Hear the Word of the Lord: 52 Lessons

By Earl L. Bledsoe D.Min

This text is a theological reflection of the words, Hear the Word of the Lord in the Bible. The objective is to focus and provide a reflection on scriptures to help individuals in their spiritual growth and their capacity to respond to the struggles of life with more emotional and psychological victories.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Aug 29, 2016
• ISBN: 9781524626631

Earl L. Bledsoe D.Min

In January 1971, Earl L. Bledsoe entered ministry and was licensed at Cross Road Baptist Church as a Baptist minister. In June 1971, he was ordained as assistant to Pastor Dr. C. S. Peterson. In 1972, he was introduced to the Interfaith Metropolitan Ecumenical Theological Seminary (Inter/Met) where he matriculated on an undergraduate/graduate journey. Earl was granted a bachelor of arts in history and a master’s degree in management from the Open University System. In September 1977, he transferred to Lancaster Theological Seminary, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and graduated cum laude with a master’s of divinity degree in 1979. On the postgraduate path, Earl studied at Boston University and completed the doctor of ministry work at Lancaster Theological Seminary, where he was granted a doctor of ministry in 1997. His dissertation was “Therapeutic Preaching from the Perspective of an African-American Free Church Pastor”. Earl also followed the clinical education path and pursued pastoral education in different medical and mental institutions. Further, he participated in a certificate program in church management from Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and a certificate program from the Leadership Institute at Harvard University in Boston, Massachusetts. Dr. Bledsoe has served as the pastor of Silver Hill Baptist Church in Morrisville, Virginia; Pilgrim Baptist Church in Wilderness, Virginia; and Mount Calvary Baptist Church in Prince William, Virginia. He retired after thirty-one years as senior pastor of Great Hope Baptist Church in Richmond, Virginia, where he is Pastor Emeritus. Dr. Bledsoe is currently serving as Interim Pastor at Quioccasin Baptist Church, Henrico, Virginia. Dr. Bledsoe is the Director of Field Education at the Samuel Dewitt Proctor School of Theology at Virginia Union University in Richmond, Virginia; former Director of the Doctor of Ministry Program at the Richmond Virginia Seminary; and an Adjunct Professor in the Doctor of Ministry Program at United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio. Dr. Bledsoe is married, the father of four children, grandfather to thirteen, and great-grandfather to four.

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LESSON 1

FIRST SIGHTING

A fter a time of reflection and meditation, the Spirit brought to mind Hear the Word of the Lord. In an effort to search, examine, and prepare, the Spirit pushed me to Strong’s Concordance. The term to hear is in the King James texts more than 1,200 times. To hear is not simply about receiving sound. In a biblical context, to hear means to receive and respond with appropriate action. To hear means to receive and obey by doing what one understands to be a divine inspiration to get something done.

I offer something my professors taught me about assumptions. When reading any document and encountering a word or term that raises some concern about connotation, the reader can assume that a basic meaning for that term can be established or derived from the context of its first use in the document.

For those not proficient in Hebrew or Greek, the workhorse for Bible study is Strong’s Concordance. One who employs Strong’s to plow the biblical soil and expose a sacred script should particularize the word or term for study. In this document, the phrase is Hear the Word of the Lord. According to Strong’s, hear is used in Genesis 4:23, Exodus 19:9, Leviticus 5:1, and Deuteronomy 4:6. Within the specific parameters of the King James text, Hear the Word of the Lord first appears in Joshua 3:9.

According to most fundamental Bible teachers, Joshua’s task was to come after Moses and lead the children of Jacob into the Promised Land. An understanding of the Promised Land did not start with Moses. In the King James text, the Promised Land reaches back to Genesis 6:18. That is also the first time we find the word covenant.

God established a covenant with Noah: Unto your seed I will give you this land (Genesis 12:7). The promise starts in the beginning of the Bible. When we come to the Joshua texts, hearing the Word of the Lord is in the Bible’s DNA. It indicates a message for all humans and announces that God created all people.

All people are children of Adam and Eve. All people inherit disobedience from the garden. All children share Abel’s reaction to God’s action. All people can be enslaved in some Egypt. Moses and God’s law can deliver all people. All people need to hear the Word of the Lord in the context of Joshua’s leadership to process the promises of God.

Test Questions

1. Where can we find the first biblical reference to hear the Word of the Lord?

Answer: Joshua 3:9

2. What people are the recipients of the promises of God?

Answer: All people are.

3. What people are created by God?

Answer: All people are.

4. What people are the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve?

Answer: All people are.

