He Sent Forth His Word
Psalm 107 tells of a people who wandered in the wilderness, hungry and thirsty, with no city to dwell in. Their soul fainted within them, and they cried unto the Lord in their trouble. He delivered them out of their distresses, and He led them forth, that they might go to a city of habitation.
“He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.” (Psalm 107:20 KJV)
The word did the work. God sent the word, and healing came. God sent the word, and the sick rose from the bed and the dead came out of the tomb. Nothing stood between the sent word and the finished work, for the word of God accomplishes what God sends it to accomplish.
Hezekiah, king of Judah, fell sick unto death, and Isaiah the prophet came to him with a message: set thine house in order, for thou shalt die.
Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed unto the Lord, and he wept sore.
Isaiah had gone out into the middle court when the word of the Lord came to him again. Turn around, and tell Hezekiah the captain of my people, Thus saith the Lord, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will heal thee.
The king received fifteen added years, and the shadow went back ten degrees as a sign.
The centurion in Capernaum understood the principle better than most. A servant lay sick of the palsy, grievously tormented, and the centurion came to Jesus and asked for help. Jesus said He would come and heal him, and the centurion answered that he was a man under authority, with soldiers under him, and that when he said to one come, he came, and to another go, he went. He said, “Speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed.”
Jesus marvelled and said He had found no such faith in Israel.
The word was sent, and the servant was healed in the selfsame hour.
The nobleman from Capernaum came to Jesus at Cana of Galilee and asked Him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. Jesus sent the word, saying, “Go thy way; thy son liveth.” The man believed and went his way.
As he journeyed down, his servants met him along the way and told him the child lived. He inquired the hour, and they said the fever left him at the seventh hour. The nobleman knew that was the hour when Jesus sent the word, and he believed, and his whole house believed afterward.
Lazarus lay four days in the tomb. Martha said to Jesus that if He had been there, her brother would have lived, and Jesus told her that He is the resurrection and the life, and that whoever believes in Him would live even after death. They came to the tomb, and Jesus said, “Take ye away the stone.” Martha objected initially because of the smell, and Jesus prayed to the Father and then cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth.”
He that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes.
No medicine and no mourning could do what the word did.
John the Baptist sent two of his disciples to ask Jesus if He was the one who should come or if another was to be expected. Jesus answered by listing what the word had accomplished: the blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. The word of God went out through the voice of the Son and did the works of the Father.
Jeremiah recorded the promise of the Lord concerning His word. “Is not my word like as a fire? saith the Lord; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?” A fire consumes what it touches, and a hammer shatters what it strikes. The word consumes and breaks what stands against it, and it heals and restores what yields to it.
Isaiah declared that the word accomplishes what God sends it to accomplish. The rain comes down from heaven and waters the earth, making it bring forth harvest to the sower and bread to the eater. The word goes forth from the mouth of God. It accomplishes that which God pleases, and it prospers in the thing whereto God sent it.
The word is sent. The word does the work. God sent the word at creation when He said, Let there be light, and light came. The same word goes forth today, healing the sick, delivering the bound, restoring the broken, and raising the dead.
The Lord gave the word: great was the company of those that published it.
For the word is light, and is healing and deliverance.
LET US PRAY
Oh Lord, send forth Your word.
In Jesus’ name, Amen!
