Power of the spoken word

How do you consume your entertainment?

Perhaps you are a box-set junkie, ripping through the new releases as fast as they are made available?

Perhaps you are an old-time movie goer, loving the thrill of the cinema and the spectacle of the big screen?

Perhaps you are a music aficionado and subscribe to Spotify (other streaming services are available) to make sure you have always-on tunes.

Perhaps you are devoted to vinyl and love the sound of the needle bumping over a lifetime’s accumulated scratches and dents?

Perhaps there’s nothing to beat the thrill of the live event for you, whether it is sport or music?

Perhaps your idyllic night in is curled up on the sofa with a good book?

As it happens, I could take all of these, though probably not at the same time. But over the last two years, I’ve reconnected with a medium that some might say has had its day: the spoken word.

I spend quite a lot of time in the car and have found myself listening to radio programmes on subjects that would not normally interest me (food science!) and audio books from authors I would not normally select. It’s been a revelation – especially the power of the spoken word to inform, challenge, correct, entertain, and above all, move. It is this last action that interests me most. You might think that with the audio-sensory overload we are bombarded with we would be desensitised to the power of the spoken word. This is simply not true. Beautiful and carefully-

crafted words paint pictures that stir the imagination and move the soul.

I found listening to a book on Auschwitz much more emotionally involving than watching a documentary on it (which I did soon after). I found a comedy show made me laugh out loud more than a TV serial. I found more sadness in the account of a mother losing her baby than a similar depiction on the screen. Why is this?

At a deep theological level, it’s because words have power. We see that throughout the Scriptures. God speaks and stuff happens. Read again the account of Creation. Read again – as I have just been doing – the giving of the Law in Exodus 19 and 20. Read again the Gospels as Jesus speaks powerful words of rebuke and healing. Moreover, He is still speaking and still ‘sustaining all things by his powerful word’ (Heb. 1:3).

Profound though this is, we can say more. Words have the power to draw us in – in a way that pictures cannot. The trouble with pictures is that, especially if they contain figures, it’s difficult to see yourself as anything other than a disinterested observer. They are, for the most part, to be looked at, rather than absorbed.

This has struck me afresh whilst studying Proverbs earlier this year. Take one very simple proverb: ‘An honest answer is like a kiss on the lips’ (Prov.24:26). It’s a beautiful proverb depicting the intimacy and attractiveness of honesty.

Note how the image enhances the point. There’s no direct link between the image and the teaching. But the imagery takes the teaching and drives it home. And it does so in the way that an image could not. So, imagine I have a poster on my bedroom wall which has this text on it. On the poster is a couple kissing. Cute. But straight away, this is an image I observe. I am not the one being kissed.

The word image leaves all this hanging, however. So when I hear the proverb (rather than see it), I immediately imagine the intimacy, joy and delight that I get from my wife kissing me on the lips. Anyone else kissing me on the lips would not solicit the same reaction. The word picture draws me in and enhances the point being made.

All this means that we need to allow word pictures in the Scriptures to do their work. We need to feel their force. We need to experience the joy they provoke. We need to mock the hypocrisy they reveal. We need to share the anger they express.

Take a moment to flick through Proverbs right now: in your Bible, on your phone. Pick one or two and let their imagery work upon you. It’s powerful stuff.

And I for one am glad.