Day 2: How God Speaks Today's reading is drawn from Exodus 3. HOW DID GOD reveal His will in biblical times? His methods then were different than they are today: God used miraculous events. Before the completion of the written revelation of the mind and will of God, the Lord occasionally used miracles. We see this with the burning bush in Exodus 3. How did Moses know it was God giving him the message to go back to Egypt and rescue God’s people? The burning bush. The fact that a bush burned in the wilderness wasn’t a miracle. That happens to this day. But this particular bush burned without burning out. That got Moses’ attention. He turned, stayed, listened, and eventually un-derstood God’s will. Another example is the crossing of the Red Sea. How did Moses know the nation of Israel should cross the Red Sea? God told Moses to raise his staff, and the Red Sea opened up so that there was dry land to walk on! It’s hard to miss a miracle. God spoke through visions and dreams. People back then couldn’t study their Bibles before they went to bed or when they got up in the morning. The Bible hadn’t even been written yet! In Genesis 15, God spoke to Abraham in a vision. In Genesis 41, Joseph interpreted Pharaoh’s dreams. In Acts 10, Peter had a vision that showed him that Gentiles didn’t need to become Jews in order to follow Jesus. In each of these cases, God revealed His will through visions and dreams. God spoke to people through direct revelation. “Amos, do this.” “Isaiah, say that.” “Jeremiah, go here.” Most of the time, the people who heard God did what He said. Jonah was different: He tried to run from God, but in the end, he fell into line. Remember the story of Samuel? God was calling him in the night, but at first Samuel thought it was Eli. Finally, Eli said, “It’s God, Samuel.” When Samuel learned how to listen to God, God revealed to him many things that he would not otherwise have known, such as the truth about the fate of Eli’s sons. That’s direct revelation. Sometimes people expect God to work in similar ways today. Can God still speak through miracles, visions, and dreams? Of course. Can God still speak to us directly? By all means. He is able to do anything. But now that God has given us His Son and His Word, He no longer uses these older methods as His primary way of communicating (see Heb. 1:1-2). God’s Word is an inexhaustible source of truth. We can spend a lifetime getting to know it and never finish the job. But when we try to find God’s voice in something other than Scripture, we get into trouble. We start having feelings, thoughts, and inclinations that no one can verify, and we convince ourselves that they are coming directly from God. God doesn’t often use extrabiblical revelation anymore. It’s usually unnecessary. Now, we have His Spirit and His Word to direct our hearts toward Jesus. They are all we need. [call out text: God’s Word is an inexhaustible source of truth.] |
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