God Still Speaks
by Keith Comparetto
“Therefore My people shall know My name; Therefore they shall know in that day
That I am He who speaks: ‘Behold, it is I.'” (Isaiah 52:6)
In the Beginning Were Scoffers
In the last century, when a popular topic of discussion was the notion that “God is dead,” scientists and other “enlightened” people gloated that, at least for “intelligent people,” the existence of God was no longer to be taken seriously. Yet rejecting God and those who believe in Him is nothing new. Around 1500 BC, as Moses stood before the king of Egypt and asked him to “Let my people go,” pharaoh rejected Moses’ request by demanding, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, nor will I let Israel go” (Exodus 5:2).
In the 7th century BC, as a wicked king named Jehoiakim listened to words from God written on a scroll, we are told by Jeremiah that “the king cut [the scroll] with the scribe’s knife and cast it into the fire that was on the hearth, until all the scroll was consumed in the fire that was on the hearth.” (Jeremiah 36:23)
In the 1700’s, a French philosopher named Voltaire proclaimed confidently that within twenty years, there would not be another Bible left. (After Voltaire’s death, his house became a Bible distribution center.)
The True God Is Never Popular
The main thing we can learn from these examples is that, at least among those who are wise in their own eyes, the idea of an intelligent God who created us and holds us responsible for our actions has never been popular. This should be no surprise, for the Bible has told us it would be so.
The Old Testament tells us that “the LORD God of their fathers sent warnings to them by His messengers, rising up early and sending them, because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling place. But they mocked the messengers of God, despised His words, and scoffed at His prophets, untilthe wrath of the LORD arose against His people, till there was no remedy” (1 Chronicles 36:15-16).
Likewise in the New Testament, Paul the apostle told the Corinthians, “But we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block, and to Gentiles foolishness . . . [for] God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong . . .” (1 Corinthians 1:23-27).
God Speaks Softly
For reasons known only to Himself, this God, who could have written His message in the sky or make the stones cry out in praise to Him, has usually chosen to make Himself known only to those who, like the wise men, search for Him – for “He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6).
The prophet Elijah heard Him, not in a great wind, not in an earthquake, and not in a fire, but in “a still small voice” (I Kings 19:13).
The Jews found their promised Messiah not in the Person of a powerful political and military leader, but in the form of a poor carpenter of lowly birth from a low-class town. Yet this lowly carpenter was in truth the very Son of God, whom the Bible tells us God has appointed “heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of [God’s] glory and the express image of [God’s] person, and upholding all things by the word of [God’s] power, when He [Christ] had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high . . .” (Hebrews 1:2-3).
God Still Speaks
This same God, who came to dwell among us in the form of the Savior who “humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross” (Philippians 2:8), speaks today only to those who humbly seek to know Him and to obeyHim as He is revealed in His word, the Bible, God’s message to mankind. For, true to His word, this Son of God will indeed one day return in judgment, “in flaming fire taking vengeance” (2 Thessalonians 1:8). May it be, dear reader, that whether we meet Him in that day or in death, we may be among those of whom He has said, “Blessed are those servants whom the master, when he comes, will find watching.”