Tag: god's speech

Do You Really Know? Probably Not (Job 38:22-38)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment
God Answers Job Out of the Whirlwind, by William Blake, 1826

“Have you entered the storehouses of the snow
    or seen the storehouses of the hail,
which I reserve for times of trouble,
    for days of war and battle?
What is the way to the place where the lightning is dispersed,
    or the place where the east winds are scattered over the earth?
Who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain,
    and a path for the thunderstorm,
to water a land where no one lives,
    an uninhabited desert,
to satisfy a desolate wasteland
    and make it sprout with grass?
Does the rain have a father?
    Who fathers the drops of dew?
From whose womb comes the ice?
    Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens
when the waters become hard as stone,
    when the surface of the deep is frozen?

“Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades?
    Can you loosen Orion’s belt?
Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons
    or lead out the Bear with its cubs?
Do you know the laws of the heavens?
    Can you set up God’s dominion over the earth?

“Can you raise your voice to the clouds
    and cover yourself with a flood of water?
Do you send the lightning bolts on their way?
    Do they report to you, ‘Here we are’?
Who gives the ibis wisdom
    or gives the rooster understanding?
Who has the wisdom to count the clouds?
    Who can tip over the water jars of the heavens
when the dust becomes hard
    and the clods of earth stick together? (New International Version)

The older I get, and the more understanding I gain, the more I realize how little knowledge I truly possess.

When I was eighteen years old, I thought I had the world pretty much figured out. Since then, it’s all been downhill. With each passing year, my ignorance seems to grow. I suppose this all really makes some sense when talking about God’s upside-down kingdom.

There’s so much of life that is a mystery; and as we accumulate our life experiences, it seems all, not just some, of life is a mystical encounter. In other words, the more discernment I gain, I discover I know a lot less than I thought I did.

God Answers Job from the Whirlwind, by William Blake, c.1804

It seems as if the biblical character of Job found this out the hard way. If there is any person in Holy Scripture that would be wise and understanding, its him. God speaks highly of Job in the Bible.

Regarding the upcoming destruction of Jerusalem, God said, “even if these three men—Noah, Daniel and Job—were in it, they could save only themselves by their righteousness, declares the Sovereign Lord.” (Ezekiel 14:14)

Job is held up as the model of patience under suffering: “As you know, we count as blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.” (James 5:11)

Yet, with all of Job’s integrity, patience, and righteousness, his understanding barely moves the Richter Scale of God’s expansive knowledge.

We might be somewhat familiar with the story of Job. Being a conscientious follower of God, Job is careful to live uprightly. He acknowledges God in all things and worships him alone. Yet, suffering befell him – for no other reason than that God allowed it. Job knew fully well that there was no personal sin behind his awful ordeal of grief and grinding pain.

So, Job contended with God. For an agonizing thirty-five chapters (Job 3:1-37:24) Job questions God and respectfully takes him to task – as Job’s supposed friends questioned him and assume his guilt. Through it all God is there… silent… saying nothing.

The Desperation of Job, by William Blake, 1821

Then, just when we think God is paying no attention whatsoever, the Lord suddenly speaks.

And what is so remarkable about God’s speech is that for four chapters (Job 38:1-41:34) the Lord gives no answers. It’s all rhetorical questions. God said, “Brace yourself like a man; I will question you and you shall answer me.” (Job 38:3)

It becomes abundantly clear after just a few questions that it would be impossible for any human being to even come close to having the understanding God has. And that was the whole point.

God is God, and we are not. Our questions, however legitimate, real, and raw they are, come from a very puny perspective. Turns out, we just don’t know as much as we think we do.

To Job’s credit, he keeps his mouth shut and listens. At the end of the questioning, Job responds in the only wise way one could, after such an encounter: “Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know.” (Job 42:3)

None of this means that, for us, we need to face our hardships and our sufferings with a stoic keep-a-stiff-upper-lip approach. Trapped grief will inevitably come out sideways and only cause more hurt. I believe God allowed Job to express his terrible physical, emotional, and spiritual pain for chapter after chapter because he needed to.

Only when God sensed it was the proper timing did he jump in and bring the perspective Job then needed. And even after being challenged by God about his vantage point, Job still did not receive answers as to why he had to endure the awfulness of loss beyond what most of us could comprehend.

Maybe we lack being able to understand, even if God directly answered all our questions. Most likely, God protects us from knowing things that might bring irreparable damage to our human psyches. Again, this is all pure conjecture. Which leaves us with perhaps one of our greatest challenges as human beings:

We must eventually come to the place of being comfortable with mystery – and even embracing it. We simply will not have all things revealed to us that we want to know. And that’s okay.

There is yet one more comment to observe about God’s questioning of Job: God is sarcastic. Sarcasm often gets a bad rap, much like anger does, because it is so often associated with unacknowledged emotions and/or expressing our feelings in an unhelpful way.

