In The Sound of Thin Silence
At some point in history, someone decided that God could no longer speak to His people in a regular tone of voice... and from then on God spoke through a megaphone.
But seriously, where did we get the adjectives "big and booming" to describe God's voice? Can't He just talk in a regular tone or does He have to yell all the way from heaven? Do we just assume He will have a hard time getting our attention and therefore needs to raise his voice?
Because as far as I am aware, God has never spoken to me in this "loudspeaker" style. That isn't to say He never does, after all, there really is no limit to what He can and cannot do. I am simply saying I have not known God to be in the habit of doing such things. And for those of us who are realistically searching to distinguish the voice of God, it's a bit insulting to be told He will simply yell to us when the time comes.
The God I know, is generally a lot quieter than megaphones. In fact, He is quieter than most of His creation, according to the book of 1 Kings: "Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave" (1 Kings 19:11-13).
It has always struck me hard that the Lord chose not to speak through all those fearsome measures, but instead in a "gentle whisper", or as the Hebrew directly translates, God speaks to us "in the sound of thin silence. Perhaps this is the hardest lesson to learn from God: we are listening to hard for a loud, booming voice to tell us what to do and, thus we are missing the message conveyed in the sound of a silence not even substance enough to be anything more than thin.
But seriously, where did we get the adjectives "big and booming" to describe God's voice? Can't He just talk in a regular tone or does He have to yell all the way from heaven? Do we just assume He will have a hard time getting our attention and therefore needs to raise his voice?
Because as far as I am aware, God has never spoken to me in this "loudspeaker" style. That isn't to say He never does, after all, there really is no limit to what He can and cannot do. I am simply saying I have not known God to be in the habit of doing such things. And for those of us who are realistically searching to distinguish the voice of God, it's a bit insulting to be told He will simply yell to us when the time comes.
The God I know, is generally a lot quieter than megaphones. In fact, He is quieter than most of His creation, according to the book of 1 Kings: "Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave" (1 Kings 19:11-13).
It has always struck me hard that the Lord chose not to speak through all those fearsome measures, but instead in a "gentle whisper", or as the Hebrew directly translates, God speaks to us "in the sound of thin silence. Perhaps this is the hardest lesson to learn from God: we are listening to hard for a loud, booming voice to tell us what to do and, thus we are missing the message conveyed in the sound of a silence not even substance enough to be anything more than thin.
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