The Bible belittles dumb idols made by the hands of men: “they have mouths, but they cannot speak” (Psalm 115.4-7). Normally God should have powers superior to humans’, no? 

Yes – surely if there is a Creator God who has made people capable of speaking, communicating their thoughts in words – shouldn’t God be able to do the same or even better? It is therefore legitimate to ask, has God spoken, and if so, how? And what he says must also be very important.

I once read that expressions such as, “The Lord said…”, “The word of the Lord came…”, “Thus says the Lord…”, “Hear the word of the Lord…”, “the Lord declares…” etc. come about 2,000 times in the Old Testament. As I subsequently read through the Bible, I checked that out, and indeed, including expressions like, “the commandment of the Lord”, I counted about 2,000. Either those were two thousand blasphemous lies, or God is indeed in the business of communicating his word to human beings.

Indeed, right from Genesis chapter 1, the creation of man and woman, God speaks to them. He continues to speak to their children, to Noah, to Abraham and so on for centuries. How exactly in those first years he “spoke” to humans is not made explicit, but that he communicated his will, his plans, his promises, and his orders to those early patriarchs is reasserted very often in the Bible. He even interacted with them as they answered him, and gave them his instructions.

Later on, he called Moses and spoke with him as it were “face to face” (Exodus 33.11). The Ten Commandments were verbally given by God: the list in Exodus 20 begins, “And God spoke all these words, saying…” 

Through this communication of God’s words, the Lord reveals himself. There has been revelation from God, in words we can understand. This brings us the light and truth that we humans, darkened in our thinking, desperately need. We do well to check it out, to meditate on God’s word, and to place our confidence in what our Creator says.

Later on, God spoke to prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, telling them to pass on his words to the people. He says some powerful truths: “I made the earth and created man upon it”; “I am the Lord, and there is no other; besides me there is no God”; “I the Lord speak the truth; I declare what is right” (Isaiah 45, verses 12, 5, 19). So God reveals himself in words that are true: here we have access to divine truth. This is of no small importance!

When Jesus came, he also spoke from God. “God spoke to our fathers by the prophets”, says the New Testament, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son” (Hebrews 1.1-2). “What I say,” Jesus declares, “I say as the Father has told me” (John 12.50). He tells his hearers he is “a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God” (John 8.40). He adds a question pertinent even still in our day: “If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me?” (John 8.46).

Do you want to hear God speaking to you? The place to look is in the Bible. If we never read it, we are closing our eyes and ears to vital truth that God has revealed for our good. God has seen fit to reveal truth and answers that we need to know, that our own thinking and bright philosophy could never discover by ourselves. 

Clive Every-Clayton