What Is “The Word”?

January 9, 2019

I had an interesting dream this morning. I don’t know if this dream is a message from God, or just another random sequence of neurological activity, but it has made me think.

The dream started with me and a middle school aged boy sitting in chairs by a table. The boy was at the table and I was a couple feet away, separated from the table but close to the boy. Pastor Josh sat on the other side of the boy quietly observing, but not involved in our conversation. Next to us was a rack of Bibles displayed in tiers so the cover of each Bible was clearly displayed.

The boy looked at me and asked, “Mr. Deemer, what is ‘The Word?’” The context made it clear that he was asking me what people are talking about when they say “The Word” to refer to God’s word.

Usually when people say “The Word” they are referring to the Bible, so I grabbed one of the Bibles, mentally contemplating if I should just tell the boy, “This is The Word.” I glanced over at Pastor Josh, who, in the dream, represented real truth. With a slight scowl on his face, he was shaking his head, communicating to me that that answer isn’t good enough.

My next thought was to say, “This Bible is The Word in part—it’s a message from God, but God speaks in other ways too.” Even as I thought of that answer it didn’t seem adequate either. As I struggled mentally for the right words to answer, my dream was interrupted, as if I was starting to wake up, but one final scene flashed in the dream. Everything was the same except the Bible in my hand had turned into a large, crisp, juicy apple that was about ¼ eaten and had some minor bruising.

I’ve been thinking about how to answer the boy’s question. Whether the dream was from God or not, it seems to point to some things I’ve been meditating on this year.

I believe:

• The Bible is a message from our creator.

• The “Word of God” is more than just the Bible. He communicates to us in many ways if we listen.

• We distort his message, making it into what we want it to be.

o We distort the words of the Bible by presuming passages mean one thing where there are many possible interpretations.

o We distort God’s message by presuming circumstances in our lives speak for God when those circumstances could be interpreted many ways.

o We hear what we want to hear and overlook details that contradict what we’re comfortable with.

• Sometimes we have to be a little presumptuous and believe what it appears God is telling us even though there are many possibilities.

o We need to be aware of our presumption—not overly self-confident.

o We generally shouldn’t apply our understanding as universally applicable to everyone and everything. Absolutes such as all, every, never, etc., are rarely true.

• The Bible needs to be our foundation for discerning God’s word.

o We need to study the Bible diligently.

o We need to be sure our beliefs don’t contradict scripture.

• Trusting in the Bible doesn’t protect us from error. We are all prone to distort the truth of scripture by our selfish nature, our ignorance, our pride, etc.

o We need to stand firm on only a few fundamental truths, and respect people who disagree with us.

o We should accept that we’ve been presumptuous on most of what we believe because complete, perfect truth is far beyond our comprehension.

If my dream was a message from God, here’s what I think it said.

• The boy asked one of the most important questions I can ask myself, “What is The Word?”

o What is God’s message to me and to humanity?

• Pastor Josh’s scowling headshake tells me I need to be careful and not overly confident in my answer.