He Speaks . . .

 

After moving here, we only began knowing the couple next-door when they decided to move closer to their son. They were gone only a few days when we were shocked to hear she was hit by a bus and died. So sad. She had a distinctive way of talking and for weeks, I could hear her voice.

I thought about her this morning when the next word in my concordance turned out to be VOICE. This word is translated from a Hebrew word qôl that appears several hundred times in the OT. It refers to literal speech from vocal cords, but is also used in figurative ways such as animal sounds, cries of joy, the noise of thunder, or battle or an entire body of communication such as a letter. It is also used to describe God speaking.

What about the voice of God? Many claim to hear it and say, “God told me . . . .” when what they heard was contrary to anything God has ever said before and sounds more like wishful thinking. That error does not mean that He never speaks, only that discernment is necessary!

Theologically, qôl is significant in prophetic passages where the prophets proclaim His voice and operate as His mouthpiece. For example, Deuteronomy 18:18–19 says: “I will raise up for them a prophet like (Moses) from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him.”

When God speaks, those who hear Him are expected to do what He says, and if not, they can expect judgment. Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 tell of blessings for obedience and curses for refusing His voice.

In the NT, the word is phōnē and can be translated as “sound, voice, language.” It is used more than one hundred times, sometimes for the words of Jesus and sometimes in the way voice is used in the OT.

Skimming many verses, I noticed that when God spoke, not everyone heard what He said, only those who believed in Him. At Jesus’ transfiguration in Matthew 17:5–6: “He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.’ When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were terrified.”

Jesus explained that only His sheep would hear and know His voice, yet a time would come when everyone would hear Him. Jesus said in John 5:25–29:

“Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.

He told those who did not believe in Him, “His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen, and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent.” (John 5:36–38)

When God’s voice came publicly, “The crowd that stood there and heard it said that it had thundered.” Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” This is similar to Saul’s conversion experience when he became Paul. He said, “Those who were with me saw the light but did not understand the voice of the one who was speaking to me.”

GAZE INTO HIS GLORY. That God speaks to human hearts is amazing, yet Hebrews 3:13–15 makes clear that hearing God’s voice always requires obedience. “But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called ‘today,’ that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. As it is said, “’Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.’ ” The same idea is repeated in Revelation 3:20 where Jesus says, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.” To gaze at God’s glory changes my life, but not if I close my eyes and plug my ears. He must remain my focus and I must do what He tells me to do, always matching what I hear in my heart with what He has put in black and white on the pages of His written Word, thankful that He keeps teaching me how to listen.