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Long ago God spoke many times and in many ways to our ancestors through the prophets.”Knowledge that God speaks, and spoke, reveals tremendous and astounding truth of his and our character, even before knowledge of what is actually said.In self-revelation and condescension, God “spoke” to the Hebrew ancestors in many occasions and in “many ways”: fire, manna, tablets, clouds, rods to snake, rods blooming and growing fruit, split seas, frogs, Shakinah, fires by night, burning swords, nature itself, prophets’ mouths, the still small voice, the Ark of the Covenant, the rainbow, audible voice, writing on the wall, whales, strong men, stairways to heaven, fallen walls and blasts of horn, sacrifice, the Law, burning bush, the death of Egyptian warriors and firstborn, locusts, quail, water from stone, the slowing of the sun’s movement, Sinai, plague, victory in battle—and the list would continue here if my memory and cursory flip through the OT hadn’t failed. But was this not enough? Who would not be impressed, converted?
Apparently it never was enough, for the Hebrews were constantly grumbling and worshiping idols. Were they crazy? As crazy as the rest of us. We are so destitute that nothing short of constant, overt revelation would do to keep him in our thoughts at all times. But is all Creatioin not that awareness? It is constant revelation of the hands of its potter. But the trick is always to be looking; the moment the Israelites turned to idols was the moment they chose not to look, to turn away from he who is the only thing worth seeing. He is revealed! We must but look. He hides, as it were, in the mountains and trees and seas, in reason and truth, and in smile.
But it was not sufficient for the ancient Israelites, who had the God of the universe as their seeking, passionate lover, those who held his providence and love in their hands, who gazed upon his glory and had his law written, in his own hand upon stone, and it’s not enough for us either. If they failed so miserably in this regard, in response to general and specific revelation, how much more do we? How much more prone to wander are we? Today I sin because for moments--- eternity when it comes to the soul---I have taken my eyes off Christ himself, who is the final and complete revelation of God.
But let’s not skip ahead. If God indeed speaks to us through many ways and at many times, this tells us many things about him. First off, he is relational, seeking to be found, no hide-and-seek here. He wishes for us to find him; he wishes us to be found in him. He wants commitment and relationship, otherwise he would not wish to be heard. He would have no decrees for holiness and reconciliation and conduct: it is only through these things that he could have contact with the Israelites; his justice would not allow it any other way.
Secondly, God will not limit his revelation. No, all revelation is bespeaking and speaking from Christ, the λογος (Logos). This is the only way, but with a number of translations, a pseudonymous authroship of which the true author’s personality, style, and character shine so brilliantly through the entire gamut of names. The names serve only to confound those who choose not to see, not those who earnestly seek. I love what Wesley says about “spake”: “A part is put for the whole; implying every kind of divine communication.”
Every part is put forth until, and so, the entire revelation can be found in Christ. According to Barth, the λογος will be found in proclamation, Scripture, and in Christ. But the second in the Trinity is the foundation and truth, the direction, culmination, completion, and source of every Word—he
is the Word, shining forth through every “voice” of God, speaking to those to whom he will. Every kind of divine communication has occurred before Christ, yet the message was still incomplete. Voices were not enough; there had to be someone, the actualized λογος in flesh.
But what else does it say of God as he speaks through many ways and times? That God, the Creator and great Lover of the universe is supremely and infinitely patient! Surely his speaking once would be enough! Need we any more? Why should God speak over and over and over, as if the Hebrews deserved, by what they were, such repetition and attention? God has no duty to speak “many times and in many ways.” He has no responsibility to the Hebrews, nor to all humanity. Apparently, he placed this responsibility upon himself, for surely when God speaks just once, the whole cosmos should listen and copy down those words or burn them into its fabric, as few as they may be. He does so because he’s chosen to do so, not out of any need in himself. Or perhaps he’s
created the need, the longing within himself; otherwise, why weep over a sparrow? So he calls and calls, in many times and in many ways, as a patient lover, the Cosmic Paramour. How many millennia ago would I have given up, stopped my whispering, singing, and shouting? The universe continually responds, whether we do or not, by its very existence is worshiping—and, maybe, so are we, whether we wish to or not. The atheist unwittingly, and much against his will and much to his dismay, praises his God with his each and every breath.
The whispering, singing, and shouting in "many ways" leads to another great revelation: that God is creative and creating. We know he “covers the sky with clouds; / he supplies the earth with rain / and makes grass grow on the hill. / He provides food for the cattle / and for the raven when they call” (ps. 147:8-9). So he expands the universe and grows stars—and kills them. “His words run swiftly (ps. 147:15). His fecundity in self-expression is ceaseless. He’s constantly coming up with new ways to speak: a burning bush did for Moses; a whale worked for Jonah; a voice worked for Avram and sent him from Ur; a dream showed Joshua that God was all around. Always speaking in different ways, he is always saying the same thing—“I am God, your God.” His methods have changed, he, never lacking ways to woo. The Hebrews could stand by the fact that God had chosen to reveal himself, and he had done it with never-ceasing fire, never-waning in passion and clarity—
his inexhaustible means to his inexhaustible end.In his revelation he never allows his words to go unheard. He chose to use the clanky human contraption of language to show himself to the Hebrews. Nor did he defy reason. He was almost always comprehendible in his action and word, though not in his personal unknowability and infinity. Or is it that he bestowed upon humanity his divine and spiritual gift of language? It is commonly held that God only uses language in relation to us. But what if we use language in relation, as a source and function, of him? What if we speak because he first spoke, not because he had to find a way to communicate with us? This would certainly explain poetry, mythology, song. Do we not sing because we have a singing God? Nonetheless, he communicates, not above us, but to us. Whether there be fleshy conductors or through his divinely inspired magic that separates us from all other animal, he does not leave himself without witness. And he will not defy the rules that allow us to seek him without specifically uttering it so, namely through conscience, reason, and nature (Rom 2).
Mankind’s first direct or audible contact with God occurred not through anyone seeking him. He initiated post-Eden contact to that righteous pagan Avram, or Abram. He called mankind, mankind did not call him. This fact serves to prove his infinite grace and mercy. I do not talk to the ants in my ant farm, nor a pot that I sculpted and painted. How much greater the contrast between God and myself? I am much closer to the ant than God is to me. But this is only true in essence, power, personality, not in relationship or proximity. He chose us; he chooses us.
If to know him as a speaker God reveals this much of his nature, it tells us more—more than what I could here exposit—but this will be the last revelation drawn from the fact that God spoke in many times and in many ways. If it is taken into consideration all that has previously been stated regarding God’s self-revelation, there is now one more important thing to be learned. If God speaks, God will judge. In making his voice heard he has made himself known. We now know what it is he wants, even without his specific declaration of it. If God is relational, patient, creative and passionate, reasonable, initiating of relationship, could it possibly be imagined that he would call his people to be isolationist, alienated from each other, impatient, lazy, uncreative, unreasonable, and shunning of relationship? Surely we can easily conclude NO! Then there has been a standard set; if he is not left without witness, we are left without excuse. If God is reasonable, as he has shown, he is just and there is justice. We are to begin to live as he has shown us in the very act of speaking, because this is not contradictory to his words. But we have words, and they are great and awesome; we have
THE Word.
Surely, even if we had no clue as to what he said, we would be able to derive this much as true, just by the knowledge of the fact that God spoke at all, in many times and in many ways.
