God Speaks - Hebrews 1:1-2

"Theos" (the supreme deity) has spoken and is speaking to us now. How is it that we do not hear?

Author: Randy Pritts

(⇓)

From the SoGreatSalvationSeries

Does God Speak?

If you could hear God speak, what would God be saying? Ah, there we have already stumbled upon a most embarrassing problem. Most people of this generation do not believe that God speaks. Either God cannot speak, or HE does not speak in an intelligible means, or it is up to our private interpretations to understand it, or HE merely speaks to through prerecorded messages embedded in us through our moral conscious. How else would you go about explaining modern man's deafness to the supreme deity? Perhaps too many of us do not fully believe in supreme deity. Or shall I say too many of us do not want to believe, we are opposed to the notion of there being anything more than our own human deity?

The author of the new testament "Epistle to the Hebrews" (probably Paul) begins the letter firmly stating that God "has" spoken unto the fathers (those that have gone before us) primarily by means of certain "fore-tellers/inspired speakers dict:strongs G4396 ", then ever since the time of Christ which ended the age of the prophets HE has spoken to us in these latter days by HIS Son. It is this one and only Son who the prophets of old had foretold to us of. In other words we have two testimonies, the older, established prophets speaking to the nation of Israel of the coming Messiah, and newer, the established Messiah, established both by the words of the prophets and by signs and wonders speaking to the nations and chosen individuals within those many nations.

How does God Speak?

This is not to say that God does not speak to each of us individually. HE does, though many of us do not know it, and many of us replace HIS words to us with words of our own. This is to say say that that God has to be very careful and selective when HE is addressing all peoples and all future generations. For this type of communication HE uses particular men and women, placed under the direct influence of HIS Holy Spirit, often placing them in direct opposition and danger of the many other self proclaimed national prophets of that time. These God selected prophets in time and sustaining power were eventually proved to stand out from the others. From these proven prophets what we call the Old Testament is written. God speaking to and through them recording the rebellious history of chosen Israel.

One might ask "how did God speak to Israel"? The author states here divers/various ways and at sundry/various times. Upon reflection we can add to that almost always HE spoke to them through certain time and event proven prophets. It was a prophet that recorded the first five books called Torah; Moses, time and event proven. It was prophets that wrote chronicling God's ever watchful eye over the times of the Judges and the Kings. Rarely was a judge or king a prophet, although there were a few; judges and kings more often were assigned a prophet (prophets that they rarely got along with/saying things no one else wanted to hear the prophets say); again time and event proven. It was a series of great and minor prophets that wrote of the times later captivities. Records of not only what God was saying/why this was happening/how the arrival of Messiah was going to rescue them, but also how the dispersed people of nation were reacting; again time and event proven which makes for a more impactful form of divine communication.

From these Old Testament accounts we learned to consider that when God was not speaking it wasn't because everything was going smooth and according to plan, it was because Israel was being rebellious. No, you could not tell Israel that it was being that at the time. Many of the so called prophets were telling the nation exactly the opposite things as if they were speaking from God. As far as Israel was concerned it believed that it was doing exactly what was "right" in its' own eye. God would not speak because Israel would not be listening and the few words that they heard were being severely twisted. Our generation knows this silence of God as well.

Speaking via Prophecy

Let us first consider that the mother prophecy bearing all other prophecy immediately after the fall of mankind is found in kjv@Genesis:3:15, a promise made by God to crush the head of evil via a chosen seed whom we call Messiah. All other divine prophecy is a descendant from that. So when God promises Abraham a physical descendant and therefore many descendants plural through whom all the nations will be blessed, this is a direct installment upon the Messianic root seed. When Moses writes of Levitical ritual and ceremony, these are another set of sundry times and divers manners God is speaking back to the original promise and forward to the promised messiah. So forth and so on. Absolutely everything spoken and recorded in some way shape or for is rooted in that promise and is budding towards that eventual fulfillment.

Why then just Israel? Why not speak the same to other nations? Why not just speak to everybody individually?

Again, I do not wish to say that God does not do all of these various things, rather all of these other forms that HE communicates with will have to somehow be grounded. It really becomes a problem of private interpretation. God cannot tell me one thing and you another. To be just HE has to be consistent. If left to our own private interpretations we are very likely to loose sight of the mother promise and its' messianic fulfillment. It will become our justification by good works or by our good blood or by our good religion. Religion will become all the trappings of religiosity, the walls and the art work and the social gatherings, what all we can do for one another. It will inevitably become what I think and how I want it versus what you think and want; becoming all relative; and that is where it currently all is.

So there is a need for sundry times and divers manners globally, but there is also a most important requirement that these sundry and divers methods be grounded, and therefore a need for a chosen nation, call them a chosen primary example: Israel. Historical Israel is a place where all people of all times and nations can look in and see how the mother seed of prophecy has developed, how despite the very best intentions of men and women a conditional covenant based upon our human forms of obedience cannot be kept to, how far religion can falter from generation to generation, how far even the most zealous soul can mistakenly identify the promised Messiah as a blasphemous thief and disruptive insurgent. Israel is an example to all of us of just how right we think we can be and yet how wrong at the same time we actually are.

But: "in these last days"

I don't mean to pile up on Israel. There is a special place in my heart when considering all of this for Israel. God did not choose my ancestors tribe to make a chosen example of. Probably for good reason. I doubt that any other people or nation could of held themselves to the mother promise as well as they did/have. But now God speaks to us through more than just those Old Testament prophets. He speaks to us through HIS Son Jesus.

Why Jesus?

