 Throughout my life I've increasingly found that reading scripture in public isn't just about feeding our own spirits and minds but about rehearsing the mighty acts of God for God's glory. So let's think together about 2 Kings 3 15. And first we're going to need some tea. Elisha said, get me a musician. And then, while the musician was playing, the power of the Lord came on him. It's one of my favorite little lines in the whole of the Old Testament. Having grown up with music being very much central to my life and still very much a part of my family's life. The idea of an Old Testament prophet saying, if we want a word from the Lord you better get me a musician first. That appeals to me particularly. Why is it important in this setting? Because yet one more time the people of Israel have rebelled. Jehoram, the king of Israel who succeeded King Ahab in 2 Kings 3, he has not bothered about Yahweh. Yahweh is, he thinks, the God of the Southern Kingdom, Judah. But when things go wrong, when the Moabites rebel, then Jehoram says to the king of Judah, his Southern neighbor, can you come and help me? Can you come and join me against Moab? And then they look at the situation and they get worried and they say, what's going to happen? What are we going to do? And Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, who is still loyal to Israel's God Yahweh, Jehoshaphat said, is there a prophet of Yahweh here, of whom we may inquire? Now, the king of Israel should have known, but he doesn't seem to, because the text says that one of the servants of the king of Israel says, well, we've got Elisha here, and he was Elijah's servant, so that might help. And Jehoshaphat says, well, the word of Yahweh is with him. So the king of Israel and Judah go down to find Elisha. And Elisha says to the king of Israel, what have I got to do with you? There's no chance that I would give you a word from the Lord. You have abandoned him, but because the king of Judah is here, I'll do what I can. And that's when he says, get me a musician. And as the musician plays, the word of the Lord comes to him. I've often reflected on this because music, like the arts in general, like painting, poetry, dance, all sorts of things. Music is a way of stirring up the imagination, and the imagination is one of the faculties with which we humans perceive that larger world than the rather shrunken world we are always tempted to live in, the larger world within which God the Creator is doing new creation, is redeeming us, is rescuing us, and is bringing us forward in his purposes. So when we think about the arts, when we think about music, when we think about literature, often these may be ways in which we can draw out fresh meaning, fresh meaning from God, fresh meaning in the world. And in particular, when a culture has been in rebellion against the Lord this way and that, and it'd be hard to deny that many parts of our local Western culture, many parts of global culture have been in rebellion against the Lord pretty much like the king of Israel and his folk had been. Then it may be that the arts, and not least I think music, can be used as a way of cracking things open, a way of opening the darkened rooms in which we so often live and letting in the light of God's truth. I've seen this again and again in the way that music has worked in my life and music has worked in the lives of friends of mine. I think of one lifelong friend of mine who from a totally non-Christian background was dragooned into a choir as a small boy and found himself singing the treble part in Bach's St. Matthew Passion. And that was the first time when the whole story had opened up to him. Was it the words of St. Matthew which was set to music? Well, to be sure, because it's a wonderful story. But was it the music which found its way into his sensitive heart and soul and transformed him and has made him in turn a preacher of the gospel? I think it was both. So again and again, when we attempted, particularly in post-enlightenment culture which has tended to say that the arts are just the pretty bit around the edge but they're not the real thing and we have to go for the real... No, let's not do it like that. Let's say yes, we need music, we need painting, we need poetry, we need all the arts and we need to hope and pray for new generations of artists and musicians to come forward because in our rebellious culture sometimes the way that the power of God is going to be unveiled afresh and the way that the Word of God is going to sound forth afresh may well be when the musician starts to play. So may God give us grace to hear His Word in strange places as well as familiar places through music and the arts as well as simply through the reading of Scripture and may we all have grace to hear and respond. Amen. Check out our other videos.