Speak

In the Bible, when the Lord spoke to all those folks in the Old Testament, do you think He spoke aloud? We know that there are times when He came in person form, or when an angel came to send the message. Those times, I'm pretty sure there was audible stuff going on. In those cases it's easy for us to think, "Well, of course they obeyed!" or, better yet, "That was silly of them not to do what He asked--He spoke it plain as day!" But what about when He spoke to Elijah--could Elijah hear it as if someone were speaking to him, or was it more like we hear the Lord today, a knowing in our souls?

When God came to Samuel, we know Samuel heard it aloud. Well, if he didn't, he heard it clearly enough to have thought it was aloud, as shown in the fact that he kept on running to Eli to see why he was calling for him.

In the New Testament we know that while the Lord was on the Earth, He certainly spoke to people, but once He went back to sit down on the right hand of the Father, I think that when He spoke to people, it was in words spoken to their ears alone. Like the passage where Paul begs the Lord to take away his thorn in the flesh, and the Lord simply tells him that His grace was sufficient for Paul. But when Paul was converted on the way to Damascus, I'm guessing Paul heard that voice aloud. Even the other people heard a voice (though it doesn't say what those people heard, exactly).

What I'm getting at is that I don't know if those in the Old Testament had it "easier" than we do in terms of hearing the Lord speak. Bottom line, it's something we have to listen to. His words are there for us to read, every minute, in the Word of God. And if we'd spend a little time being still enough to hear what He has to say, I think we'd hear a lot more. What matters is what we do with the words once we hear them. If we ignore them, as we are apt to do, then what are we accomplishing by listening in the first place? The best idea? Listen, and do. He's got it all mapped out, if only we'll follow His directives.

PS, that's easier said than done.

Connect the dots

All the time when people explain things to me from the Bible, I realize that it is such a good thing that everyone else came along first to connect all the dots for me. The other night my grandpa was talking about how 1 Kings 18:38 was the closest we could ever come to understanding what really went on on the cross, and, though I've heard it before, I was enjoying that thought, but I was also thinking: who first realized that?

The verse goes as follows: "Then the fire of the LORD fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench." And it's a nice verse, and a nice connection, but honestly, I have to admit, I'm not sure I would have been able to get from that verse to the cross without a little direction.

Which makes me think: how much of the Bible would I have been able to understand had not so many Berean-type folk come before me? I'm not sure I would have gotten much farther than connecting Psalm 22 to the cross, truth be told. There are just so many pictures and types and shadows in the OT that I still don't really get, even though they're explained to me. Samson, for instance. People are forever explaining how he's a type of Christ, and I nod and smile, but really don't follow.

So, to all the Berean-type folks in the world, thank you. I join with all the other people like me in asking that you continually help us out by sharing your wisdom with us. I'm just really bad at connecting the dots on my own.