5. Are Hebrews the only recipients of the DNA of the Bible?

Answer: No. In theory, all people are recipients of the DNA of the Bible.

6. Is Abel’s reaction to God’s action exclusive to Abel?

Answer: No. All people are potential brothers and sisters of the action of Abel.

7. Philosophically were only the Hebrews enslaved in Egypt?

Answer: No all people share the potential for physical, mental, or emotional captivity in some type of reality.

8. Was Moses only a deliverer of the Hebrews?

Answer: No. All people can benefit from teachers like Moses to instruct them or to lead them to the freedom of personal spiritual growth and maturity.

9. Is the law received by Moses only for the Hebrews?

Answer: No. The law received by Moses is a biblical contribution for all people.

10. Is Joshua exclusive to the Old Testament?

Answer: No. Joshua is in the King James text 116 times. Joshua can symbolize the ageless characters who serve as teachers, preachers, pastors, and parents and carry on the liberating work of God.

LESSON 2

A WORD ON THE OMNIPRESENCE OF GOD

T he second lesson on hear the Word of the Lord comes from Joshua 1:1. It gives information that Joshua ministered to Moses. According to Strong’s, ministered means to attend, to serve, or to wait on. The assumption is that Joshua had a relationship with Moses and learned things that enabled him to have an understanding of God and become a leader.

Joshua explains how learning to hear the Word of the Lord from a champion of faith can greatly facilitate a believer’s understanding of the omnipresence of God. Joshua’s relationship with Moses provides practical lessons that suggest some other assumptions about the omnipresence of God.

Joshua can help us assume that Moses can help all people confront the plagues that are involved in human oppression. Each person who listens to the Word of God can become his or her own deliverance with the omnipresence of God.

Joshua claims that the Lord talked directly to him and gave him a promise: as I was with Moses so I will be with you (Joshua 1:5). Joshua started leading Israel with the assurance of the presence of God.

Joshua continues his lesson about the presence of God with four assurances: No man will be able to stand before you. I will not fail you. I will not forsake you. You will divide the land for an inheritance (Joshua 1:5, 5:6).

• The omnipresence of God is particularly with all individuals the Spirit inspires to become a leaders or liberators like Moses.

• The omnipresence of God is with all individuals to provide spiritual inspiration for believers to stand boldly before human oppressors.

• The omnipresence of God is with all individuals to keep believers from failing to accomplish missions to which they are called.

• The omnipresence of God is with all individuals to prevent believers from feeling abandoned by God when all physical evidence suggests they are alone.

• The omnipresence of God is with all believers to enable them to move beyond the egocentric issues that prevent sharing and surrendering resources for community.

Test Questions

1. In Joshua, where can we find a reference to the omnipresence of God?

Answer: Joshua 1:5

2. In Joshua, is the omnipresence only about the presence of God?

Answer: No. It is also about lessons that can be relevant to the presence of God.

3. In Joshua, what other benefits are associated with the presence of God?

Answer: According to Joshua 1:6 and 1:7, the omnipresence of God can provide the following assurances:

• No human will be able to stand against a believer.

• God will not fail a believer.

• God will not forsake a believer.

• In God, a believer will divide what is received as an inheritance for others.

LESSON 3

AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE OMNISCIENCE OF GOD

A benefit of hearing the Word of the Lord is seeing that God possesses all knowledge. This benefit is revealed in God’s awareness or intellectual capacity to keep and make promises: which I swore unto their fathers to give them (Joshua 1:6). This text refers to a promise of land. Land is mentioned in Joshua more than eighty times. In most of these texts, land refers to physical territory. Land can also indicate the totality of God’s creation. In this document, the Promised Land is not exclusively about the earth. It also includes the environment offered and guaranteed by the intelligence of the Divine Being.

God will drive out the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites, and the Jebusites (Joshua 3:10). This list of names represents the tribes and people who lived in the area, but the names also represent all cultures, traditions, habits, behaviors, attitudes, and perspectives of the human family. On a collective level, this list of tribes can be about God’s knowledge of the social, mental, and religious realities that believers must learn to eliminate or adjust to in order to process, live with, occupy, and become engaged in possessing the promises of God.

The instructions to eradicate all the people were not about God hating all people other than the Hebrews. A more universal possibility suggests that the knowledge of God is about all the negative possibilities of human realities that complicate the promises of God. It is less difficult to live victoriously when believers are free from the philosophical and behavioral dynamics that influence movement away from an understanding of God’s omniscience.