The author says why Jesus and I would like to list it out for you all in accordance with the previous prophets:

1. (Jesus) appointed heir of all things v2
2. by whom (Jesus) also he (Father) made the worlds v2
3. (Jesus) the brightness of his glory v3
4. (Jesus) the express image of his (Father) person v3
5. (Jesus) upholding all things by the word of his (Father) power v3
6. (Jesus) by himself purged our sins v3
7. (Jesus) sat down on the right hand of the Majesty (Father) on high v3
8. (Jesus) so much better than the angels v4
9. hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name (Jesus) than they (angels) v4

Now that God has spoken through the prophets to Israel in order to ground what HE has spoken to the remainder of the world and generations, then enters Jesus whose fulfillment of these salvation essential matters is established by the prophets and by the accompanying wonders, now Jesus speaks to us in a way not even the angels could imitate.

He can speak to us in this way because He is "heir of all things", He is "the express image of" the Fathers' unsearchable person, He has by His atoning sacrifice mercifully "purged our sins", He is positioned even now at the judgment portion of Gods' throne etc.. and therefore has the right and the means of speaking for God as He now does. Not even the Holy Spirit is pictured telling us anything that does not testify and glorify Christ Jesus. This is the time, these later times being described, that you and I live in.

So how does Jesus speak?

So too, Jesus speaks today to us in sundry times and divers manners. Here again there is the problem foreseen with private interpretation, Jesus supposedly telling you one thing and me something completely different.

I once knew a man who swore to me that Jesus was directing him to divorce his wife because another woman made this man happier; Jesus only wanted this man to be more happy. In fact, I know of many people who listen to Jesus as if He were the latest self help/self improvement guru (not the heir, the express image of, the upholder of all things....). I can look at former Israel, I see how easily it was to swerve off course. I see Jesus, just how loved and helpful, even miraculously compassionate people saw Him, and yet how utterly abandoned and rejected He became when the matter of all things came right down to it.

These traits I find in my own heart, just how good He is, just how mistaken and rebellious I am when it comes to my daily relationship to Him. I also see just how He willing He is, even in these cases, to continue on and see me through all of this. This is the Jesus that I know to be speaking to us. No, it is not Him glorifying and improving me, it is me giving myself completely over to Him for whatever reproof and instruction for the day He has for me. This is what He is speaking. Various times, various ways, same type of message. Always grounded by what has already been said and done and provided.

Private interpretation is the reason Jesus must speak to us as a whole, and that in one unified sentence. The human heart is too busy deceiving itself and its' others to be relied upon to this extent for mankind's' salvation.

What of the Bible?

Therefore, there is the collection of books we now call the Bible. A unified collection of time capsules authored by several prophets stripped naked of their private interpretations, sent out against the tides to suffer our flagrant opposition, as moved upon by the Holy Spirit. Each writer in his/her own voice and literary medium, consciously becoming the pen and hands of that divine and comforting communicator. Each capsule a installment upon the unified story of the promise seed and its' fulfillment.

Therefore, there are the gospels of the New Testament, recording a healthy sampling of the things said and done and claims of Jesus. Each writer writing from a slightly different vantage point, men that knew Jesus and that Jesus could trust.

Therefore, there are the letters the Apostles of Jesus wrote to one another and to the widespread congregations. Men that had given their all up to and including their precious lives declaring "the words of Jesus" good news fulfillment Gospel. All of this again grounded and drawing from that mother seed Torah of Genesis now issuing Christ's living waters.

Will God Ever Speak to Me?

My guess, knowing HIM as I've begun thanks to Jesus, is that if HE hasn't already, HE either is or else soon will. Might I also caution you that, as with so many of the former prophets, HE typically only speaks directly two maybe three or four times like this in a life time. The rest of these prophets time was spent either obeying the messages inherent call or else suffering the self proclaimed prophets' and nations' vile delirium. Once one hears, one has to act. It is the acting upon that often makes us to squint our ears to not listen.

If you imagine God to say "I love you just as you are... I love that endearing streak of outright rebellion", you are probably listening for the wrong God. If you imagine that you could love God without loving HIS Son Jesus, well then your love for God is entirely un-grounded, disconnected from the seed and the installments and the capsules and the unified story-line and collection. And if you claim that the God of Old is no longer is there and no longer is speaking anything of modern relevance, then I would ask you look upon the fortress that you have made for yourself, it is no wonder that you are not hearing any of this.

Conclusions:

Has God spoken? Yes!

Does God still speak? Yes!

How does HE speak? Through a connective circuit of recorded sundry times and divers manners, through visions and dreams and voices, through events and consequences and situations, all grounded and brought together by a small still distinct and familiar (learned to be) voice - HIS Holy Spirit!

HE speaks in brief specific moments. HE speaks in broad swaths of several generations. HE speaks in pictures and poems and histories and genealogies and proverbs and psalms and parables. HE speaks in actions, in covenants, in blessings and in curses. HE speaks in silence, with a loving hand of redemption or with a loving rod of discipline. Often HE speaks with the voice of invading tribes and razor like empires. HE speaks to slaves and kings, even hermits and foreigners and to barren women. HE speaks in rumblings and burning bushes, visions and dreams and angelic appearances, droughts and floods, famines and plentiful seasons, through Sabbaths and feasts and jubilant festivals.

God speaks in whatever sundry time or divers manner that seems to HIM as appropriate, prides HIMSELF on telling us things long before they happen. When these things do happen, then we know it was HIM and only HIM that could have spoken it. Though our attention span is all but quickly fleeting, HIS voice is always out there, for those that will to hear it, always.

Ask yourself: "what is it that God right now is attempting to say to me?

Please share with us today what it is your ear is hearing! Comment Board: GodSpeaks

Comment Board: GodSpeaks Tags: God, Jesus, Prophets, Testament, Communication, Inspiration, Hearing the voice of God ,

Further Resources:

Child Threads: