THE VOICE OF GOD
[p. 114] THE VOICE OF GOD
Genesis 3: 8 - 10; Song of Songs 2: 8 - 14
It is of great importance to recognise that God has a right to a voice. The garden which God planted in Eden afforded Him an opportunity to assert His rights. God planted the garden. Adam did not suggest it; it was God’s suggestion, and it was God’s work. He designed it and He planted it. All the trees were trees of His planting. And having planted the garden, He caused a river to flow into it, thus asserting His right to influence the garden. It is a great thing to recognise that God has creatorial rights. All the planets and stars recognise these rights. The heavenly side ever remains intact, for in the heavens are placed powers of influence which men can never touch. Men may alter the course of rivers, but they cannot alter the course of the sun and the moon. The sun and the moon both exert an influence on the earth which is a testimony to God’s creatorial rights. God thus holds in His hand the power to influence the earth.
So, in this way, the river in the garden testified to those rights. God’s influence was to be supreme in the garden. It was as if God said to Adam, ‘Dress the garden and keep it, but My influence is to be supreme’. And so the river flowed into the garden and out of it.
I do not wish to speak at length on the river, but you will notice that, after leaving the garden, it was parted into four, not one. This gives the thought of universality, and here you get a remarkable prophetic testimony. It typifies the downcoming of the Holy Spirit from heaven, producing an evangelistic spirit in man. That was the effect of the divine influence, beloved friends; and that evangelistic spirit went out north, south, east and west, especially to the west.
[p. 115] Thank God for the heart of Paul and for Peter, even if the latter was slow to act; thank God for his heart. Paul thought of every gentile; that is, the influence and power of the Spirit led him to think of all men. There was not a man in the west that Paul did not think of. I refer to that to show at the outset how God asserted His rights for good. Think of the sun! It indicates God’s rights! It moves around; but what is the effect? It is for good; so with the moon and stars. All are for good. The psalmist understood something of this. He had interest in regard to them. Would that we had that interest! In Psalm 19 he says, “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the expanse sheweth the work of his hands. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge”. What do the heavens declare? The glory of God! That declaration cannot be detrimental to man in any sense. Then in verse 3 it says, “There is no speech and there are no words, yet their voice is heard”. How loudly that voice speaks everywhere!
What is the voice that speaks? It is the voice of God’s creatorial rights, and it extends to the utmost limits of the human family, to every nation. None but are acquainted with the sun, and moon, and stars, all of them speaking one language! All have their distinctive voice, a voice of goodness! Paul appeals to these things when speaking to the Athenians. He tells them that God is not far from each one of us. He says, “In him we live and move and exist”, Acts 17: 28. He puts himself among them-he says, “we”. God is not far from each one of us. In that sense God was as near to the Athenians as He was to Paul. The very breath we breathe comes from God. We live in God, move in God, have our being in God. He fills our hearts with food and gladness. That kind of voice, the voice of God’s creatorial rights, is in the world, whether men take account of it or not. One loves to think of it-the sun with all its [p. 116] regularity and heat, and the moon, both witnessing to God and His eternal power. Every time a believer looks at the moon it should remind him of God’s goodness and His creatorial rights. So in the garden you get a testimony to God’s rights.
Now God walked there, but it does not say Adam heard Him walking. He did not hear His footsteps. It says, “They heard the voice of Jehovah Elohim, walking in the garden”. It is a remarkable expression. It does not say, ‘They heard Jehovah Elohim walking in the garden’. It says, “They heard the voice of Jehovah Elohim, walking in the garden”. It was God coming into the garden and asserting His rights there. It was as if He said, ‘I have a right to speak here’. Have you recognised that right? Where did God walk and speak? He walked and spoke in Jesus. John the baptist was the best testimony to that walk and the best testimony to that voice. He looked on Jesus “as he walked”. He admired the walk of Jesus. Now to admire the walk of Jesus, and to see that walk, you have to read the gospels. John, looking at Jesus as He walked, said, “Behold the Lamb of God”. Chapter 1 is God’s account. In chapter 3 John rejoices because of “the voice of the bridegroom”, and he says, in effect, ‘That voice is all I want; it satisfies me’. He says, “This my joy then is fulfilled”. What marvellous progress he made! I have often thought of John the baptist and Moses — what remarkable men they were! Of all the men who had the greatest opportunity to make much of themselves, they were perhaps the first, yet each of them disappeared in the presence of Christ, and disappeared in entire satisfaction! There will be no grumbling in Heaven, no complaints there! Men disappear in satisfaction! What was the cause of their disappearing? The voice of the Bridegroom! “The friend of the bridegroom”, John says, “who stands and hears him, rejoices in heart because of the voice of the bridegroom”: and John’s joy is thus fulfilled, and he says, “He must increase, but I must decrease”. John disappears, but disappears as satisfied with the voice of the Bridegroom. If you could but hear that voice, if you could but see that walk, if you had but a heart like John, you also would disappear! I often think of John, the greatest born of women! What a splendid opportunity of exalting himself he had! John had the opportunity of being regarded as the Messiah. Yet in thinking of the coming One, he says, ‘I am only a voice’. In chapter 3, you see his growth. No doubt the voice which he was in himself was important, but he heard another voice. He tells us that he had heard the voice of the Bridegroom. There is no voice like that. That is the voice of affection! The blessed Man, who has that voice, has the bride, so John can disappear, and he does so as perfectly satisfied. I have no doubt in eternity heaven will be filled with people like that, people who have disappeared in the presence of Christ, and disappeared with satisfied hearts.
