Unfolding the Word

About three weeks ago I read a book about expository preaching and felt-need preaching, in which the author quoted Psalm 119:130, “The unfolding of your words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple” (ESV).

It is that word “unfolding” that my mind won’t let go. It is rendered “entrance” in the KJV and many other translations, but the AMP, ESV, NASB, and NIV use “unfolding.” Some paraphrases are more striking. For example the Message Bible reads “Break open your words” and God’s Word uses “Your word is a doorway.” The HCSB even renders it “As your words are taught, they give light.” In these days of biblical illiteracy, I like that!

I’m not a Hebrew expert, but the reference works tell me the word used here does mean an “‘opening’ or ‘entrance’ as of a gate, then a door… and then it means opening, insight, instruction. The word as used here seems to denote the opening or unfolding of the word of God… its being made open to us so that we may perceive its beauty, or may ourselves ‘enter’ into its meaning, its mysteries, and its beauties” (Barnes). Someone opened a door and light has flooded into the room. That someone may be a teacher or a preacher, or God’s Spirit as you read His Word in the stillness of your devotions.

I can see a picture of the Architect of your life standing with you and unfolding the blueprint on the table. Yet instead of a floor plan and sketches you see words, hundreds of them, giving the principles upon which your life is to unfold and fulfill its purpose. That’s what the Word of God is to you: “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Psalm 119:105).

And just as the builder of a home has to continually compare the floor plan and other drawings to the reality of what his workers are doing, so you need to constantly read your Bible and compare it to how your life is working out. Someone said that “Bible” is an acrostic: “Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth!” The Bible doesn’t give you minute details, although the Spirit within will point you to a phrase that you need to understand right now. The Bible is the floor plan as well as the sketch of how the Builder sees the completed work.

As a teacher, and previously a preacher, I just love God’s Word and sharing it, that is, “unfolding” it to people and seeing it work in their lives. Ezra is a good illustration of what my ministry is all about. “They read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading“ (Nehemiah 8:8). But first “Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people” (verse 5). Our challenge today is to get believers and even preachers to “open the book” and start reading!

Another example that comes to mind is from chapter 8 of the Acts of the Apostles. An Ethiopian palace official had gone to Jerusalem to worship and was on his way home. He was “seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah. And the Spirit said to Philip, ‘Go over and join this chariot.’ So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, ‘Do you understand what you are reading?’ And he said, ‘How can I, unless someone guides me?‘ And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him” (Acts 8:28-31). Thank God for the Philips of this world!

Many of you reading this have been reading the Bible for years. Be sensitive to the Spirit within and follow where he leads; be ready to run! Someone needs YOU to guide them gently into God’s revelation of who they really are and what they can do by following God’s plan for their life. I’ve been publicly sharing the Word for 58 years, and for nearly 50 years to my American friends, so I know many of you personally or by constant contact. “Bloom where you are planted,” friends, be the “salt of the earth” (Matthew 5:13), “the light of the world” (verses 14-16).

“All preaching is yelling; all teaching is telling” is a humorous way of explaining the two terms. Since I watch a lot of Christian television, it is less than half a minute before I change channels when someone is yelling at me, since they confuse noise with power. My heart just wants someone to “unfold” to me the beauty, the greatness, the integrity of God’s Word.

So please, “open the book,” read what is written, and if there is something you don’t understand, find a book, a teacher, a friend, so you can say they “gave the sense so that I understood the reading.”