Don’t you just love the powerful voice of Alexander Scorby reading the Bible?  It is a classic.  There’s some in this world who just have a very pleasant sounding voice and we love to hear them.  There are also many radio personalities who have a wonderful voice, both male and female.

            The mere tones of our voices can communicate a lot.  I’ve talked about this several times but I knew what my mother wanted of me by the tone of her voice.  And if Dad was angry, well his voice wasn’t always loud and booming, but let me tell you, it came through very clearly!  There was nothing to second guess.

            In Deuteronomy chapter 5 we read the account where God spoke directly to the entire camp of the people of Israel.  We don’t often think of it like this but actually the first rendering of the commandments wasn’t on tables of stone but spoken directly to all by none other than God Himself.  Just think of the resonant, booming voice that came from the heavens as God talked to them. Wouldn’t that have been a thrilling moment; to actually hear the voice of God?

            Apparently they didn’t listen very well.  Some might reason that when the people of Israel created the golden calf, dancing and worshipping before it while Moses was receiving the commandments of God on top of the fiery Sinai, that they could be partially excused because they hadn’t yet received the tablets.  But if you read the scripture you’ll discover that God spoke the commandments to them before Moses went up on Sinai.  There was no excuse.

            In fact, they were so frightened of God’s voice that apparently they forgot to listen to what He was saying.  Most of us today would probably welcome a vocal expression from God, or at least we think we would.  But tragically we read in this chapter that after God had spoken to the people the consensus was made that they really didn’t want to hear His voice again.  They requested that God speak to Moses and he tell them what God said.  That’s devastating to me!  What a privilege they had been given!  Then they basically slapped God in the face by saying, “We’re afraid of your voice.  Tell Moses what you want and we’ll get the word from Him.”

            God honored their request but I can’t help feeling like they missed out on so much blessing because of it.  Of course it must have thundered and sounded awesome.  I can partially understand their fear because of the unknown.  But wouldn’t it assure us that God was real if He actually spoke to us?  I mean, who could argue with that?  Man requested it and so God has honored it.

            Today God still honors it.  Most of our communication with Him comes from what we read in the Bible, what He reveals to individuals, and what His still small voice speaks in our hearts.  That’s good but how much better would it be to hear it directly from God? 

            Very few have actually heard the voice of God.  I’ve never heard the voice of God, audibly anyway.  But I’m so glad that He still speaks to us in our hearts.  If we listen He is constantly speaking to us inside, giving us direction, pointing the way we need to go and reminding us of those things that can hinder us in our salvation experience.

            God’s voice is still an awesome thing.  I love hearing it, even though it isn’t an audible voice and sometimes He has things to tell me that go against the grain.  He’s speaking to all of us, if we’ll just choose to hear Him.

Jerry D. Ousley is the author of ?Soul Challenge?, ?Soul Journey?, ?Ordeal?, ?The Spirit Bread Daily Devotional and his first novel ?The Shoe Tree.?  Visit our website at spiritbread.com to download these and more completely free of charge.