Title: God Who Speaks
Content br> God is a speaking God. God has spoken from the beginning.
If God is a God who does not speak, then God is not God, but something strange. If God had not spoken, we would not be able to know His will, and we would not have known who He is, His essence, His characteristics, and His disposition. If God had not spoken, we would not have the Bible we have today, and we would never have known all the facts, events, and spiritual truths that He gave us through the Holy Spirit. If God had not spoken, above all else, we would have lived without meaning in eternal death and eternal emptiness without knowing our Savior Jesus Christ and the truth of salvation.
But God has spoken.
The writer of Hebrews wrote the truth of what God said:
“God, who once spoke to our ancestors through the prophets in various parts and in many ways” (Hebrews 1:1)
In the Old Testament we can see that God spoke to the prophets, the people of God, in various parts, always many times, and in many ways, in many ways, and they also spoke to our ancestors, many people in general.
According to these words, God spoke once or twice and did not stop speaking. He said it all the time, many times, many times. He did not say it in one way, but in many ways. Looking at the ways God spoke in the Old Testament, God spoke directly to the person He wanted to speak to, and He spoke through angels, signs and wonders, and sometimes through beasts through dreams and visions.
God created the first humans, Adam and Eve, and spoke to them directly.
In other words, the sound of God speaking was heard, and their ears could hear clearly.
“God blessed them and said to them, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves on the earth” (Genesis 1:28).
“And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, From every tree of the garden you may eat freely of any tree” (Genesis 2:16).
God gave the word to Adam and Eve even after they sinned, but there was also a clear voice of God, and Adam and Eve heard the word of God with their own ears and answered clearly in their own words.
“When it was cool of the day, when they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden, Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden” (Genesis 3:8).
“The Lord God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?” (Genesis 3:9)
“He said to them, “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the tree I commanded you not to eat?” (Genesis 3:11)
“Then the LORD God said to the woman, “Why did you do this?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate” (Genesis 3:13).
“And he said to the woman, “I will greatly increase the pain of childbearing, and you will labor and bear children, and you will love your husband, and he will rule over you.” Cursed is the land because of you, for you have eaten from the tree; and you shall toil all your days, and then you will eat of its fruit. and from it you were taken, for you are dust, and to dust you will return” (Genesis 3:16-19).
It was not only in the case of Adam and Eve that the Word was given in direct words that humans could understand. He spoke the same way to Cain, the murderer who killed his brother Abel, and he did the same when he told the righteous Noah of his judgment plan and the preparation of the ark.
“Then God said to Noah, “The end has come before me, because the earth is full of violence of all flesh, and I will destroy them along with the earth. You shall build an ark for yourself of cypress wood, and seal the livers in it, and paint it inside and outside it with bitumen. The system of the ark was this: it was three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide, and thirty cubits high, and it was to make a spear a cubit from the top, and its gates to the side, and it was to be three stories high, top and bottom. I will annihilate the flesh that breathes life from under heaven, and everyone on the earth shall die. But I will make my covenant with you, and you shall enter the ark with your sons and your wife and your sons and daughters, and you shall take every living creature of flesh and blood. Bring a male and female pair into the ark to preserve life with you; birds according to their kind, cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing of the earth after its kind, two of each, shall come to you so that you may preserve their life. bring it to you and save it, and it will be for you and their food” (Genesis 6:13-21).
Even after the ark was completed and before God's judgment day, when God was telling Noah to enter the ark, He spoke directly into Noah's ears.
"The LORD said to Noah, "Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have found you righteous before me in this generation. You shall take seven of each clean animal, male and female, and every unclean animal two males and two females, and the birds of the air will Take seven males and one female, and let their seed spread over the whole face of the earth. In seven days from now, I will make rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and all living creatures that I have made will be blotted out of the face of the earth” (Genesis 7:1-4).
God also spoke directly to Abraham so that he could hear him.
