It’s not long between occasions when we read in the news about some crime being committed by a person who claims to have done it because God told me. Many of these are drug-induced. Of course there are many who believe that God speaks to them everyday and who don’t make the news because they don’t commit crimes. If all of these claims were true then we would be forced to the conclusion that God was a very confused God, because what He supposedly says to all of these claimants is so different – he asks one man to affirm what He asks another man to deny. Of course, we should not accept something as true simply because someone claims it to be true, but rather test all claims. About forty years ago a fellow from the Warwick district contacted me wanting to speak with me. As we were going to Warwick on a weekly basis I called in on him. He claimed that the Lord was speaking with him and he wanted me to share the Lord’s message with the congregation I preached for. He was also planning to get other preachers from other churches to speak to their congregations what indeed the Lord had divulged to him. So he saw himself as being the Grand Poobah disseminating the Lord’s messages to the churches. I can’t remember our conversation anymore but I’m sure Deut. 18:21,22 and 13 :1-3 would have featured in our discourse (passages on tests for false teachers).
Naturally there is no problem in believing that God has the ability to speak to each individual in the world personally. As Ex. 4:11 says, Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes the dumb, the deaf, or the seeing or the blind? The Lord invented the ear and language, so it is not a problem for God to communicate. But the real question is Has the Lord chosen to speak personally to every individual? There are some who have no idea of what is involved in the Lord choosing to speak to someone. They think of it as an ordinary everyday thing that anyone can presume for oneself. (Cf. Num.12:2 – Aaron and Miriam said, Has the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses? Has he not also spoken by us? And the Lord heard it…….and He regarded them as very presumptuous.
Perhaps we should ask “Why should God want to talk to me?” Plenty of people don’t want to talk to us – don’t think we’re worth talking to! What’s so special about me that God would want to talk to me? If God did speak to me what would I want Him to talk about? I suspect every person has at least some questions they would like to ask God, but what questions would God like to ask of us? What would interest Him and me? If God did speak to me, How would He speak? Obviously language wouldn’t be a problem to God – He invented it! Bertrand Russell, the atheist (or should I say, ex-atheist) was once asked what it would take for him to believe in God. He said if he heard a voice from the sky predicting future events which came true this would convince him of God. But amongst other considerations how would he know it was God and he was not hallucinating or some David Copperfield-type had rigged up some hidden loud speaker to fool him?
The fact is God has never spoken to the world en masse (except to Adam and Eve originally – and what did they talk about every afternoon? I imagine it was, in part, to do with the days activities, searches and discoveries, but sin brought about a change in the relationship – the epistemic distance.) God is near and yet far – He can see us but distances Himself so that we cannot see Him. This reflects the gulf between His holiness and our sinfulness and yet He has not abandoned us. God spoke to Noah and through him to the people, he being a preacher of righteousness (2 Pet. 2:5). He also spoke to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in relation to their part in the scheme of Redemption, and then the next great occasion was when God spoke to the people through Moses. The people assembled at Mt Sinai were not comfortable with God speaking from the Mount and so they desired Moses to be the go-between (Deut. 5:24,25). And so it was that God spoke to Moses intimately, but not the people (Ex.33:11 Deut. 34:10) Even other prophets did not have the intimacy that Moses enjoyed (Num. 12:6-8).
Other prophets were renowned for their dreams and visions from God (eg. Daniel and Zechariah), but when God spoke through people, it was usually for a larger audience. Note Heb. 1:1 –God spoke at sundry times (many times but not continuously), and in divers manners (different ways), unto the fathers by the prophets. Not everybody had a personal message from God! Even so, God has spoken to us today by Jesus. Jesus came speaking on behalf of God, and He came at a place and time and not to all the people (Acts 10:38-42). Jesus gave His word to His apostles, both by the spoken word (Mark 13:11) and by writing (1 Cor. 14:37). The New Testament is the end product of this so God continues to speak to the world through Jesus Christ. So does God speak to me? The answer to that is a resounding YES: – not in dreams and visions, but through the pages of the New Testament.
I affirm that God does speak to me but by a person. Not personally and audibly in my ear, not through my conscience, not through dreams, not through visions, but through a person. That person is Jesus Christ and I affirm that He speaks by a means, and that means is His word. And what does it say?
As I posed before, if God did speak to me what would He say? What would He choose to say? He says in 2 Pet. 1:3 he has given me everything for life and godliness through the knowledge of Jesus Christ. He says in John 6:63 that His words are spirit and they are life. He says in 2 Tim. 3:16,17 that in this Bible we have teaching, reproof, correction, instruction in righteousness so we can be complete. He says in 2 Pet. 1:4 He has given me great and precious promises (if we’ll only look for them). I might choose to respond Yes, but what’s with all the history? Is that padding? God would say, No, it’s so you can see me making promises and keeping them. It’s so you can see that I haven’t given up on the world but work in and through people all through history. Now, it is evident that this way God has chosen we can stop the conversation any time we like. That’s what we do when we leave our Bibles closed.
I mentioned earlier that we all have questions of God, but what questions would God have of us? Job had some questions for God but when God started asking him some questions he put his hand over his mouth. Perhaps he might ask us what He asked of Adam and Eve, Where are you? Or perhaps he could ask, Where are you headed? Are you on the strait and narrow? Do you know what your sins are doing to you? Do you know the penalty for sin – I’ve told you? Have you considered my Son Jesus Christ, whom I sent to pay the price for your sins – I’ve told you about Him too? Do you know that I love you – I’ve told you that too? Yes or no?