Amos 3:7

Indeed, the Sovereign Lord never does anything until he reveals his plans to his servants the prophets.

I thought this was interesting.  Does God still reveal his plans to His prophets before acting?  If He does, are we listening?  It makes sense, though.  God doesn’t want to hurt His people.  He’s rather have us repent and be forgiven than to punish us.  So it makes sense that he’d always try to warn us before doing things.

I do the same thing with my sons.  I am constantly telling them what I’m going to do before I do it.  I figure it’s only fair to warn them, and it helps them feel more settled if they aren’t taken by surprise by my actions.  Whatever God’s motivation, if He still reveals His plans, we need to be listening.  That seems to be the crux of so many issues.  Are you listening?  Did you hear it?

I hadn’t really thought much about the author, but imagine what it must have been like.  You are a simple farmer, not known for your wisdom (except perhaps in caring for sheep) or learning.  You probably didn’t spend much time in rabbi school.  You aren’t rich or famous.  And suddenly the Most High God of Israel speaks to you and tells you to go and inform the high and mighty and your enemies that they’re going to be crushed.  If it were me in this situation I’d think God was messing with my head.  What on earth would make these people listen to me?  What would keep them from killing me?  How would I even be heard?  And what about my sheep?

Often it’s easy to think of people in a profession or in a financial or social status below ours as inferior and less intelligent.  But here is a case where that is clearly disproved.  God chose a simple shepherd to be his prophet.  Sound familiar?  God also chose a simple shepherd to be Israel’s greatest king.  And God also sent his Son to a simple carpenter.  (And somewhere in there God made a donkey speak to a man who wasn’t listening.) Social standing and financial capability don’t mean much to God since He can do anything.  Next time I’m tempted to ignore someone because they seem insignificant, I hope I remember this piece of commentary and listen to what he or she is saying before dismissing him or her.

Mark, one of the pastors at the church, did a segment during the sermon (about hearing from God), and a couple of things really struck me:

1.  An analogy he used was a beach he goes to every year where the water is incredibly clear, and he can see straight through it for several meters all around him (no sharks sneaking up on him!).  But one year he went and the waters were all churned up from a storm, making it impossible to see through the waters at all.  So are our lives when we are in the midst of storms.  When we’re all churned up, we can’t see what’s around us, nor where to go next.  But if we withdraw to a quiet place (have a cup of tea, says the Brit) and let things settle a little (surrender, relax, pray) the waters become more clear and it’s easier to see.  It’s such a perfect analogy for when we’re in a storm.  I love it!

2.  The other point he made was that it’s God’s responsibility to speak loudly enough for me to hear.  One of the things I wonder about is if I’ve missed God’s whisper.  Did He speak and I didn’t hear Him?  But Mark pointed out that God wants us to hear His voice, so He will speak loudly enough for me to hear Him.  Now, if I’m off doing my own thing and not paying attention or making any effort to listen, I can still miss his voice (kind of how my son “misses” hearing my voice when he’s playing or watching Veggie Tales).  But if I’m truly listening and paying attention, it’s God’s responsibility to speak loudly enough for me to hear.  And He knows just how loud is loud enough.

Those were two points that really hit home for me, speaking to areas of my life where I struggle.  Yeah God!

Jeremiah 25:3

“For the past twenty-three years … the Lord has been giving me his messages.  I have faithfully passed them on to you but you have not listened.”

I didn’t realize that Jeremiah had been warning the Israelites for 23 years!  Good grief!  That’s a long time – for God to keep warning and for the people to ignore him!  I wonder how often God warns us over and over and over, and we ignore him or are just oblivious to him.

Later in the next chapter, Jeremiah is almost mobbed for telling the people that the Temple will be destroyed.  He is brought before a court that declares he hasn’t done anything deserving death, saying that his message is, in fact, from God.  The wise old men even recall what happened when the people heeded a previous prophets warning and repented thereby averting the impending disaster.  You’d think that after acknowledge that the warning was from God and remember that if they obeyed God would relent, and after so much time, they’d actually listen!  But, no.  They kept right on doing their own thing, signing their own warrant.  And after waiting patiently for them to turn (for 23 years, no less) God finally sends his disaster as Babylon attacks and carries thousands into captivity.