But to return to our chapter. In connection with Adam, I should like to call attention to the misuse he made of the trees. The trees were never intended by God to hide sinners. Trees were created by God to give pleasure and satisfaction to man, so that you find Adam was taking advantage of God’s goodness to hide himself from God. Every one of us is surrounded by the goodness of God. How are we using it?
There is the voice; it is audible. Paul says, “Have they not heard? Yea, surely, Their voice has gone out into all the earth”, Romans 10: 18. But hearing is not enough. The very hearing may lead you to hide, that is, to use those things which God has given you for your comfort to hide behind from Himself. Are you doing that? You may even hide behind your parents. Perhaps you are using them as a place of concealment. It is quite right to respect your parents,
[p. 118] and great rewards are promised to those who do so, but parents cannot give you a good conscience. They can pray for you and influence you, but they can never give you a good conscience. Adam here understood the voice. It was the voice of God. If you are to have a standing with God, you must have to do with God. Your parents can keep you from the world, but they cannot give you peace with God; they cannot give you heaven, nor can they give you the best robe. A christian household is a wonderful blessing, but you may hide from God behind your parents. Come out of your hiding-place! I have the greatest possible respect for christian parents, but they cannot give you the best robe. They have not got it in their houses!
It is in God’s house. If you are to be clothed for God, He must Himself do it. Come out of your hiding-place! Adam said, “I heard thy voice in the garden”. He was utterly inexcusable. Paul says, “There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of undistinguishable sound. If therefore I do not know the power of the sound, I shall be to him that speaks a barbarian, and he that speaks a barbarian for me”, 1 Corinthians 14: 10, 11. It was not so with Adam. He understood the power of the sound, the voice of God, and he hid himself behind the trees which were intended, by the goodness of God, for his comfort.
I would strongly advise you to come out and meet God for yourself. It is wonderful to be prayed for, to be taught and nurtured in christian principles; but, remember, you have to do with God in your own soul, if you are to be clothed divinely and have any standing with God. If your parent was Peter or Paul, it still remains true that “that which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit”. Who can bring that birth about? Only God.
Who can give you a good conscience? Who can clothe you with righteousness? Only God. The righteousness of God is “towards all, and upon all those who believe”. It is wonderful to be a believer in God. And who is a believer in God? One in whom God has wrought. “The wind blows where it will, and thou hearest its voice, but knowest not whence it comes and where it goes: thus is every one that is born of the Spirit”, John 3: 8. Satan has his winds. When the Lord and His disciples were in the boat on the sea, Satan acted on the wind, and the wind acted on the sea, and the sea in turn acted upon the boat and the disciples cried out for fear. That was Satan’s work; that wind came from Satan. But God has His wind, and God’s wind comes down. Satan’s wind did not come from heaven, but at Pentecost there was “a sound out of heaven as of a violent impetuous blowing”. We are familiar with the effect of a wind. It overturns and brings down houses, trees, and so on. We can see all these things around us. In the same way God’s ‘wind’ brings down men. We can see, for example, when a young man is brought down he has given up his vaunting, his ambition to be something in the world, and love for God’s people has come in instead. How is this bringing down brought to pass? No power in creation could effect that, nothing but the wind which came down from heaven. Nothing can stand before it. You cannot tell “whence it comes and where it goes: thus is every one that is born of the Spirit”. You can tell the effects of the wind in those who are the subjects of it. The heart now has distinctive longings after God. You do not want to hide now. God is your Friend! What is produced refers to God. It is “spirit”. You may not know this, but others know and rejoice in it. You remember in Acts 2, those who were affected by Peter’s preaching said, “What shall we do, brethren?”. They did not run off to the high priests and ask them what to do, nor did they go to the scribes. They asked Peter and the other apostles [p. 120] what to do. They knew instinctively whom to ask. So a soul turns to God, and also to those who believe in God, for they can answer his questions. Peter can tell them what to do. He has the Spirit and he says, “Repent, and be baptised, each one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for remission of sins, and ye will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit”. I would advise you to come out of your hiding-place and turn to God. The voice of creation ought to lead you to know that He is only thinking of you in goodness.
