“Then God said, ‘Let there be light; and there was light.'” Genesis 1:3
There was no man present who heard God speak His first command in Scripture, which was before the creation of the world. That which we know, and are assured of, is that God actually spoke, with literal words, but words which not only had great meaning but great power and authority with them, so much so, that “light” was created. Throughout Scripture, from the first page of Moses’ writing of the account in Genesis, to this very day, God is speaking. Why? First and foremost because He is a Person, the Almighty God, possessing all the traits of a person, howbeit, so high and glorious, incomprehensible and perfect in His nature, that our ideas of Him apart from the Scriptures always border on idolatry, as they are so beneath Him, falling infinitely short of the great reality. In all of His Person and nature, He is holy, completely set apart from His creation, as He is the Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer of men, both for time and eternity. This Person reveals to mankind through the writings of His servants, beginning with Moses, that He has made man on this earth in order to communicate to him, His very life and goodness. How does He do this? It is through communion, or fellowship, that very existence and experience of sharing the same blessing of Life, that of Christ. One essential part of the matter of communion is God speaking to men, and men responding in a reverent, thankful, and humble manner, by speaking to Him.
After the resurrection of Christ, we find Him one day standing on the seashore of the Sea of Galilee. After beckoning the disciples, who were fishing at the time, to bring their catch to shore, we see Christ serving them fish, cooked over a fire, and this with bread. It was certainly a quiet, and yet, overwhelming scene, for standing before the disciples was the Messiah, who had been raised from the dead, Him bearing still the scars on His body of the crucifixion. It is there in that marvelous, quiet, and yet wonderful setting, that Jesus speaks to them, specifically to Peter. The God of Creation, and now the God of Redemption revealed, is still speaking, in this case to men, and in particular, to one. Why is this story so very important for a believer’s faith? It is because that, though the Eternal God, Maker of heaven and earth, is so overwhelmingly great and glorious, beyond all comprehension, He is present. Though surrounding the disciples by the Holy Spirit, He yet speaks to them. Christ’s words were not like any other, from any other source, and this because of the infinite profoundness of their meaning. There, in the quiet, in His majestic power and authority, Christ captures the attention of the hearer and brings God’s purpose to light. For Peter, he had an eternal need to hear Christ’s words in simplicity, and power, for there was a need in his heart that only God could meet. In those brief moments, when the reality of the nature of Christ’s words was revealed, in that they were “Spirit” and they were “Life,” Peter felt, and knew, the reality of the “sword of the Spirit” go deep into his heart, there to remove all of the regret of failure and falsehood. It would take the gentle, yet powerful words of Christ, with extraordinary precision, to reach the depths of Peter’s need, for perhaps without noticing it, he was a prisoner of the remembrance of his sin of betrayal of Christ. Only by the power and authority of the Redeemer could such a guilt-filled sentiment and attitude be removed. What did Christ’s words do?
They first pointed Peter to the greatest thing in the eyes of the Lord, that of love for God. Three times Jesus asked, “Do you love Me?” With every question the sword went deeper, until Peter’s limit was reached. The sword that revealed the need would be the instrument to bring deliverance.
Dear Father, Speak to our hearts. In Jesus’ name, Amen.