The Parable of the Lost Sheep, continued.
John 10 indicates that the sheep follow the shepherd because he knows their names and they know his voice. The shepherd is a metaphor for God. How do we know the voice we hear is the voice of God leading us? In the metaphor, the sheep are in no doubt about the voice of the shepherd and can distinguish between his voice and the voice of the stranger (whom they will not follow.)
The passage also mentions that there are sheep who are not of the shepherd’s fold, but Jesus asserts they will join the flock, they will heed his voice, and form one big flock. We will examine this statement in a future discussion.
Many people claim to be able to hear the voice of God. Former candidate Herman Cain said God told him to run for president of the USA. George W. Bush claimed God told him to invade Iraq and Afghanistan. Many murderers have claimed God told them to kill. How do any of us know that what we are hearing is truly the voice of God?
Other biblical mentions of hearing God’s voice include 1st Samuel, Gideon 17, and 1st Kings, as follows:
1 Samuel 3: God calls out to Samuel three times in the night. Each time Samuel thinks it is his master, the high priest Eli, calling him. But each time Eli says nope, not me; go back to bed. On the third occasion, Eli realizes it must be God trying to get through to Samuel. Why couldn’t Samuel recognize the voice? Note that God persisted in trying to get through to him.
Gideon 17: God gives Gideon some instructions. Gideon asks God to prove that it is him, and proposes a test that required supernatural power to meet. God complies, and passes the test. But Gideon is still doubtful, and demands another test, then another.
1 Kings 18-19: Elijah and the Israelites has been given proof of God when God sets fire to a water-soaked altar. But he loses faith in God’s power and runs away when he hears that Jezebel means to kill him. God confronts him. Elijah says he has been a good prophet for God and [implies that? –DE] God is not protecting him. So God produces a powerful wind, an earthquake, and a fire, but is in none of them. In fact, he speaks in a still, small voice. Elijah would expect that God would be in the roar of the big phenomena, given his experience with the fire on the sodden altar. God was teaching Elijah that the messenger is not necessarily revealed in the form of the message; that God is not predictable; that his voice changes.
So how can we validate the voice of God? The sheep in the parable have no problem recognizing the voice of the shepherd. How can we be like them? Is there a common theme to the scriptural references? Have we had any personal experiences of the voice?
David: These examples seem to highlight just more contradictions in the bible. Here we have Gideon showing that we only have to ask and God he will reveal his identity, whereas Elijah teaches not to bother trying to pin God down—that God will decide how to reveal himself.
Ramesh: Used to be a believer and used to think God was talking to him all the time. According to Indian rural culture and religion, his sister’s education ended prematurely when she matured physically, and she was required to marry and become, in a way, a slave to her husband. But to her, in accepting the custom and in being a good and obedient wife, she was in fact listening to God’s voice and obeying God’s will. This was among the reasons I lost my belief in God.
Mr. Singh: We are separated from God because of sin. Every day, God communicates to us through nature. He manifests his loving presence through nature.
Alice: Somewhere (maybe in Psalms) a verse asks something like “How could two people walk together if they are not in agreement?” If the sheep and the shepherd are not walking together, the sheep could not hear the voice to recognize. So we have to be walking with God to begin with, if we are to recognize his voice. When Abraham was asked to kill his son, he knew the request was genuinely from God because they were walking together.
Robin: Sheep and shepherd have to spend time together before the sheep can recognize his voice. We spend time with God through study and prayer. If we don’t, we cannot recognize him. Gideon is concerned about his responsibility for the people, for the flock. But Elijah is worried about himself, his own safety, and therefore doubts God.
Jay: It is not so much a contradiction as a sign that God will seek us out in whatever way will work for us. With Gideon, he is proving that he is God; with Elijah, he is showing that he is more than we think.
Rimon: We recognize what Jay just described when we want to contact God and we tune out all the distractions.
Ramesh: Half of us are saying we have to put effort into hearing and finding God, whereas the other half says don’t worry, God will hear and find you anyway. So is it God’s duty to help us to hear him, or do we have to expend effort to listen to him?