When you come to Pentecost it says, “There came suddenly a sound out of heaven as of a violent impetuous blowing, and filled all the house”. Thus the voice of the gospel has filled all creation already. The Holy Spirit has caused the sound of the heavenly testimony to be heard everywhere. The testimony of the gospel is a voice of love. How attractive it is! Again, Saul was brought down by the voice. Think of it as it addressed Saul! How full of love and consideration it was for the most obstinate of men! “It is hard for thee”, the Lord says, “to kick against goads”. What attraction it possessed! Nothing commends the voice of Christ to me more than that. There is the utmost consideration in it. “It is hard for thee to kick against goads”. So it was, and it is hard for you to go on year after year refusing the divine voice that calls; to go on hour by hour and day by day refusing the light. It is hard, and the Lord Jesus, in the consideration of His heart will tell you so. Saul was brought down. How? By the voice from heaven. Saul heard a heavenly voice, and the voice spoke in the Hebrew tongue, the tongue he respected most. Thus we see the Lord’s consideration for Saul in speaking in Hebrew. He was a Hebrew of Hebrews, a most patriotic man, and he respected his tongue, and the Lord had regard for that. He had the utmost consideration. There has never been anything in the ways of God to compare [p. 121] with the gospel! Whatever right thing you may have respect for, God respects it so as to gain you, and thus Saul was brought down. He says, “What shall I do, Lord?”. What a lot there was to be done! But how glad the Lord was to hear Paul’s voice. The Lord Jesus had the delight of hearing his voice; and I believe that Saul’s voice contained more music for God than God’s voice did for Saul.
To refer to the passage in the Song of Songs, the Lord typically says, “Let me hear thy voice”. The voice of whom? Of the very one who had said, “The voice of my beloved!”. How He longs to hear your voice! The bride recognised His voice. How different the effect from that in Adam’s case! He said, “I heard thy voice ... and I feared”, and well he might have feared, for what could the trees do for him? How foolish to think that the trees could hide him from God! His wisdom was to come out into the open and there meet God; when he does that God clothes him. How different with the bride! A feminine expression is used. It refers to what shall be brought to pass with men like ourselves in the future. If they come out of their concealment, God will meet them and clothe them, and then they who had said, “There is no beauty that we should desire him”, will come to see that there is beauty, such as Isaiah saw in his vision, “Mine eyes have seen the King, Jehovah of hosts”, Isaiah 6: 5. How like our experience! We may get tired of listening to our parents talking about Jesus. We may wonder why they go to the meetings so often. They have seen the Lord! He has become the treasure of their hearts! “Mine eyes have seen thy salvation”, Simeon said. So it will be with the remnant of Israel in the latter day, when God will work with them and they will see beauty in Christ. And so those who said, “There is no beauty that we should desire him”, call Him their ‘Beloved’, and know Him so well that the very sight [p. 122] of His hand will lead them to delineate His whole Person! What a change to effect! If there is one people more than another far away from Christ at the present moment it is the Jews. But there is to be a mighty change! And how will this change be effected? By their seeing Christ and hearing His voice. God shall bring them to see Christ whom they crucified.
They shall wail because of Him. They shall see the beauty that Isaiah saw, and shall read in chapter 53 of his prophecy with delight. It is like the eunuch (it was remarkable that he should be reading this chapter), who asked the question, “Concerning whom does the prophet say this? of himself or of some other?”. The answer is, “He saw his glory and spake of him”. So the remnant of Israel shall read that chapter, and will know. They shall feast their eyes by faith on the Man outlined there, and shall come to love Him so that His voice shall be to them “the voice of my beloved”. Instead of hiding, they will delight in the voice of the Bridegroom.
Now, supposing you love the Lord, how different everything is. Instead of hiding, you delight in His voice. You sit down now with your parents, and listen to the word with delight; you listen to the voice of the Bridegroom, you are not hiding now.
