We cannot literally hear the sound of His voice, but we can hear what He says and does in quite a number of ways. A beautiful example is one that David used where he said that the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows His handiwork. Each day and each night utters speech and knowledge of God, and its sound is heard throughout the world.
This is a poetic way of saying that the creation voices the knowledge of God to us. We hear His voice speaking to us in the written word, in the preaching of His truth by His ministers, in the events of His providence, and sometimes in our own conscience. In each of these aspects, when His truth is involved, His word is personally speaking to us.
He expects His children to hear, to listen with understanding, and to apply it today, right now, in the present. Do not put it off until tomorrow. That is the kind of attitude that He wants in His children.
Even as the creation continuously witnesses for God each day across the face of the whole earth, Christ's voice speaks to His church throughout the ages wherever they happen to be. He does not want His children to put off repentance until tomorrow. We will act with alacrity if we appreciate the power, not in cringing terror, but in reverence, in appreciation of the fact that God intended us to use His word, His voice, to enhance and give life.
We have voice, word, spirit, power, and hearing. The next link is that we have to believe it. The great difficulty in our mind regarding this relationship we have with God is within our will.
If there is within a person an unwillingness to listen to God's voice, an unwillingness to allow God to reign over him, an unwillingness to pay attention to his relationship with God, that person will make little or no effort to yield or overcome. That person will create a thousand difficulties that prevent him from really engaging himself in a relationship serving God. Virtually everything will attract his eye or ear and distract him.
He will neglect what he knows he ought to do. His heart will gradually become insensitive, and it will be hardened to the hearing of God's voice.
Jesus Christ is the epitome of loyalty and faithfulness. He is called a merciful high priest and He fulfills the role finally and ultimately in the service of God to make expiation for the sins of the people. Jesus Christ is faithful in Moses' role.
He surpasses and fulfills the faithfulness and loyalty of Moses in building and ruling the household of God and the church of God. We are in danger of being depersonalized, of having our hearts hardened. Unbelief is faithlessness, and part of faith is loyalty; therefore disloyalty equates to unbelief, to faithlessness.
It is loyalty to God and Jesus Christ first, and then to our brethren, as long as we are following God and doing what He says in His inspired holy written word. The servant owns nothing, is heir to nothing, has no authority and no right to control anything and is himself wholly at the will of another. A son, however, is the heir of all, has a prospective right to all and is looked up to by all with respect if he is a good son or righteous son.
The idea is not merely that Christ is a son; it is that as a son, He is placed over the whole arrangements of the household and is one to whom all is entrusted as if it were His own. We are part of God the Father and Jesus Christ's family. We belong to the family over which Christ has been placed as the Firstborn Son.
Jesus Christ is the consummation of God's determined loyalty to His gracious covenant relationship with His people. Christ is faithful and loyal to the Father and the Father to Him. We have the wonderful opportunity to be part of this faithful and loyal family.
The training ground for it is here and now, in our own households, and in the household of God. Loyalty means enduring commitment to a person over a long period of time, often with the implication of the commitment persisting in the face of obstacles that threaten the lasting commitment. Jesus Christ's words on loyalty and faithfulness suggest complete sacrifice for others, which is exactly what Jesus Christ did.
All of these things are connected together - hearing and rebelling if they fail to hear. And of course, as we see in verse 17 after their rebellion and their sin, they died. But it all started with a lack of hearing. They did not listen. Their bodies, then, were strewn all through the wilderness. And if we are correct about how many people there were, you know, let us say 2-3, 4 million people who were following Moses in the wilderness. There were scores of burials every day for all of the Israelites who came out of Egypt to perish before they came to the River Jordan. Do the math. It is astounding! Take however many people, divided by the time of 40 years, and how many people would have to be buried during that time. It is incredible to think of. Maybe each tribe had a team of rotating grave diggers. But they would have to, I think it is like 70 or 80 burials a day that they would have to do. So literally, their bodies were strewn across the wilderness. You wanted to find out where the Israelites had been, just look for the graves. But think, if they had truly listened, if they would have taken in what God had given them, if they really would have heard and understood what God said they should do, they would have lived. They would have lived well because they would be fulfilling their part in the covenant and God would have blessed them. He always comes through. Hey, if you do your part, God is always going to come through and give you the blessings that you need. But they did not get that far, they did not fulfill the terms of the covenant, even in the simple thing of listening, and so they died. They did not get the blessings, they got the curses.
The children of Israel continually tested God's faithfulness and loyalty. And God was always faithful to His covenant and He was loyal to those who were loyal to Him. But they suffered from the human trait that comes out of rebellion. That is, unbelief. Unbelief is faithlessness, which prevents loyalty.
