On this day (2/12), which is one of the days of the Bible Week, I would like to speak to you about the word of God to each one of you.

The Word of God to You

Every person receives the word of God, his own personal word of God.
“God, who at various times and in various ways spoke to the fathers…”

He spoke to Moses from the burning bush, at a time when he did not expect at all that the word of God would reach him, and in this manner… And at times He spoke to him from the tent of meeting, or from the mountain.

Thus He spoke to Saul of Tarsus “on the road,” at an unexpected time.

The Lord even spoke to sinners who were unworthy:
As He spoke to Cain after he killed Abel, and as He spoke to Balaam who led all the people of Israel astray…

The word of God came to some directly, and to others indirectly.

The Lord spoke to the evil king Ahab through Elijah the prophet, and spoke to Eli the priest through Samuel, spoke to Herod through the Magi… and spoke to many in a direct way.

The Lord spoke to different kinds of people, even children:
He spoke to the child Samuel, and when he did not perceive the word of the Lord to him, He repeated the words to him two and three times. Likewise, He spoke to Jeremiah the boy, who did not know how to speak because he was a child…

The word of the Lord had various purposes and goals:
He spoke to Jeremiah to call him to service, and likewise to Saul of Tarsus. He spoke to Moses the prophet to deliver the Law to the people. He spoke to Abraham once to test him, and once to inform him of His intention to burn Sodom, and at other times… He spoke to Cain to pronounce punishment upon him, and spoke to the Magi to warn them about Herod…

No matter how varied the purposes, there is a word that God delivers to every person, carrying God’s message to him. So what is God’s message to you?

God goes about doing good, sending His words to people, scattering His seeds on all kinds of ground, even on stony ground and ground full of thorns… He casts His word and leaves the hearer to his own will.

Many of those who received the word of God did not accept it:
The rich young man heard the word of Christ to him, and went away sorrowful because he had many possessions. Others heard the word of the Lord and excused themselves from responding to it: one because he had five yoke of oxen, another because he had a field, and a third because he had married…

God sends the word, and this word has reached everyone; He deprived no one of it, even Judas the traitor received the word of God more than once…

Beautiful is the phrase, “And the word of the Lord came to Elijah”… it came to him specifically, not to the rest of the people… a personal word… Likewise, how beautiful is the Lord’s saying to Simon the Pharisee: “I have something to say to you.”

The word of the Lord may come in a miraculous way or in an ordinary way:

Saint Abba Anthony entered the church and heard the Gospel, the same Gospel that was read to all the people…
But a certain verse stopped him; he felt it was directed specifically to him.
That verse says, “Go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and come, follow Me.” He felt that this word had a special effect in himself, and that it was sent to him personally, so he went and sold all that he had…

When thoughts fought him concerning his sister and her future, he went to the church and felt that there was a message waiting for him, which was the saying of the Scripture: “Do not worry about tomorrow.” It was a message to him personally.

There are people who have sensitivity to the words of God; they have “trained senses” that can perceive the word sent from God to them.

These do not take the word of God only from the Holy Bible.

Abba Anthony—in the beginning of his monasticism—lived an ascetic life by the riverbank, and there he saw a barbarian woman who came, removed her clothes before him, and entered the river naked. The saint was astonished and said to her, “Woman, are you not ashamed to be naked before me, while I am a monk?!” The woman laughed and said to him, “If you were a monk, you would have gone into the inner desert, because this place is not suitable for monks.”

The saint Abba Anthony reflected well on the woman’s words and realized completely that it was a message from God to him through the mouth of this woman. Immediately he arose and went to the inner desert according to “the word of God” to him.

Do not think that the word of the Lord reaches you only through a prophet or an angel! It may come through the mouth of such a naked woman!

