Throughout the Bible, we see how God deals with situations in various ways, and He makes it clear that His Law still stands and that He wants us to abide by it. There are examples where He boldly proclaims His laws and judgments; and when He wants to get His point across, it becomes quite evident that His Will is being done. When He has a purpose for you and me, He will be there to guide us, to test us, and to make us realize what His intentions are for our future. Just as God is bold, we are to be the same when it comes to His Law, when the situation calls for it. We are not to be shy in what we believe; we must not be unsteady, doubtful and fearful about what others may think, wavering when being asked about our beliefs. Rather, we are to use our voice with conviction, with confidence, and with boldness.
Of course, we should be mindful of the situation in what we say and to whom we say it. Christ, for example, always had the perfect response in every situation He was in. He knew what to say and when to say it, when to be bold and when to be quiet.
When there is a purpose that God wants to be fulfilled, He will see to it that it happens. After Elijah fled into the wilderness and prayed that God would take his life when he heard that Jezebel, the wife of the king of Israel, Ahab, was seeking to kill him, notice how God responded to him (1 Kings 19:9-18). He showed Elijah His power through nature, just like He explained to Job His almighty power and just how insignificant Job was compared to God. God responded to Elijah in a supernatural way which really got his attention—with all this might through a powerful wind, an earthquake and a fire, to nothing but a delicate whispering voice. This also shows us that the Work of God doesn’t always need to occur with dramatic revelation and manifestations (compare Zechariah 4:6). Noticeable displays of power are not always necessary for God to act. He knows how to deal with each and every one of us.
There are many different ways in which He proclaims His voice to communicate with His people. We find throughout the Bible how He communicates through a whirlwind in the book of Job; how He reveals His presence in an earthquake and a fire with Moses and the Israelites in the book of Exodus; and how His voice sounds like thunder in various Scriptures.
When God proclaimed His Law to the Israelites, it was given amidst a tempest of wind, thunder and lightning, attended with an earthquake (notice Hebrews 12:18-24). But as we just saw in the example of Elijah, God does not always speak in that way.
The world perceives God’s Law as harsh and chooses to celebrate man’s pagan holidays, instead of keeping the weekly Sabbath and God’s annual Holy Days. Mankind today doesn’t care about God’s Law or want to believe that it is wrong to keep these pagan days. Mankind may just be completely ignorant about these days anyway, but the time will come when God will manifest His power and will declare to the whole world what is right and what is wrong.
Once people understand what God’s Law is all about and their eyes are opened, their perception will be quite different. They will realize that God gave His Law to protect man from harm—that it is for their own good. Depending on the person and his or her situation, God may speak with a loud voice, or with a “whisper.” As Gill’s Exposition of the Bible puts it in reference to Psalm 89:15, God may speak with “a gentle voice of love, grace, and mercy, of peace, pardon, righteousness, and salvation by Christ.” The commentary continues that God, “by the law breaks the rocky hearts of men in pieces, shakes their consciences, and fills their minds with a sense of fiery wrath and indignation they deserve, and then speaks comfortably to them, speaks peace and pardon… blessed are the people that hear this still, small, gentle voice.”
God speaks to people at different times and in different ways, but only a few actually listen and understand what He is saying. That is why it is vital to keep learning and studying, to build our understanding and relationship with God because the more we do that, the more ready we will be to listen to His voice when He speaks, and the more likely we are to obey and apply what we hear.
