The God Who Has Always Spoken

Before the session

Read this through. Then read Joel 2:28-29 once at home, slowly. Notice how broad the promise is.

The first thing in Scripture is a voice

When the Bible begins, it does not begin with a vision or a feeling or a principle. It begins with a voice.

"And God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light." (Genesis 1:3)

That is a remarkable opening for a book. The God of the Bible is, from the very first sentence, a speaking God. Creation itself comes into being through speech. The relationship between God and the world He has made starts with His words and the world's response to them.

This is worth pausing on, because it sets a pattern that runs the whole way through Scripture. The God of Israel is not silent. He is not a watchmaker who sets the world spinning and walks away. He is not a distant principle to be deduced from creation alone. He speaks. He has always spoken. The question of whether He speaks today is, at minimum, a question that takes seriously the kind of God He has shown Himself to be from page one.

The Old Testament pattern

Across the Old Testament, the speech of God shapes everything. Consider how varied the modes are.

He speaks to Adam and Eve in the garden, walking with them in the cool of the day (Genesis 3:8-9). The first crisis of human history is followed by a question from God, audible enough to hide from. He speaks to Noah with detailed instructions over what must have felt like decades of construction (Genesis 6:13). He speaks to Abraham in visions, in the heat of the day, through three travellers, in dreams, and in promises that take generations to come true (Genesis 12, 15, 17, 18).

He speaks to Moses at the burning bush, then face to face as a man speaks with his friend (Exodus 33:11). He speaks to Samuel as a boy in the temple (1 Samuel 3). He speaks to David through the prophet Nathan (2 Samuel 12). He speaks to the prophets in vision after vision, dream after dream, oracle after oracle. The whole prophetic literature, from Isaiah to Malachi, is the speech of God captured in writing.

And He speaks to Elijah in one of the most beautiful passages in the Old Testament. The prophet is exhausted, depressed, hiding in a cave. The Lord passes by. There is wind that tears the mountain apart, but the Lord is not in the wind. There is an earthquake, but the Lord is not in the earthquake. There is fire, but the Lord is not in the fire. And after the fire, a low whisper. (1 Kings 19:11-12)

That is where God is found. Not in the spectacle. In the whisper.

The Old Testament's God is intimate. His preferred posture toward His people is closeness, not theatre. The big public moments matter, but the central reality of the Old Testament walk with God is the low whisper.

A prophecy that should stop us in our tracks

Somewhere in the middle of the Old Testament, a prophet named Joel writes something stunning. He is in a season of national disaster. Locusts have stripped the land. The harvest has failed. The people are mourning. And in that context, Joel records this promise from God:

"And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit." (Joel 2:28-29)

Read that slowly.

All flesh. Not the priests. Not the prophets. Not a spiritual elite. All flesh. Sons and daughters. Both genders. Equal access. Old men and young men. Every generation. Even on the male and female servants. Even on the people without standing or social power.

The Old Testament's God is not only a speaking God. He is, by the time we reach Joel, a God who promises to extend His speaking to everyone who belongs to Him. The trajectory in the Old Testament is not contraction. It is expansion. God's voice was once heard mainly through prophets. Joel says a day is coming when it will be heard by all of His people.

This is the verse Peter quotes at Pentecost. We will sit with that next week. For now, just notice what it claims.

What both sides of the debate agree on

This is the easy week. There is very little disagreement here.

Cessationists agree that God spoke through the prophets. Continuationists agree that God spoke through the prophets. Both sides receive the Old Testament as inspired and true. Both sides hear the low whisper in 1 Kings 19 as God's actual voice to Elijah. Both sides take Joel 2:28-29 seriously as a promise that something would change in the way God's people would experience His Spirit.

The disagreement is not about the Old Testament. It is about what happened next. Specifically, what happened at Pentecost, and what happened after the apostles died. Did the promise of Joel 2 come into force at Pentecost and continue, or did it come into force at Pentecost and then ramp down as the canon was completed?

That is the conversation of weeks three and four. Tonight, we are just establishing the pattern. The God of the Bible has always been a speaking God. Whatever we conclude about today, we have to start from that ground.

A word about the low whisper

Before we close, sit with Elijah in the cave for a moment.

Elijah had just won a public victory over four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal. Fire from heaven. Killing of the false prophets. National repentance. He should have been at the height of his ministry. Instead, the queen issued a death threat, and he fled into the desert. He sat under a juniper tree and asked God to take his life. He was completely undone.

In that condition, the Lord found him. Not with a rebuke. Not with a sermon. Not with a vision of glory. With food, sleep, more food, more sleep, and a journey to a cave on Mount Horeb. And then, after the wind and the earthquake and the fire, a low whisper.

The God of the Old Testament is not just a speaking God. He is a careful one. He knows when His people need spectacle and when they need stillness. He knows when His servants need a public miracle and when they need a quiet word at the back of a cave. He is intimate.

If the question this whole course is asking is does God still speak, it is worth asking it with Elijah's image in mind. The kind of speech God specialises in is the kind that meets a tired prophet in a cave. Not loud. Not impressive. Not for an audience. For one person, in the dark, at the end of himself.

If God still speaks today, that is probably what it sounds like.

Before you come to the session

Read Joel 2:28-29 once a day this week, slowly. Notice each phrase. All flesh. Sons and daughters. Old men and young men. Even the servants.

Bring two things to the group:

• One sentence on what surprises you about the Old Testament's God of speech.
• One question or hesitation that came up as you read.