“And Jesus Closed the Book” – Richard Murray
Here is a radical idea: sometimes we need to CLOSE the Bible and BEHOLD God.
"And He [Jesus] CLOSED the book…and sat down. And the eyes of all… were fastened on Him. And He began to say to them, “This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears.” And all bore Him witness and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth."
Jesus here in Luke 4:17-22 declares that He, in their immediate midst, IS the fulfillment of the messianic promise of Isaiah. This promise stated that messiah would be anointed to preach the gospel to the poor, that He would heal the brokenhearted, preach deliverance to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, and to preach the year of favor from the Lord.
But, before Jesus manifested this incredible truth, He first had to CLOSE THE BOOK. This allowed every eye to focus solely on Him. The Bible needed to be closed so it would not be a distraction from relating to the manifest presence of God right THEN and THERE.
The Bible is meant to be a launching pad which thrusts us into ACTUAL Heavenly interactions with the presence of God, just like it occurred here.
But, if we keep the book frantically open all the time, our attention will be divided, continually racing, and we will never be able to fully relate to the God who sits down and speaks gracious words to our hearts and minds all the day long. We can be so legalistically chained to the book that we will never be able to wholeheartedly set our spiritual eyes on the God of here and now—- and therefrom listen and behold His grace with a single eye.
The Bible is wonderful, profitable and vital in countless ways, BUT it is not Jesus. Jesus is Jesus. The Bible, when used properly, will always promptly point us to a direct encounter with Jesus by first closing the book, and then listening to the Holy Spirit's inner glowings, showings, and knowings as they are quickened to our inner beings.
The Bible becomes much more special whenever we do open it, if we also remember that it is just as important to close it for a time so that we can allow the ministry of direct Spiritual encounter to occur.
Allowing the Scriptural promises to blossom this way into direct encounter with the Lord is what it's all about.
One last point, after Jesus closed the book declaring that the Isaiah passage was fulfilled in Him THAT very moment, the crowd’s response was to try to hurl Jesus off a cliff.
They failed.
And the crowd might want to suggest the same fate for us when we suggest that sometimes closing the book is needed to open our eyes. Their wanting to frantically keep the book perpetually open was actually an deadened excuse to keep their spiritual eyes closed to the living truth.
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Paul asked me to consider the emotional difference between a house and a home—and how that difference suggests renewed ways of being “church.” He began by asking how I might respond if he told me, “I’ve built an addition on my house.” I suppose I’d say, “That’s great, Paul. Another room for you to use, to fill, to clean. Good for you.” But then feel the difference of discovering that his household had just increased. “A new addition to the family! Wahoo! I can’t wait to meet her!”
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