When God Speaks

                 In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” (Luke 1:26-28)

 

When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.” (Judges 6:12)

 

When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!” And Moses said, “Here I am.” (Exodus 3:4)

 

Then the Lord called Samuel. 

Samuel answered, “Here I am.” (I Samuel 3:4)

 

The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur.  And he said, “Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?”

“I’m running away from my mistress Sarai,” she answered. (Genesis 16:7-8)

 

He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” (Acts 9:4)

 

 

Taking a step back from yesterday’s passages, to consider God’s speaking to us.  There are many more examples than these, but these prove that He doesn’t necessarily follow a strict formula.  He called Moses, Samuel, Hagar, and Saul by name. He granted status to Mary and Gideon. He also informed them that “The Lord is with you.”

He reminded Hagar of her status because she was acting in rebellion against her mistress. We might agree that slavery is wrong, but under Abram’s comparative protection and because of his wealth, Hagar was better off with Abram and Sarai than off on her own. He also corrected Saul’s erroneous ideas about how to glorify God.

If we wanted to make the list longer, we could include Jesus’ calling of the disciples or God’s declaration that He would summon His servant, Nebuchadnezzar. One teacher I listened to recently has pointed out that God lifts the humble and humbles those elevated in their own estimation (or that of others.) And we can see some of that in these greetings.

But at the same time, sometimes He calls us by name, or by name repeated. Sometimes He lifts up the humble or humbles the proud (like Nebuchadnezzar, His servant!) Other times, He reminds the humble of their places.  He guides some, while correcting those who err. One thing to notice is that none of them were going out of their way to seek Him. None of them were being good enough to deserve His attention. The “great” of history are barely mentioned, and in some cases are little more than footnotes. The other thing we should notice is that God doesn’t speak to any of them to pass the time of day or to get their impressions about how things are going. And often, things seem to become more difficult when God has spoken.

Even so, Lord Jesus, come and speak.