Regional Synod of Canada - Reformed Church in America

Pioneer Christian Monthly

Date - Feb.1/62

Contributor - J. R. Euwema

Title - God Hath Spoken

Topic - Meditation

Just now we are not so much interested to know "how" God spoke as to know "that He spoke". in His own ways God did communicate with man. He made known to His creation's crown Himself and His will for man. This statement of the Lord we now refer to as the BIBLE.

"And God said". This statement either in this form or in some other form is to be found hundreds of times in the Scriptures. Imagine for a moment that God had not spoken, or that He could not in any way communicate with man. If God were so impotent, or man were so dense that God and man could never communicate, this would indeed be a dreary world - a sad world. If the heavens are eternally silent and the people on earth perpetually condemned to live without any God, the sun might shine in the skies, but we would be walking about with a muck rake, our eyes glued to the sordid and the filth of the world. To many of 'us life would simply be unbearable. We humans have been created for higher things than these. If these higher things be kept from us e are but like caged birds: birds made to soar the heavens, but confined within a few pieces of steel. All song would e in our hearts, all music would freeze on our lips.

Now let us look at the other side of the problem. GOD CAN SPEAK and GOD DID COMMUNICATE WITH MAN No sooner have we said this, or we feel that our steel cage ' has been thrown open and we can soar with our minds, hearts and spirits into the heavenlies. The bonds of the soul have been broken and we look toward the ETERNAL Himself. God has spoken and we have heard His voice. The voice at times came with a mighty power; the power of creation. It came at' times to us with the authority of "Thou Shalt Not"; but also there are times when the Lord speaks, with a "still - small voice" as in Elijah's day. But the crowning and greatest voice of all came in an

His Son Jesus Christ. What did God say ? Of course to mention all of the things God has spoken would lead us into various bypaths which are not now our interest. We would like to make mention ?f a few of the greatest of all that is those things that directly pertain to our personal relationship to God. The Bible is the Word of God. So we believe and so we also confess. It is full of the great and eternal truths of the Lord But there are certain matters that are more pertinent to us just now than some of the others because they pertain to our personal relationship to Him.

There is first of all: God created man, in the "image of God created He him". That is one of the most important statements that has ever been put down on paper: man created in the image of God! Many have tried to understand this truth, but it is too great for us to comprehend. At least we have guessed this much of it that we humans are akin to God, that there is some fundamental relation between God and ourselves. This too makes communication between God and man possible.

But, and this is so very important. Man has sinned and marred this image within himself, he all the but destroyed it. Instead of perfection of that image, as God created it, the image is now distorted and entirely out of focus. The horrible implications of this all of us can fully realize when and if we but try to take full knowledge of ourselves. The other day I read about our younger generation which is totally disillusioned and pessimistic. They have failed to know that God has spoken, they have probably shut their ears to the voice of the Lord. And now they are "without hope" in this world. But let us be honest, the older generation has taught ,their sons and daughters to be disillusioned and have inspired them to pessimism.

God hath spoken to just such a generation, to such a civilization. He did so at the time of Abraham, of Noah, of Isaiah and of John the Baptist. But the voice of the Lord was heard most gloriously when His Son Jesus, the Christ spoke. He said: Ye have heard . . . but I SAY UNTO YOU. Here was the voice of authority, here was the voice of the Son of God as He presented God and His Kingdom to a world lost and wallowing in the mire of sin and of evil.

Just when some enemies of this Son of God tried to silence the voice by nailing Him to the Cross, there was re-echoed throughout the world in accents so clear and so beautiful that ever since that day mankind has marvelled at the beauty of it all. Listen to Him say: Father forgive them . . . . ; It is finished. The seven words from the cross of our Lord are now indelibly inscribed in the hearts and lives of men. After the cross of Christ, the world has never been the same. Outwardly a casual visitor would say: But I do not see any difference, what has changed? The person who looks deep and sharply into the world situation knows that something new has been added and that this has made all the difference in the world.

Within a few weeks the Christian world will begin to make mental and actual pilgrimages to Calvary to view the place where our Lord suffered, bled and died. In their hearts they again will hear the words of their Lord saying: Father forgive them ... It is finished. But they will not linger too long at Calvary's Hill, they will want to go further into the Garden of Joseph to see the empty tomb and on to Mt. Olivet to see the place where their Lord went into the heavenlies and there to abide. Now through Scripture, through conscience, through a hundred different media this OUR LORD is still speaking. Do you hear Him? Are you listening to His voice of love? of eternal love?

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