“Today, if you will hear His voice …” (Heb. 4:7a, NKJV)
The second spiritual sense we’re looking at now is that of spiritual hearing. This spiritual sense is one of the most important to our functioning in the Spirit, as many things are dependent on our ability to hear the voice of God. In John 10:27 Jesus makes it clear: “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.”
Throughout Scripture great emphasis is placed on the absolute importance for the believer of hearing the voice of the Lord. A verse like Ex. 15:26 indicates the significance God attaches to hearing His voice and being obedient to it: “If you diligently heed the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I am the Lord who heals you.”
Interestingly enough the nation of Israel preferred being ruled by laws and regulations rather than being obedient to what God said, most probably because the latter is linked to a greater sense of uncertainty. In Deut. 5:25 it is phrased as follows: “Now therefore, why should we die? For this great fire will consume us; if we hear the voice of the Lord our God anymore, then we shall die.” But a Scripture like Deut. 8:20 points out that the opposite is actually true: “As the nations which the Lord destroys before you, so you shall perish, because you would not be obedient to the voice of the Lord your God.”
If God presents the blessings and curses to the people in Deut. 28, both are clearly linked to hearing the voice of God. Verse 2 presents it as such: “And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the Lord your God …” Verse 45: “Moreover all these curses shall come upon you and pursue and overtake you, until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the voice of the Lord your God …”
I think 1 Sam. 15:22 summarises the Old Testament idea of this matter in the clearest manner: “So Samuel said: ‘Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams.”
In the New Testament it is of even greater importance than before, but it is also easier to hear the voice of the Lord, as we now have the Spirit within us that leads us to the truth (John 16:13). Therefore it is repeated as refrain in Heb. 3:7, 15 and 4:7 – “Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”
But because “you have become dull of hearing” (Heb. 5:11) this very important spiritual sense has gotten lost for many believers. In the teachings of Day 112-146 we dealt extensively with how to hear the voice of God. Work through those teachings again!
- Selah: Do you hear the voice of the Lord, and are you obedient to it?
- Read: 43-45
- Memorise: 43:18-19