The bride knew the “power of the sound”. It was her Beloved’s voice, and she distinguished it and says, “The voice of my beloved! ... My beloved is like a gazelle or a young hart”. How swift that is! Asahel was likened to a gazelle; he was swift of foot. That is just what Jesus is spiritually. He is attending on you in all the agility of His affection for you. Supposing you have soul trouble (and you will have-who has not?-there is far more of it than we allow to be known-far more soul trouble than is spoken of), do you think the Lord does not know? Of course He does, and He is attending on you in regard of it. You do not have to send for Him. In all the agility of His [p. 123] affection He is waiting on you. Is there any sorrow or affliction you have passed through (I am speaking now to believers), which was not lit up by the light of His love? In every circumstance, “He looketh in through the windows, glancing through the lattice”. But there is more, for the circumstances of the speaker in this passage are not right; her associations are not right. The remnant of Israel shall find themselves in associations not according to Christ. So with a young believer. It is almost a certainty that you find yourself in circumstances not according to Christ. Now, your love is tested by His voice: “Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away”. He says, “Come away”; the Lord looks for movement. Do not rest content with faith in Christ and the guarantee of a place in heaven. Move out now! The Lord looks for a movement, and if you do not move, you will have no joy. Indeed, the little you do have by faith at the moment will become dim. Look at the passage, “He standeth behind our wall, he looketh in through the windows, glancing through the lattice”. He shows Himself. It may be in some affliction or circumstance in which you are bound up. He shows Himself to you. He wants you to see Him. He seeks to become attractive to you, and then He speaks, “Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away”. It is not His voice now simply, but what He says. You must make a difference between the two. He has something to say to you now. “My beloved spake and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away”. Perhaps laziness and satisfaction in your present circumstances may hinder, but the word is “Rise up”, and what also? “Come away”. Mark that He does not say ‘Go away’; He says “Come away”. He offers His companionship in the journey, and it is a journey from your place of slothfulness to His abode, but He will be with you. You will not go alone. He supports you as you move. Did you ever try? Perhaps you may say, ‘It is too difficult, and more than I can undertake. See what confronts me!’. But you try! He says nothing about any difficulties. However dark and dreary the path may be, you will never be alone, for He will always be with you. The Lord says to you, “Come”. If you come, you will be conscious of His support. And then He gives you the reasons why you should come away with Him. He enlarges on the reasons why the Bride should come; there are flowers, birds, the voice of the turtle-dove. How encouraging! Never a word about difficulties. You may speak of them, but all is bright on His side. “For behold, the winter is past, The rain is over, it is gone: The flowers appear on the earth; The time of the singing is come, And the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land: The fig-tree melloweth her winter figs, And the vines in bloom give forth their fragrance. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away!”. Who cannot testify to all the Lord indicates here? What sorrow have you been into that has not been lit up with joy? What difficulty where you have not had the company of the Lord? Did He ever forsake you? Never! Whatever you may think of your deformities, to Him you are a “fair one” — “For sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely”. He wants your companionship. He wants to have you all to Himself. He wants to hear your voice.
I add a word on the other side. He says (verse 14), “Let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice”. He would have you all to Himself. The Lord loves to hear one pray for the first time. He loves to look into the countenance, for the first time turned upward. “Sweet is thy voice”, He says, “and thy countenance is comely”. Where did He find His beloved? She was “in the clefts of the rock”, a most dangerous place. If you are hesitating between this world and Christ, you are in a dangerous position. So He says to you, “Come away”. Will you not give Him your companionship? Will you not come to where you can be alone with Him? He longs for you. We must all give an account of ourselves to God, and how much better to do so now while His voice is heard in grace.
You will see that I have connected my remarks all through with the idea of a ‘voice’. It is encouraging to see that though the Lord’s voice causes fear and terror to begin with, yet in the end it is a source of delight. It becomes “the voice of my beloved”. Instead of man hiding now, you have man speaking to God. Man can speak to God, and God delights in hearing man’s voice. Thus you see the great end with God, according to Balaam’s statement, “At this time it shall be said ... What hath God wrought!”.
Numbers 23: 23. So with every one of us. Take a man or a woman formed after Christ, I say, “What hath God wrought!”. See the handiwork of God. He has so wrought for His own pleasure and satisfaction, that man can be His companion. Will you not leave your shelter? Will you not come away? May God enable you to do so! May He give us to hear His voice and come out from everything that hides us from Himself, for His name’s sake.