According to Genesis, God created a perfect environment—but the humans sinned. In Noah’s narrative, God washed and purified the world.

With Joshua, the omniscience of God informs us that God can confront and manage all cultures, traditions, habits, behaviors, attitudes, and perceptions. A third lesson in Joshua that is relevant to the omniscience of God suggests that believers will hear the Word of the Lord and become aware of the immense intelligence of God. This will empower believers to live with victory.

Beloved I wish above all things that you may prosper and be in health even as your soul prospers (3 John 1:3). God is fully aware of human weakness, and God’s intelligence provides Holy strength in flesh.

I will be with you always even until the end of the world (Matthew 28:20). Believers can be confident that God is able to keep his eternal promises in spite of the human predisposition to sin.

Joshua’s account of crossing the Jordan River is not just about the power of God. God has knowledge of all waters that seem impossible to cross. When believers live and operate with an awareness of divine omniscience, they can move with conviction that God possesses the intelligence to hold the fluidity of all forces in obedience to divine will.

Test Questions

1. What is the meaning of the omniscience of God?

Answer: Omniscient means having total knowledge.

2. What can we derive from Joshua about the connection between the omniscience of God and the law?

Answer: God gave the law, and he is fully aware of the ramifications of the law.

3. What is a critical lesson relative to the fact that Joshua came after Moses?

Answer: Joshua is not simply after Moses. Joshua leads Israel after the giving of the law. Therefore, Joshua can be a lesson about the relevance of new leadership to divine law.

4. With reference to Joshua in the account concerning the crossing of Jordan, what can be a lesson about the power of God?

Answer: God has knowledge about all waters and forces that inhibit human progress.

5. Is Joshua’s instruction concerning the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites, and the Jebusites proof that God loves the Hebrews more than all another people?

Answer: No. These names can be universal, and they represent the love of God that provides instruction about all cultures and traditions. When believers do not eliminate or address negative cultures or traditions, they must live with the consequences.

LESSON 4

A WORD ON OMNIPOTENCE AND FAITH

A ccording to Strong’s Concordance, faith is not a term that is found often in the Old Testament. To work with faith, this document will focus mostly on the New Testament. Paul suggested that God’s promises are about more than land or eternal heritage since the promises point to faith (Acts 26:6–7).

It is by faith … according to grace so that the promises might be sure to all seed, not only to those of the law, but also to those of faith … Also for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead (Romans 4:16–24)

Peter had problems receiving no Hebrews into the fellowship of Jesus. The promises are for you and your children also to all who are afar off as many as the Lord our God will call (Acts 2:29).

The Old Testament writers were working with the concept of an inclusive faith. Joshua understood that Israel did not—and could not—occupy the promises without believing that God could drive out the cultures, traditions, habits, behaviors, attitudes, and concepts that possessed the promises of the Lord.

Without using the word faith, Joshua believed in the omnipotence of God. By the power of the self, God could include all in the family of faith. In the Old Testament, Isaiah could support Joshua’s assumption of faith: When God speaks his word shall not come back to him void (Isaiah 55:11).

Old Testament characters did not prolifically utilize the term faith, but they did apply the concept of faith. For them, the promise of God was a pledge given by the self-fulfilling potency of the Word of God. The Eternal Being can do what the Word of God states he will do. With or without using the term faith, there is evidence that the characters in the Old Testament believed that God’s actions from Genesis 6:18 through Genesis 12:7 are based on God’s power to accomplish that which is in his divine will.

Joshua was able to lead Israel because he believed in the omnipotence of the Eternal Being. For Joshua, the power of God was with them when they left Egypt. The power of God was with them in the wilderness. The power of God was with them when they crossed the Jordan.

God may not do all that a believer wants God to do, but for Joshua, God is omnipotent because God can do anything. God may not heal sickness, but God is omnipotent—and God can do anything. God may not move every mountain, but God is omnipotent—and God can do anything. God may not eliminate every stumbling block, but God is omnipotent—and God can do anything. God may not solve all problems, but God is omnipotent—and God can do anything.

Joshua provides one of the Old Testament’s greatest demonstrations of divine power. Joshua spoke to the Lord when the Lord delivered the Amorites before the children of Israel and he said in the sight of Israel Sun stand still upon Gibeon; and moon in the valley of Ajalon and the sun stood still and the moon stayed (Joshua 10:12–13).

There was not a day like that before it or after it (Joshua 10:14). God held both the sun and the moon. In Joshua, a major lesson is that God has power over all heavenly bodies. God has the power to give total victory over all elements and enemies.