Can you hear God speak?

Deuteronomy 29; Psalm 119:49–72; Isaiah 56; Matthew 4

As the case levels increase in Covid-19 statistics, I’m increasingly considering that this pandemic is being used by God to warn His people. We need to get right with Him. These are His words I’m hearing today and what they infer for Christians:

“You have seen all that the LORD did before your eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land, the great trials that your eyes saw, the signs, and those great wonders. But to this day the LORD has not given you a heart to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear.” (Deuteronomy 29:2–4)

We have seen all that God has done but without a proper response to His wonders, He withholds the ability to actually ‘get it’ — to deeply understand what we have seen.

“Beware lest there be among you a man or woman or clan or tribe whose heart is turning away today from the LORD our God to go and serve the gods of those nations. Beware lest there be among you a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit, one who, when he hears the words of this sworn covenant, blesses himself in his heart, saying, ‘I shall be safe, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart.’ This will lead to the sweeping away of moist and dry alike. The LORD will not be willing to forgive him, but rather the anger of the LORD and his jealousy will smoke against that man, and the curses written in this book will settle upon him, and the LORD will blot out his name from under heaven.” (Deuteronomy 29:18–20)

These days, those who disobey national leadership and congregate in crowds saying they are protected by the blood of Christ could be in trouble. The God who promises protection also said we are to submit to our governing authorities (see Romans 13). Can anyone expect God to take care of them when they are blatantly disobeying His Word?

“The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.” (Deuteronomy 29:29)

Connecting this to verses 2-4, God does show truth to His people, not so we can boast of our relationship with Him but so we can do what He says. We are not special because of anything we do or even what we know. Without Christ, we are sinners without hope. Our only boast is in Him. If we ‘see’ it but cannot SEE it, it is because we have no intention of doing what it says. This decision is based on the lie that ‘I don’t need God’ and, for whatever reason I come up with, I suppose that I am safe. To think this way, even as one who believes in Christ for eternal life, means walking in my own strength rather than relying on Him for everything.

The psalmist eventually understood — ‘eventually’ because before he talked about loving the Word of God and being determined to obey it, he said:

“Before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I keep your word . . . . It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes.” (Psalm 119:67; 71)

Sadly, it often takes hardship to realize that none of us can control our lives. We need God. Besides His enablement, we need forgiveness and hope. Is this pandemic an ‘affliction’ like the psalmist experienced? And for the same reason?

The Lord does make a promise:

Thus says the LORD: “Keep justice, and do righteousness, for soon my salvation will come, and my righteousness be revealed. Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who holds it fast, who keeps the Sabbath, not profaning it, and keeps his hand from doing any evil.” (Isaiah 56:1–2)

He will open our eyes yet there is a reference here again to obedience. Why is it about the Sabbath? Could it refer to  God resting from His labors? The New Testament talks about us ceasing from our own efforts and resting in the work that Christ has done. Is this tied to the idea that we need to stop trying to control our own lives and rely on the life and work of Jesus Christ? Not only for salvation but for all of life? I think so.

APPLY: Jesus began His ministry resisting the lies of Satan with truth from the Word. He then started telling people to repent and as He called people to follow Him, “immediately they left (everything) and followed Him.” (Matthew 4:18-22) This is the application: resist all that threatens my walk with Jesus by turning from it to follow Him with all my heart — nothing else matters. And as I do, He will reveal to me everything I need to know so that I can continue to do so.