The Voice of God (12/16/2001)

Since the September 11^th tragedy it has been said that there is a renewed spiritual awareness in our nation. For many there have been questions about God. Among those questions have been, “Does God speak to us? Does He even talk to mere mortals?” I know of no more appropriate season than Christmas to answer those questions with a resounding and emphatic “Yes!”

Throughout the Old Testament scriptures it is evident that God spoke to and through His prophets. However, in Bethlehem’s manger the Almighty went far beyond the abstract and intangible words of times past; for, in Bethlehem, that which is incomprehensible to the human mind occurred—His Word was made flesh (John 1:14). Dear reader, please think about this for a moment. As Jesus once stated during His earthly teaching ministry, let this “sink down into your ears”—His Word was made flesh! The Word that was “in the beginning, with God, and was God” (John 1:1) made an unprecedented entrance into the human arena in the form of a tiny babe. This event was the consummate communication act and irrefutable evidence that God does, indeed, desire to talk with you and me—us mere mortals!

His conception was not only by a virgin, but the Incarnation of The Word of God Itself was a virgin act, for never before in human history had God clothed Himself with the flesh of mortals. The neonatal cry of the infant Lord Jesus was but the beginning of the tangible Word of God brought into our realm of existence in a manner in which we could understand. As the New Testament writer beautifully illustrates: “That which was from the beginning, which we have ‘heard,’ which we have ‘seen’ with our eyes, which we have ‘looked upon,’ and our hands have ‘handled,’ of the Word of life” (1 John 1:1).

Furthermore, The Incarnate Word in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ was and is, at its essence, everything that God is by virtue of the perfection and completeness of The Word; therefore, in Jesus we have the “image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15). By virtue of being The Incarnated Word, the Lord Jesus not only fulfilled all Messianic prophecies, the prophecies were contained within His bosom, within His Being. Such a statement declares the exclusivity of Christ. He was not just an extension or an expression of God; He was and is the sum total of God: “For in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9).

The Omnipotent could have chosen to descend to earth in a grand cosmic display, replete with magnificent demonstrations of grandeur and might—but humanity could only have stood afar off and beheld Him with awe, unable to communicate with Him, pathetically ill-equipped to “handle” Him. An Old Testament prophet named Elijah once thought that such a Great God could only communicate in such events; but Elijah found that the Lord was not in the wind; He was not in the earthquake; and the Lord was not in the fire (I Kings 19:11-12). Elijah found the Lord in, of all things, “a still small voice.”

Do you long to hear the “still small voice” of God? I’ve got good news! His Voice can still be heard! He is still speaking to us today, but you must hear Him for yourself because He is a very personal God. This Christmas let us celebrate the “still small voice” of God that was given to all of us in a Jewish baby born over 2000 years ago to a peasant family in the land of Israel. May we ever be thankful to Him for loving us so much that He incarnated His Word so that He might talk with us and that we might talk with Him. Let us rejoice with “exceeding great joy” that in the Lord Jesus Christ, we have it all—even the very Voice of God!