By Rev. Doug Enick
Trinity Evangelical Church
Special to the Tribune

One might be tempted to think that the almighty and eternal God, the Maker of heaven and earth—the one who transcends time and space—would be too great, too highly exalted to take an interest in the affairs of lowly creatures like us. King David marveled at this, saying, “When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?” (Ps. 8:3-4)

But the Lord is mindful of him, and especially of the one who reveres his word. As he says in Isaiah, “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool; what is the house that you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest? All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the Lord. But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word” (66:1-2).

The Lord “looks to” (i.e., takes notice of, has a special regard for) the one who is humble and contrite in spirit and “trembles at his word.” One of the surest indicators of a person’s spiritual condition is his attitude toward the word of God. Do you tremble at his word? In other words, do you take it seriously? Do you bow before its authority, not only when its teaching pleases you, but even when it contradicts your wishes?

To disregard or disobey the teaching of Scripture is not simply to disregard words written in a book by man. It is to disregard and disobey God himself and his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul told the Thessalonians that he thanked God constantly because “when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God” (1 Thess. 2:13). He told the Corinthians, “If anyone thinks that he is a prophet, or spiritual, he should acknowledge that the things I am writing to you are a command of the Lord” (1 Cor. 14:37-38). Similarly, Peter told his readers to remember “the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles” (2 Pet. 3:2).

Some people suggest there is a qualitative difference between the words of Christ and the words of the apostles and the prophets. But there is no difference. “All Scripture is breathed out by God…” That is, all of it is divinely inspired and therefore carries the authority of God himself and so is “profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness” (2 Tim. 3:16). Peter says the same thing, when he writes, “No prophecy [i.e., part or portion of Scripture] was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Pet. 1:21).

R.J. Rushdoony captured the essence of what it means to tremble at God’s word when he wrote, “Too often, the modern theologian and churchman goes to the Bible seeking insight, not orders. Indeed, I may go to Calvin, Luther, Augustine, and others, to scholars Christian and non-Christian, for insights, for data, and for learned studies, but when I go to the Bible I must go to hear God’s marching orders for my life. I cannot treat the Bible as a devotional manual designed to give me peace of mind or a ‘higher plane’ of living: it is a command book which can disturb my peace with its orders, and it tells me that I can only find peace in obeying the Almighty.

The Bible is not an inspirational book for my personal edification, nor a book of beautiful thoughts and insights for my pleasure. It is the word of the sovereign and Almighty God: I must hear and obey, I must believe and be faithful, because God requires it. I am His property, and His absolute possession. There can be nothing better than that.”