of Zechariah’s day still did not respond to the Word of God! “Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the Lord of hosts hath sent in his spirit by the former prophets: therefore came a great wrath from the Lord of hosts.”

They did not listen!

Will you?

Will we?

— Dr. Mike Bagwell