Growling in the Word of God

CONSECRATE Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.  Jesus, I belong to you. I lift up my heart to you. I set my mind on you. I fix my eyes on you. I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice. Jesus, we belong to you.  Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.  HEAR Joshua 1:7–9 (NIV) “Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.” CONSIDER So yesterday, we delved into “Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips.” And we worked on keeping this Word from God in our mouths all day long: “Be strong and very courageous.” Anyone who tries this will realize just how challenging it is to keep our attention focused. It is why gentleness (the fruit of the Holy Spirit) is so important. We must not scold ourselves for losing attention or becoming distracted but gently recall our attention to the Word and Spirit. Now we turn to this next word: “Meditate on it day and night.” Do you know when that is? Yep. Always. It is always either day or night. But this little word—meditate—might mean more than you think it does. Many Eastern religions have laid claim to the concept of meditation. The biblical idea of meditation, as I understand it, is quite different. Meditation is often an attempt to empty one’s mind. The biblical practice of meditation is about filling one’s mind—with the Word of God. The Hebrew word (transliterated) hagah is pronounced “daw-gaw.” It means “to growl, utter, speak, or muse.” And, yes, you read it right, “to growl.” The biblical concept of meditation carries the image of a lion growling over, eating, and savoring its freshly caught prey. We so often think of the Word of God as a duty we must exercise. The Spirit teaches us that the Word of God is a meal to be savored and enjoyed. Recall the signature instruction of Psalm 1: “But whose delight is in the law of the LORD, and who meditates on his law day and night” (v. 2). I have a working rubric that helps me engage the Word of God over time, and it has led me from a disciplined, dutiful reading of Scripture to a deeply delighted and desirous appetite for God’s Word. The hand is the mnemonic device with each finger representing a sequential step of engagement. And, of course, it is alliterated, each beginning with the letter r. Little finger: Read (mouth) Ring finger: Ruminate (meditate) Middle finger: Rememberize (slowly load the long-term memory—more on this in day 42) Index finger: Research (dig deeper) Thumb: Rehearse (do it) Ruminate is an agricultural term. It is what cows do when they eat. They delight in grazing on grass. They chew it up. They swallow it and it goes into one of their multiple stomachs where it is formed into a cud. Then they regurgitate it back into their mouth and chew it some more. They are getting every last bit of taste and every last morsel of nutrition. That’s how biblical meditation works. We must, however, get to the source—the Scriptures themselves. In my own personal journey and now significant experience as an awakening and discipleship coach, I find most of us tend to compartmentalize our faith into a small block of time in the mornings. And this time is not so much characterized by reading and ruminating on the Word of God as it is spent reading and thinking about others’ thoughts on the Word of God. It’s not bad, but it tends to focus on others’ words and be short on God’s words. Our strength and courage must depend on far deeper sources than the words of women and men. This is why the text makes a beeline from “Be strong and very courageous” to “meditate on [the Word of God] day and night.” “Be strong and very courageous. . . . Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night.” PRAY Father, thank you for your Word. One word of your Word is worth more than all of the words of men and women over all the history of the world. How we love your Word and your Spirit. Come, Holy Spirit, and increase our appetite for your Word, our delight in your Word, our desire for your Word. And all of this so that every day we might become made more in the image of your Son, Jesus, in whose name we pray, amen.