Yet, there the sarcasm is, with the God of the universe. I take some odd comfort in knowing that God can be snarky at times – in a good way.

Anytime we try to pin God down to some tidy understandable categories, the Lord typically colors outside our human contrived lines and demonstrates to us that the divine cannot be contained in our ramshackle box.

I like it that God is playful, wild, and free to be God – even if there are times it may bug me.

God is unbound by any human knowledge, understanding, ideas, or plans. God will do what God will do. God will be who God will be. “I AM who I AM.” Now that’s a God I can put my trust in.

O Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world, have mercy upon me.

O Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world, have mercy upon me.

O Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world, grant me your peace. Amen.

Listen! (Psalm 81)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment

Shout for joy to God our defender;
    sing praise to the God of Jacob!
Start the music and beat the tambourines;
    play pleasant music on the harps and the lyres.
Blow the trumpet for the festival,
    when the moon is new and when the moon is full.
This is the law in Israel,
    an order from the God of Jacob.
He gave it to the people of Israel
    when he attacked the land of Egypt.

I hear an unknown voice saying,
“I took the burdens off your backs;
    I let you put down your loads of bricks.
When you were in trouble, you called to me, and I saved you.
    From my hiding place in the storm, I answered you.
    I put you to the test at the springs of Meribah.
Listen, my people, to my warning;
    Israel, how I wish you would listen to me!
You must never worship another god.
I am the Lord your God,
    who brought you out of Egypt.
Open your mouth, and I will feed you.

“But my people would not listen to me;
    Israel would not obey me.
So I let them go their stubborn ways
    and do whatever they wanted.
How I wish my people would listen to me;
    how I wish they would obey me!
I would quickly defeat their enemies
    and conquer all their foes.
Those who hate me would bow in fear before me;
    their punishment would last forever.
But I would feed you with the finest wheat
    and satisfy you with wild honey.” (Good News Translation)

I have a wife and three daughters. They talk – a lot! When my girls were small, it was hard to get their attention long enough for them to hear anything I was saying. So I oftentimes cupped my hands to their little faces so they couldn’t look around and get distracted. Then, I would speak, with them looking me straight in the eye.

It’s hard to listen. And listening seems to be a lost art and a skill we no longer care to develop. Maybe that’s because we’re obsessed with hearing ourselves talk. There’s so much chatter about so many things that we rarely even remember much of what we said; and a lot of those words get uttered before we even think. 

What’s more, when other people talk, most of it seems like a bunch of gibberish, due to our lack of focused attention. Perhaps we need an adult version of the hand-cupping we do with kids.

We really need the wisdom to know when to speak and when to be quiet. Whenever being quiet is required, it’s for the purpose of listening. And whenever words and noise are needed, it’s to praise God with our mouths and our musical instruments.

In this day and age, folks get so worked up to express their opinions, and say what they want to say, that the virtue of listening is not at all valued. However, God puts a premium on taking the stance of listening. 

The more you talk, the more likely you are to sin. If you are wise, you will keep quiet. (Proverbs 10:19, GNT)

Another reason listening is not well-practiced is that we esteem being busy and constant activity, to such a degree, that taking the time for silence long enough to listen is not of value to us. But if God’s people are going to hear the voice of the Lord, we must be still and silent, long enough to listen to what’s being said to us.

And yet another reason we eschew listening is that we are uncomfortable with silence, and seek to fill any quiet space with noise so as to not have to deal with what is really going on inside of us. Since God often speaks within the stillness and quietness of things, we’ll never hear, because our inner dialogue is drowning the words we need to listen to. (1 Kings 19:11-12)

I have a friend (I’ll call him Elmer) who spent eighteen hours in complete silence, without any talking whatsoever, in order to listen to God. You might think that Elmer is a monkish sort of introvert who likes that sort of thing. However, he’s actually an extrovert who lives in the inner city and comes from a large family. 

Elmer simply came to the point of understanding that he was so busy moving from one thing to another, and constantly talking, to the point that he was drowning-out the voice of the Lord. Here’s what Elmer said about his time of silence: 

“Those eighteen hours of silence were the loudest hours I have ever experienced. My mind was so noisy and so filled with stuff that it nearly drove me nuts. But after many hours passed, as the noise started to fade away, I could begin to hear the still small voice of God.” 

Elmer discovered that he was a person who kept pushing and projecting his agenda onto God. His lack of listening led to an inability to obey. After Elmer’s experience, he determined to start including times of solitude and silence into his everyday life, even if for only ten minutes, so he could listen to what God wants rather than tell God what to do.

The Lord came and stood there, and called as he had before, “Samuel! Samuel!” Samuel answered, “Speak; your servant is listening.” (1 Samuel 3:10, GNT)

Any fool can babble on about their gripes and opinions. In Holy Scripture, however, human speech is generally viewed as being overrated. Instead, silence and solitude, listening and learning, are the virtues practiced by Jesus; the kingdom of God cannot operate without them.

