We’re looking at God’s speech as a model for our own. The previous post ended with God speaking of delivering his people Israel from their Egyptian taskmasters, and of his keeping that promise through the plagues.
After crossing the Red Sea—miraculously—Israel travels to Mount Sinai, where they will meet God and receive the Law of Moses.
And God spake all these words, saying, 2 I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage (Ex 20.1-2).
And here come the Ten Commandments, a constitution for the new nation. For the next forty years, God talks to Moses as he wishes, and he talks to him in a special way.
The Lord talked with [Moses] face to face in the mount out of the midst of the fire (Dt 5.4).
Face to face, without distance, without danger.
As we know, those forty years were a judgment in response to Israel’s unbelief. But God is faithful, even when his people are not, and he brings them to the Promised Land and empowers their victory over the perverse peoples living in it.
Centuries pass. Israel is now well settled into the Land, after initially living in houses they didn’t build and eating from gardens they didn’t plant. And when they want a king, God gives them the king he had long ago promised them. David, the man after God’s own heart, the sweet singer of Israel, sets the nation off on a course toward prosperity and peace—and at the end of his life he reveals where his sweet songs came from:
1 Now these be the last words of David.
David the son of Jesse said,
And the man who was raised up on high,
The anointed of the God of Jacob,
And the sweet psalmist of Israel, said,
2 The Spirit of the Lord spake by me,
And his word was in my tongue.
3 The God of Israel said,
The Rock of Israel spake to me,
He that ruleth over men must be just,
Ruling in the fear of God.
4 And he shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun riseth,
Even a morning without clouds;
As the tender grass springing out of the earth
By clear shining after rain (2S 23.1-4).
After David and his son Solomon come other kings, mostly evil ones, and God, graciously, speaks once again, this time through prophets.
Therefore thus saith the Lord God,
Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone,
A tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation:
He that believeth shall not make haste (Is 28.16).
More prophets come, for three more centuries, bringing words from God, calling God’s people to truth, to righteousness, to justice, to peace. But for the most part, the people don’t listen. There are two periods of exile and a return, and then more self-centered living.
And after that, silence.
Four centuries of silence.
God does not speak.
And all the light and wisdom and truth and direction and power that consistently come when he speaks—are missing. They’re not there.
Silence from God is not a good thing.
When will he speak again?
When will we know what we so desperately need to know?
Oh, he will speak again, and he will speak in a way that he never has before.
Next time.
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
Kevin Taylor says
Great topic on the biblical narrative and how God uses His voice in communicating to us. Just started a study in Zephaniah this morning and after reading this blog post I was conscious of this aspect and the great-grandson of Hezekiah a godly reformer king is speaking the Word of the Lord during the rule of another reformer king who is drawing the people of Judah back to God after 2 generations of wicked secularism on the throne. The message is clear and abrupt and impacting. I was thinking that this generation of social media and desiring everyone to express their feelings would find this offensive and rude. Yet we hear that this is God’s manner of communicating. Thanks for this post!