The Voice of God

When was the most recent time you heard the voice of God?  Your answer better be never. Now I did not say when was the last time God spoke to you through His Word. That is a whole different matter.

Three times in the Gospels we are given an account where "a voice came from heaven." One at Jesus' baptism (Matthew 3:17, cp Mark 1:11), once at the mount of transfiguration (Matthew 17:5) and once in John 12:28.  Three times, that is all. 

In the first instance, there is no response from any witnesses. In the second, Peter and John hear it and respond in fear to it. Then are told by Jesus to tell no one of their experience on the mountain. The third time, witnesses "hear" it and are confused about what they hear. Was it thunder, was it an angel speaking, what exactly was it?  Two times John said it was a "voice". Not an apparition but a voice -phōnē is the word used.

It is not unusual for hearers to get confused when they hear the voice of God. I suppose because, first they are not expecting it, and second, it is hard to recognize a voice you have not heard before. But Jesus makes it pretty clear in this instance that what the people heard was the voice of God. Come for their benefit, not for his (John 12:30).  Now, let me be clear, if you are actually HEARING the voice of God today I suggest you check with your doctor.  If it only happens three times in the sacred writings, it is highly unlikely that God is actually speaking to you.

Let's also be clear on this. God speaks to us today through His word. Yet, even though we have written testimony of God's word to man, we still get confused. Is it thunder, is it an angels words we are reading? No, it is God's word.

My suspicion is that many people do not believe that. It is also my suspicion that many churches do not believe that. Hence, watered down preaching and, for certain, diluted Sunday School programs that are now designed to build "community" not build one's understanding of God's word.

My pastor, when reading his morning text, always has the congregation stand and then begins his reading with these words - "This is what the Bible says!" I like that. I also like the fact that his preaching is consistently true to the text.

But alas, the flock is woefully complacent. Maybe not on Sunday morning, but certainly through the week when it comes to their interaction with God's word. Just this past Wednesday night, after the pastor was finished his presentation he asked the audience, of about a hundred or so, this question. "Knowing that we are going verse by verse through 2Corinthians, how many read or studied the chapter before coming this evening?"  Only one person acknowledged they had. Were the others embarrassed to acknowledge their study, or was it simply that they had not?

Listen to what John Calvin says regarding the Scripture and this experience in John 12 particularly.

It was a monstrous thing that the multitude was obtuse to so plain a miracle. Some were deaf, and caught what God had pronounced distinctly only as a confused sound. Others were less dull, but yet detracted greatly from the majesty of the divine voice by pretending that its author was an angel. But the same is common today [in Calvin's day and ours]. God speaks plainly enough in the Gospel, in which there is also displayed a power and energy of the Spirit which should shake heaven and earth. But many are as cold towards the teaching as it if came only from a mortal man, and others think God's Word to be a barbarous stammering, as if it were nothing but thunder." (Kostenberger's commentary on John, pg. 383)

What we think of God is in many ways reflected by how we interact and respond to Scripture.  Do we think it simply some words compiled by mere dunderheads or is it the "voice" of God -speaking then and now to His people, the followers of the Christ?

Father - I am listening. Let your Word speak freely and clearly to every aspect of my life.