The same happened to Abba Ephraim the Syrian as happened to Saint Anthony: he was walking on the road, and apparently he was handsome, so a woman kept looking at his face for a long time until he became embarrassed by her gaze… He said to her, “Why do you keep looking like this, while you are a woman?!” She said to him, “It is not strange for a woman to look at a man from whom she was taken (created from one of his ribs). But a man should look at the earth from which he was taken (from its dust)…” Abba Ephraim the Syrian felt that these words were a message from God to him through the mouth of this woman… so he looked at the ground and went on benefiting…

Many saints received the word of the Lord in such a way:

Saint Abba Macarius the Great received the word of God to him from the mouth of the boy Zachariah. When the boy hesitated, saying to the saint, “You are the pillar of the desert and its lamp, and you ask me for a word?!” Abba Macarius replied, “I trust in the Spirit of God in you, that you have something I need to hear!” The same was done by Abba Moses the Black…

In almost the same way was the departure of Abba Paul to solitude…

He had a dispute with his brother and went to the court to litigate there. On the way, he saw a funeral and heard some words. He picked up the word of God to him, left the dispute, the funeral, and the whole world, and went to live in solitude…

Those who came from the ends of the earth to hear a “word of benefit” from the mouth of a saint did not see it as his word, but as the word of God…

It is the word of God placed on the mouth of that saint for their benefit, a word God sent to them through that saint… God “who spoke by the prophets,” who said, “It is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father.”

Trained senses can capture the words of God directed to them. Even a word of rebuke you hear from people may be sent from God to you.

David the prophet, while fleeing from his son Absalom, was met by Shimei the son of Gera on the road, who cursed him with harsh insults. When those around him wanted to take revenge on the man because he cursed the anointed of the Lord, David prevented them, saying, “The Lord has said to him, ‘Curse David.’” David benefited spiritually from that insult as if it were from God.

But miserable is the person to whom God sends a word, and he does not benefit from it, or rejects it as if it were not from God…

Herod was sent the Magi by God with a message, yet he did not benefit from it at all. Pilate received the very word of God and did not benefit. King Agrippa was sent Paul the Apostle with words from God that affected him, so he said to Paul, “You almost persuade me to become a Christian,” yet he did not become a Christian.

Just as the word of God was sent to Agrippa, it was sent to Felix the governor:

As Agrippa was affected, Felix was also affected. The Scripture even tells us that while Paul the Apostle was speaking about righteousness, self-control, and judgment, Felix trembled. But he did not give the word of God a chance to work in him, just like King Agrippa…

Martha received the word of God just as Mary did:

But she was distracted from the word and concerned with many other things. While Mary benefited from the word, Martha was troubled and complained!

The spiritual person not only captures the word of God but also keeps it in his heart, meditates on it, and benefits from it… That is why it is beautiful what was said about our mother the Virgin Mary:

“She kept all these things and pondered them in her heart.”

The Church, for the benefit of the word of God, reads to us a chapter from the Gospel in every prayer of the Agpeya, and a chapter in Vespers incense, Matins incense, and in the Divine Liturgy, and other readings from the Epistles and the Acts… and we hear as if the words are not for us! We do not have the trained senses that capture a message from God to us in what we hear!

In the past, there was more concern for the word of God than in our days!

See what the Scripture says about the word of the Lord in the Book of Deuteronomy:

“And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates” (Deut. 6: 6–9).

Sometimes God sends you His word through a certain incident:

In an illness for you or for someone else, or in the death of someone you know, or in a certain event, God sends you a clear message or a special word. Do not let all these things pass over you without benefit.

With a little intelligence or a little observation, you can understand it.

How many messages God sends to us, clear and readable by everyone in our daily life, yet we lack trained senses… I like the saying of the Scripture about the Jews on the day of Pentecost:

“When they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said… ‘What shall we do?’”

The word of the Lord is piercing, powerful, and effective, like a two-edged sword… It affected Zacchaeus, the chief tax collector, so he repented a true repentance and salvation came to that house. It affected the Philippian jailer, so he was baptized immediately, he and all his household.

But some may be pierced in their hearts—like Agrippa and Felix—and let the matter pass without making a decision or doing any action!!

Do not let the word of the Lord pass over you without taking its power.

Perhaps you read the Scripture and find a certain verse that stands before you, insisting on you… unlike the rest of the verses. But it has a special effect and carries a message, so do not let it pass… The verses of Scripture are sent to millions, but this verse is sent to you personally…

An article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III – in El-Keraza Magazine – Year Eight (Issue Forty-Nine), 9-12-1977.
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