God speaks

"When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, 'Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord.'" - Hosea 1:2 (ESV)

God speaks.  He reveals Himself to people.  This has been true throughout the history of the world (Hebrews 1:1-2).  He predominantly speaks through Scripture.  But what are we to do when we receive a word to which Scripture does not directly speak?  For example, I was set to speak to a group of people one time when, about ten minutes before I was to speak, I had a very strong impression that I was to speak about something completely different (which I had previously studied).  How are we to determine if messages like this are from God or from our own thoughts?

In reading Hosea 1:2, I have to ask myself, “How exactly did God speak to Hosea?  Did Hosea hear an audible voice?  Did God put thoughts into his mind?  Was there some other way God communicated to him?”  The text doesn’t say.  It simply says that God communicated a message to Hosea.

The text is likewise silent about Hosea’s response to this message, except to say that Hosea obeyed it.  It doesn’t tell us if Hosea doubted whether or not this message was from God.  In fact, I cannot think of a single example in the Bible where the recipient of  a direct message from God doubted that it was indeed God giving the message.

Hosea’s example here is striking because of the message itself.  If anyone had reason to doubt the author of the message based on the content of the message, Hosea did.  “Take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom...”  This is preposterous!  There are no Bible verses to support the content of this message.

I have to wonder, “Did Hosea question this word from the LORD?”  If he didn’t doubt that it was indeed a message from God, did he oscillate in his response, or did he simply go forward in obedience?  I can’t imagine marrying a prostitute was an appealing prospect for Hosea.  Yet the text gives absolutely no indication on any negative, questioning, or faithless response in Hosea.  It simply tells us that he did what God told him to do.

I believe the concept of the recipient knowing for sure when God was speaking is an important aspect for those who seek to “know God’s will” in our day and age (though there are certainly many more points to be considered with regards to knowing God’s will).  Jesus says in John 10:27, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.”

This begs the question for me...do I know God’s voice?  I can think of times when I can say with much certainty, “God spoke to me.”  There was a weightiness or sense of God’s presence that convinces me it was God speaking in those times.  I can think of many other times a thought comes my way, and I wonder, “Is this God speaking, or are these simply my own thoughts?”  To be honest, I can’t say with any degree of certainty which it was to this day (which makes me think these thoughts were probably not direct messages from God).  In any case, the point is this: When God speaks, the recipient knows it was God speaking.  And when God speaks, we must obey.

Do I really believe God is good?

I find Jeremiah 44:15-19 very interesting. The people are evaluating who to worship based upon how their lives are going. They feel that this “queen of heaven” was better than YHWH at making their lives good. They reason that they had plenty of food, prospered, and saw no disaster when they made offerings to her. When they stopped making offerings to her, their fortunes reversed.

I wonder how many people (including myself) do this today? It’s easy to point fingers at the prosperity gospel as a relative of this kind of thinking. But I’m not going there. I’m thinking of those (including myself) in Christ-centered gospel-preaching evangelical churches. Do we evaluate the reality and worthiness of God based on our prosperity? When things go well, we praise Him. When things go poorly (at least from our perspective), we tell ourselves that God is good, but do we genuinely believe it inside, or is it just a theological “belief” in our minds that we doubt in our hearts?

“God is good.” is a truth that must press deep into our souls. We must realize, not simply in our minds but rather in our hearts that we are not intended to be the evaluators of this truth. God isn’t letting us decide or evaluate what circumstances are “good” or “bad.” We desperately need His perspective on the circumstances of life.