God speaks

We assume if there is a God that He is going to speak.

But He didn't have to.

If we are going to know Him however, we need Him to.

Herman Bavinck puts it like this, “The moment we dare to speak about God the question arises: How can we? We are human and he is the Lord our God. Between him and us there seems to be no such kinship or communion as would enable us to name him truthfully. The distance between God and us is the gulf between the Infinite and the finite, between eternity and time, between being and becoming, between the All and the nothing. However little we know of God, even the faintest notion implies that he is a being who is infinitely exalted above every creature.”

Think about the implications of that.

In his book, “The Wonderful Works of God” Bavinck helps us. I’ll summarize quickly.

First of all, we couldn’t know anything about God unless God first took the initiative. There are a lot of other things we can study and figure out if we want to know more about them. For example, nature. We can figure nature out to a certain extent. We are still dependent on God, of course but God gave us abilities to study and learn. Though again we are still limited. The more you know about most things the more you know you don't know. But you can study nature and learn how it works.People, on other hand, obviously are much more difficult to know just by studying. You can know the outside but to know what's going on inside, which is what we would say is really knowing them, they have to communicate. They have to open up their hearts. Though once in a while they will accidentally reveal something about themselves, because they don't have total control.

But God is in a category by Himself.

Nature we can know. People are a little harder.

But we are absolutely dependent on God’s kindness if we are going to know Him.

We are dependent on God because God doesn't need us or anything else in creation. He’s fine by Himself. “The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.” (Acts 17:24,25) And He's invisible. He’s a Spirit, so he doesn't have a body like us. Paul says, “Now to the king Eternal, Immortal, Invisible."(1 Timothy 1:17) And as God, He's in perfect control. He is not going to accidentally reveal something about Himself.

The only way we can have any knowledge of God is if He freely chooses to reveal himself.

And He has!

That's the thing.

He has.

You open your Bible and you know what you discover?

You discover that God is a speaking God, a preaching God.

As Michael Reeves explains, “God is not silent or speechless; the living God is a God who speaks. God does not merely happen to speak; by his very nature he is a speaking God.”

We see that at the start. Genesis 1, “And God said…” And we know God said, why? Because God told Moses what He said. Genesis 2, God instructs Adam. In a perfect world, Adam needed counsel from God to know how to live and God gave it. Genesis 3, Satan attacks man's relationship with God and where does he start? Has God said? And man listens to Satan instead of God and sins, and yet again God speaks and judges and makes a promise. You could say God preaches the first gospel. And we keep reading and see God choosing Israel, and entering a relationship with them and if you study the book of Deuteronomy you will see the health of that relationship was dependent on them listening to Him. “Hear O Israel’ he says over and over. And actually the way it works there is he speaks to Moses, Moses tells that generation of Israel what he said, then it's written down and the people are to devote themselves to studying what God said.

If we fast forward past the Old Testament to the New Testament, Hebrews 1 says,“In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe.” He spoke in the past, and in these last days he has spoken.

John Piper explains, "Do you realize how massive, how significant, this seemingly simple, basic truth is for the very nature of reality and our world and our lives? God did not have to speak to humanity. He could have just created the world — embedded his truth and justice, as it were, in the world through the principles and laws of nature. He might have chosen to reveal himself only through creation, rather than human words. But wonder upon wonder, God has spoken. Our Father, in all his majesty, has stooped to speak to us in human words. The God who made everything, including you, has spoken — and that changes everything.”

We can know God, because God speaks.

This is part of what makes the Bible so important and exciting. It’s about God. It’s God speaking about God. And when God’s speaks, things happen. His words have power!