“Then the LORD said to Abram, “Leave your country and your relatives and your father’s house, and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you. And whoever curses you, I will curse, and all peoples of the earth will be blessed in you” (Genesis 12:1-3).
Abraham received the word of God in this way countless times throughout his life, and he himself spoke to Hana Man himself. There are countless people in the Old Testament who heard God's word with their own ears and received God's commands, rebuke, or praise.
In addition to this method, God also spoke by sending angels on behalf of God.
“They said to Abraham, “Where is Sarah your wife?” He answered, “She is in the tent.” He said to him, “I will surely return to you at the appointed time, and Sarah your wife will have a son.” Then Sarah heard it from the tent door. 18:9-10)
“Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with Jacob all day long, and when he saw that he could not overcome Jacob, he struck Jacob's hip bone, and Jacob's hip was broken while wrestling with the man. Let the day come. Let me go. And Jacob said, "I will not let you go unless you bless me." The man said to him, "What is your name?" He said, "Jacob." The man said, "I will call your name Jacob again." No but Israel shall be called, for you have struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed. And Jacob begged and said, "Tell me your name." The man said, "How can you ask my name?" And there he blessed Jacob." (Genesis 32:24- 29)
“It was this man who was in the church in the wilderness with the angel who spoke at Mount Sinai and with our ancestors, and who received and gave us the way of life” (Acts 7:38).
God also spoke through signs and wonders.
“Moses was tending the flocks of Jethro, the priest of Midian, his father-in-law, and he led the flock to the west of the wilderness to Horeb, the mountain of God, and an angel of the Lord appeared to him from the flames of a bush. And he said, "I will turn and go and see this great sight. Why does the bush not burn?" At the same time, the LORD saw him turning to see. God called him from the midst of the bush and said, "Moses, Moses." And he said, Here I am” (Exodus 3:1-4)
“Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did as the LORD had commanded, and Aaron threw down his staff before Pharaoh and his servants, and it became a serpent” (Exodus 7:10).
“Moses and Aaron did as the LORD commanded, and lifted up their staff and struck the river in the sight of Pharaoh and his servants, and all the water turned into blood, and the fish in the river died, and the water smelled bad. There is blood on the ground” (Exodus 7:20-21)
God also spoke through speechless animals.
“Then the LORD opened the donkey’s mouth, and he said to Balaam, “What have I done to you that you strike me three times like this?” Balaam said to the donkey, “You are rebelling against me. Are you not the donkey that you have ridden all your life to this day? Have I ever had a habit of doing this to you?” (Numbers 22:28-30)
God often spoke through dreams. By allowing other people to interpret dreams, He also indirectly allowed them to know God's will.
“Joseph had a dream and reported it to his brothers, and they hated him even more. And Joseph said to them, “Listen to my dream, please. He stood and bowed” (Genesis 37:5-7).
“Joseph had another dream, and he told his brothers, “I had another dream, and the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me.” He told his father the dream, and his father rebuked him and said to him, “What is your dream? Will your mother and your brothers really go and bow down to you, and your brothers envy you, but your father took his words to heart?” (Genesis 37:9-11)
Joseph's dream came true after that.
This is the servant's dream and Joseph's interpretation.
"The chief cupbearer told the dream to Joseph, saying, "I saw in my dream a vine before me, and there were three branches on it, and it budded and blossomed, and the clusters of grapes were ripe, and Pharaoh's cup was in my hand. I took the grapes, squeezed the juice into Pharaoh's cup, and gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand. Joseph said to him, "These are the interpretations: three are three days. will recover, and you will have the cup of Pharaoh in your hand, as you did when you were a cupbearer” (Genesis 40:9-13).
Pharaoh's dream and Joseph's interpretation.
“Two years later, Pharaoh had a dream, and he was standing by the river, and he saw seven beautiful and fat cows coming up out of the river and grazing on the reeds. After that, seven other ferocious and skinny cows came up from the river and stood by the river with them. Danny ?/td>