God Talked
Well, the new year is here and it's time to begin reading through the Bible again. It seems like I just finished Revelation, and it's time to start again. Are you going to read through the Bible this year? I hope so.
Actually, I started a tad early and am already ten days into a reading plan. Which brought me to Genesis 25 this morning. While reading through this chapter, the following text caught my attention:
"And Isaac entreated Yahweh on behalf of his wife because she was barren; and Yahweh was moved by his entreaty. So Rebekah his wife conceived. But the children struggled together within her; and she said, 'If it is so, why then am I this way?' So she went to inquire of Yahweh. And Yahweh said to her, 'Two nations are in your womb; And two peoples will be separated from your body; And one people shall be stronger than the other; And the older shall serve the younger'." (Genesis 25:21-23 LSB)
This is a crucial passage that explains the coming turmoil in Abraham and Sarah's family. It explains how two future nations will get their start. But my mind was struck with the fact that Rebecca went to God for answers to a perplexing physical situation.
I began to think about how many people, to this point in the narrative of Genesis, God had spoken to. Now, mind you, we are approximately 2,000 years into the history of the world if we use the genealogies as a ruler. We often think that God talked to a lot of people back in the olden days. But I could only think of nine to this point in the story. There was Adam, Eve, Cain, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Hagar, Abimelech (in a dream), and Rebekah. Also, there was a lot of time between those conversations. Guessing one thousand years between Adam, Eve, Cain, and Noah, and another thousand between Noah and Abraham and crew.
Where are you going with this thought, Mike?
Sometimes I think it would be neat if I could just ask God a question and get an audible answer. Have you ever thought that? Wouldn't it be cool if we could ask God something and know that he would give us a direct answer? Wow, God speak would beat any AI speak a trillion times over.
Well, here's the deal. Back in the olden days of the Old Testament, God would communicate audibly every millennium or so. Of course, people like Adam, who had walked and talked with God, lived a long time and could share what communication with the Almighty was like. That is, Adam passed stories from one generation to another verbally. But Adam was one person, and the Bible never records how conversations with him might have gone. We do know that only eight people were saved by the ark. So there wasn't much spiritual fruit from those Adamic conversations.
Another thought came to me while pondering this brief account. Those Old Testament people didn't have what we have. There were no Bible reading plans back then because there was no Bible.
We have never experienced what Adam experienced. We've never heard exactly what God's voice sounds like. But we have a treasure Adam, Noah, and Abraham never had. We have the Bible! We have the living Word of God. We can know more about God and his plan than Abe could ever have imagined. If we read it, that is.
So, in this new year, you should be able to put your name alongside the above list of people to whom God has spoken. Don't let a day go by without opening your Bible, your, heart and, ears to what he wants to communicate. Set a time and let God lead you through the victories and trials of 2024. I can guarantee that you won't regret those moments invested in the Word if and when you come to January 1st, 2025.
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