Vicky: How can we distinguish between God’s voice and a voice that is just an extension of my own mind? Schizophrenia and general internal mental chatter are forms of voice. The brain is a powerful organ that can create images, ideas, urges, convictions… How do I distinguish between a voice generated by my brain and a voice generated by God?
An intriguing notion is a phrase called Bat Qol [or Bat Kol – see footnote] from Judaism meaning the daughter of the voice of God. It describes an internal impression, a sense that I should do something; it is a whisper, a still small voice.
Don: Has any of us had a sense that God has tried to communicate directly with us? Have we ever looked for a sign that God is talking to us? Do we seek the voice of God when we face major decisions?
Are there any common themes in the biblical passages we’ve considered? Jason thinks the contradictions David sees in them are a technique on God’s part to broaden the mind. We see the persistence of God in the Samuel passage. Is this a theme? What other themes are there?
Or, are we making too much of this altogether? Is any talk of hearing God’s voice pure poppycock? Are there any principles about the message that might help us determine if a voice we hear is God’s?
Ramesh: I’ve known someone who suffered many terrible tragedies, but then had one good experience happen to him and promptly thanked God for being the source of it. Why not blame God for the bad things that happened? Why only thank him for the good things?
Don: Many people have a strong, intuitive desire to be led by God. They think that if God leads me he will lead me into good things. But is it true? If not true, what is the value of hearing God’s voice or trying to identify that God’s voice is speaking to me, giving me instruction, so that something good will happen to me personally?
Rimon: Asked Don how he would answer his own questions!
Jay: Vicky’s comment reminds me that in the Bible God never seems to address the common man and deal with mundane topics; rather, he talks to prophets and others who represent his authority in some way. One of the unpardonable sin is to claim that you speak for God. So are not people who say they have heard God’s voice committing that unpardonable sin?
Alice: It’s easier to recognize God’s voice after things happen. Beforehand we do not hear the voice. We hear it in retrospect. We act beforehand based on faith, then learn that it was right in hindsight.
Rimon: Without the mystery, there would be no difference between us and God. There has to be and will always be that mystery, otherwise we would be equal.
Alice: God recognizes the humble and helps them exercise to find the truth. So our first requirement is to be humble.
Don: is there a way to validate the message by its content? Does it make a difference what he says, how he says it, where, when?
Vicky: Is God really speaking to me when he is telling me to kill my son (as he told Abraham)?
Jaz: I am still waiting to hear God’s voice for the first time. I have vivid dreams that might be God’s voice, but how would I know? Some people say that God speaks to them as they read the Bible.
Mr. Singh: Every day we see God in nature. We even share an appreciation with other flocks—other religions—of the beauty of nature—of God.
Don: That God communicates both in natural ways, as Mr.Singh says, and in supernatural ways through dreams and voices in our head, is evident in the long record of communication with God. But how can this evidence be validated? Are there any guidelines? We’ll examine that question next week.
David: After all these thousands of years, if there were a way of validating the voice of God surely we would know it by now? I believe the inner voice does not speak in human language; that the voice of God is not directly translatable, just as the mind of God is so unimaginable to us we cannot possibly map to it. The inner voice of God just tells us what is Goodness, not whether any particular instance is good. That voice is deep, it is mysterious, and it is inside all of us to listen to. [I would add now the afterthought that it is also a quiet voice—it is not strident, not imperious; and it is a persistent voice—it never gives up trying to get through to us.] There are plenty of people lacking access to scriptures whome we readily recognize as being Good—of having God within them.
Don: So David perceives God’s voice in a global way, as an impression, rather than a GPS system that tells us which way to go.
Next week we may discuss personal experiences we have had of God’s voice.
* * *
BAT ḲOL (Hebrew, ; Aramaic, ):
A heavenly or divine voice which proclaims God’s will or judgment, His deeds and His commandments to individuals or to a number of persons, to rulers, communities, and even to whole nations.
— There is much more on this in the 1906 Jewish Encyclopedia, http://www.jewishencyclopedia.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.