Therefore, we must take up the shield of faith with which to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one who wants to keep us trapped in either a cycle of constant chatter without listening, or continual silence without acting upon what we hear from God. 

We must be quiet for the purpose of listening to God. Then, when we hear the Lord speak, we must act in faith to say and do what we are called to.

God of silence and of all sound, help me to listen! Enable me to be patient and wait for your still small voice calling me. Give me attentive ears that can separate the noise from the sounds that are you. Today help me to hear you anew so that I may obey with wisdom and obedience. Amen.

The Voice of the Lord and the Power of Words

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality BlogLeave a comment
The Power of Words by Tiffany Hagen, 2015

I have always felt comforted during thunderstorms. Having grown up in Iowa, strong thunderstorms are a given every summer. When my daughters were small children and frightened by the loud clap of thunder, I would say to them, “That’s just God letting us know he is powerful and watching over us.”

God spoke and stirred up a storm… So, they cried out to the Lord in their distress, and God brought them out safe from their desperate circumstances. God quieted the storm to a whisper; the sea’s waves were hushed. (Psalm 107:25, 29-30, CEB)

God’s very voice is the source of all power. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth – with words. The Lord Almighty spoke the entire world into existence. God’s words are generative, that is, the speech of God creates and gives life. When God’s voice goes forth, things happen:

God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light… (Genesis 1:3, NIV)

God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water….” And it was so. (Genesis 1:6-7, NIV)

God said, “Let the waters under the sky come together into one place so that the dry land can appear.” And that is what happened. (Genesis 1:9, CEB)

God said, “Let the earth produce plants—some to make grain for seeds and others to make fruits with seeds in them. Every seed will produce more of its own kind of plant.” And it happened. (Genesis 1:11, NCV)

God said, “Let lights appear in the sky to separate the day from the night. Let them be signs to mark the seasons, days, and years. Let these lights in the sky shine down on the earth.” And that is what happened. (Genesis 1:14-15, NLT)

God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so. (Genesis 1:24, NIV)

God creates and gives through speech. Yes, the mechanism of God’s provision for us is words. This means language is vitally important. The Lord creates, gives, sustains, and blesses creation through language – with humans as the only creatures formed in the image and likeness of God.

God said, “Now we will make humans, and they will be like us. (Genesis 1:26, CEV)

People, then, are capable of speech. Even more, with our ability of language, we also have the capacity to form generative words. We have the God-given means to give life with our speech.

“Life and death lie in the power of language.”

helen keller

I believe we all intuitively know this is true. As we reminisce the history of our lives, we can observe events where another’s words impacted us so significantly that it was as if they gave us the gift of life. We never forget those words. We also have had times when another’s words cut us emotionally and it felt as if a part of us died. We tend to remember those as well, and they hold us back in our own life-giving speech to ourselves and others.

“The godless destroy their neighbors by their words, but the righteous are saved by their knowledge.” (Proverbs 11:9, CEB)

We must listen to the voice of the Lord. God’s speech does not disappoint or destroy. God’s Word is eternal life. The better we listen to God, the better we can have the generative power of words to provide life for others. It only takes a cursory look at Holy Scripture to realize that words are powerful and are to be used with great care. We are all to continually develop the craft of wordsmithing so that we might ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name as well as bless the world.

“As a tree gives fruit, healing words give life, but dishonest words crush the spirit.” (Proverbs 15:4, NCV)

The language we use—spoken and written words, sign language, facial expressions, bodily gestures, singing—helps us understand ourselves and lets us create relationships with others. Our words give us the power to describe our past, define our present, and dream of our future. 

“Words from wise people are like water bubbling up from a deep well—the well of wisdom.” (Proverbs 18:4, ERV)

“Words are singularly the most powerful force available to humanity. We can choose to use this force constructively with words of encouragement, or destructively using words of despair. Words have energy and power with the ability to help, to heal, to hinder, to hurt, to harm, to humiliate and to humble.”

Yehuda Berg

We need to speak mindfully, paying careful attention to give people words of encouragement and compassion. We must discipline ourselves to use our words in a way that conveys respect, gentleness, and humility.

We adults may balk at the notion that words are anything more than a creative expression. Yet, as I believe is typical with most things, children are closer to the kingdom of God. They effortlessly make connections between words and reality whereas us older folks barely have an idea this even occurs. My grandson once remarked when I was talking to him about being cautious at the playground, “How am I supposed to meet new people if I can’t talk to strangers?”

“When I asked my son (5 years old) how his day was, he said it was awesome. I asked him what made it so awesome – his response was ‘because I wanted it to be.’”

Tanya Niedzwiecki (Huffington Post, November 2015)

The voice of the Lord exhibits a mighty God who has the power to create, recreate, and renew with but a word. As people in God’s likeness, our words are powerful tools to be used with wisdom and care. Our speech allows us to praise God and encourage one another. Even more, the use of language enables us to speak into existence new realities for ourselves and others. May those words bring forth hope and blessing to a world in need of healing.