So the question is, do we recognize God’s warnings and change our ways?  Or do we keep on going, even knowing that what we’re doing is wrong?

Jeremiah 23:18

But can you name even one of these prophets who knows the Lord well enough to hear what he is saying?  Has even one of them cared enough to listen?

There have been lots of times in my life when I have wished that God spoke more clearly (or maybe more audibly) to me.  And over and over people have reminded me that to hear God speak I need to get to know Him.  This verse seems to prove that.  The brief background is that God was asking Jeremiah if any of the other prophets in Jerusalem even cared about Him anymore (rhetorically, of course).  But the most interesting this here is what God Himself says we need to do to hear from Him: know the Lord well enough and listen.

In our world today, I find the listening part to be really hard.  It’s not that I talk a lot, but my life is filled with a lot of noise:  Technology, children, husband, work, etc.  And all that noise makes it hard to listen.  I am easily distracted.  But the other key, knowing God, is also challenging since I have two small children (translation: I have very little time without distractions).  Right now I’m sitting in the dark in the living room (having just fed my littlest boy and hoping that he decides sleep is a good choice) at 5:50 a.m.  I’ll be amazed if my oldest doesn’t get up some time in the next 10 minutes.  And some days they’re both up and raring to go at 5am.  I choose to believe that God knows this.  And my mom pointed out that God isn’t angry at me on those days when the boys wake up crazy early and I don’t get quiet time with Him.  He made my boys that way.  What He cares about is if I’m trying to make time, even for 5-10 minutes, to talk to Him and spend time in His word – even if that means reading one verse and thinking about it throughout the day.  Does it always happen?  No.  But I do want to know God, and I want to hear from Him.  So I steal a minute when I can.  And try to remember to listen.

This is so often my heart’s cry. I want to do God’s will, and I want Him to show me what it is. The problem is that I have trouble listening, I think. Sometimes, I have a pretty darn good idea what He wants me to do, and I do my own thing because I don’t want to do what He tells me to do. But that’s different. That’s me being stubborn and distrusting of God. My problem lies in hearing Him clearly. I know people who will tell me, “God told me…” and I wonder just how He did that. How do they know so clearly what God said? I’ve asked, and often they just say that it comes from reading the Bible. I hope it’s something that comes with time, because so often I feel blind and deaf. Maybe it’s because I don’t listen well, too absorbed in my own thoughts, or maybe God’s just not ready to give directions. Either way, I suspect it’s a process.

I love talking to my children even if they don’t understand yet, and I know that I am God’s child. So, I’ll keep learning to listen because I know that God wants to speak with me, maybe not audibly (although that might be nice – terrifying, but nice) but however it is, I hope it’s clear!

Did you catch the part about the ears being wide open, not the eyes? We normally say our eyes were wide open, but this is different. Why ears? Have you ever watched a scary movie (or Jaws or something similar) with the sound down so you can’t hear? If you try it, you’ll notice that it’s not nearly as scary without the sound. The ominous theme song, the little noises in the background that you don’t consciously recognize, the creaking board…. all these add to the feeling of suspense. Without them, it’s just not the same.

We get a lot out of our ears. A lot of what we hear we don’t even register. God wants our ears open. Not just subconsciously, but truly open and listening. He wants to speak, but it’s so easy to miss His voice if we’re not listening, if our ears aren’t wide open and paying attention, taking it all in. The life of our soul is at stake, and if we miss His voice so many sad things can happen. There are lots of times in my life when I wish my ears had been wide open and I’d been listening because then, maybe, I could have avoided some of the messes that I found myself in. God doesn’t yell (at least not often). His voice isn’t in the fire or the wind or the thunder. His voice is a whisper, and if we don’t pay attention, if our ears aren’t wide open, then we’ll miss those gentle words. It’s so easy to go through the day focused on ourselves and what we have to say. It’s much harder to keep an ear tuned for God’s voice speaking in our ears.