“Unabridged” is a funny word to find beside the title of a dictionary. Of course, in the case of Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary the term is used more as a claim of thoroughness than of sovereignty, as if to say, “We are the most complete dictionary of our class,” and not, “Herein lies the comprehensive listing of all known words.” The team of individuals working toward the task of composing or updating a dictionary knows better than most that a complete and unabridged glossary of terms simply isn’t possible. For starters, one book could not house every word in the English language. Moreover, it could hardly keep up with the claim; new words are forever emerging: “Scratchiti” (words or images engraved or etched illegally into surfaces in a public place) and “ludology” (the study of video games and game playing) are two of the more recent additions to the Oxford English Dictionary this year, not to mention the ever-growing host of new medical and technological terms.(1) According to Webster Online, words also occasionally “die” from lack of use. The world of words is evidently a vast and active place. 

 In the Hebrew Scriptures, when God called Moses to go and speak with the people of Israel under slavery in Egypt, Moses was all too aware that he didn’t have the words within him for the task. “O Lord,” he announced, “I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.” But God responded, “Who gave man his mouth?  Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the LORD? Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.” But still Moses asked God to send someone else to do it.(2)

 Whether Moses was afraid of speaking for God or speaking to the Israelites, most of us can in some way relate to his heartfelt plea. According to several surveys, public speaking is the greatest fear of the vast majority, a phobia ranked even above the fear of death. And speaking for God could certainly complicate the anxiety. Many of the prophets chosen by God to be his voice among the people spoke of the weight of such a task, coupled with the concern of speaking to a world that didn’t want to hear. Each time the prophet was reminded similarly: The God who set the world in place with a word will surely put the words in your mouth. Jesus likewise instructed the disciples in their ministering, “Make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves.For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict.”

 The vast and daunting world of words is met with this thought. God is yet the giver of words and wisdom. Whether speaking for God or of God—or speaking at all—all wisdom is God’s wisdom. Thus Paul asks the people of Ephesus, “Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel.” That the words of our mouths may be pleasing in God’s sight is a prayer that leads God’s own again and again to his Word. “Remain in me,” said Jesus to the disciples before he went to the cross, “and let my words remain in you.” His words are more vast and active than any dictionary, wisdom unabridged.

 God who speaks and who asks us to speak offers wisdom in person in the Son, the assurance that we are heard by the Father, and the promise of the Spirit to help us with the words. God who set the world in place with words still speaks.

 Jill Carattini is managing editor of A Slice of Infinity at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Atlanta, Georgia.

 (1) Oxford English Dictionary, “New Words March 2012,” http://www.oed.com/public/newwords0312, accessed May 1, 2012.
(2) Exodus 4:10-12.