Hearing God Speak

“Go thou near, and hear all that the LORD our God shall say: and speak thou unto us all that the LORD our God shall speak unto thee; and we will hear it, and do it.” Deuteronomy 5:27

When God gave His Law to Israel on Mt. Sinai, all the people heard God give the Ten Commandments. They then asked Moses to receive the rest of the Law and function as a mediator between them and God. They discovered that it was terrifying to hear God speak.

The generation that began the Exodus exercised the option of accepting God’s Word through another rather than hear Him themselves. Today God’s people hear Him speak, by necessity, through God’s representatives who recorded His Word in Scripture. Are you grateful for this, or would you rather be a Moses, Jeremiah, or Apostle Paul?

I confess that I am grateful that I don’t hear God directly, for if I did and heard Him say something seemingly different from what the Bible teaches (as did Paul when he said the New Testament saints don’t have to keep the Old Testament Law), I would have to stand without the affirmation of the Body of Christ. How could I know that I was not like so many kooks and heretics before me who said they heard God speak and then led people astray? Knowing my propensity for self-delusion, I would rather take my risk with Scripture than with a direct word from God.

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