Imagine if each morning you could get on the phone with God and audibly hear from Him. I would assume if you had that opportunity you wouldn’t miss a day. Hearing from the Lord would be so rich and satisfying, as well as confirming and instructive. As you know, that’s not how God has chosen to communicate with us. One primary way He communicates with us is through His book, the Bible. The Bible is His voice. The Bible is the Word of God and it’s rich, satisfying, encouraging, and instructive. Would you choose to approach the Bible with the same confidence as you’d approach a phone call with God?
When we create uninterrupted time to hear from God through His Word, and we apply what we’ve heard, our lives improve. God’s voice is our needed counsel, our needed encouragement, our needed soul-care. Sadly though, people perceive reading the Bible as a chore. There are so many voices competing for our attention; family, co-workers, bosses, friends, our own voice, or Satan’s. If we’re not committed to hearing and following the voice of the Lord, we’ll be led into terrible decisions. This essay highlights some Biblical examples of the dangers of not listening to the voice of the Lord.
As you may know, God created Adam as the first human. God walked and talked with Adam. This manifestation of the Lord is called a Christophany: a pre-incarnate appearance of the second Person of the Trinity. Pre-incarnate means before flesh. It’s God engaging man, but before God became a fleshly man Himself. Eventually God would come incarnate: in the flesh. This happened when Jesus was born of the virgin Mary. Back to Adam though, God met with Adam and instructed him about what he could and couldn’t eat in the garden of Eden. Eventually, Satan shows up to tempt Adam and Eve. Though Adam and Eve were together when Satan spoke, Satan focused his attention on Eve and not Adam. Satan makes this decision for a couple of reasons. First, Satan wanted to undermine the role of headship that God had put upon Adam. Headship shows us that the man in a marriage is tasked to be the primary decision maker (1 Corinthians 11:3).
Second, Satan perceived the nature of Eve and how God gave woman a demeanor which had a more delicate dynamic than Adam’s. Women are called by God as the “weaker” sex. This is not exclusively a matter of musculature, although men by nature are stronger physically, but rather, women have a spirit that is more slight and mild compared to man. Man is generally characterized by reason, goal, directness. Women have a demeanor that’s wired toward emotion, reaction, inquisitiveness, nurturing. Satan perceives this dynamic and realizes that between Adam and Eve, Adam would be less capable of being managed and Eve would be more susceptible to being seduced. And this is exactly what happened; Eve was deceived and Adam was not (1 Timothy 2:14). Eve was tricked, Adam simply rebelled. Eve offered Adam some fruit and invited him to eat the forbidden fruit with her. Adam listened to the voice of his wife, although God had specifically instructed Adam to not eat that fruit (Genesis 2:16-17).
God rebukes Adam in Genesis 3:17, “Then to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’; cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.” God was clear in His instruction to Adam. However, Eve presented a competing voice; a tempting voice. Often, we know right from wrong, but we chose to ignore the voice of God and become agreeable with others. The decision to listen to the voice of his wife, and so dismiss the voice of the Lord, resulted in a consequence that has plagued every human that has ever been born.
Looking further into Genesis, we see another example of listening to the wrong voice. Abram, a name meaning “exalted father”, would later have his name changed to Abraham, meaning “father of a multitude.” Abram was married to Sarai, a name meaning “princess”. Sarai would later have her name changed to Sarah which means “noblewoman.” Abram and Sarai were barren, yet God had told Abram that he and Sarai would have a child, despite their old age. The couple was excited to receive this life-changing news! However, as time passed and Sarai grew impatient of the Lord’s timing, she took matters into her own hands. Sarai told her husband Abram to take her maiden Hagar as a second wife. We read about this decision in Genesis 16:2-3, “So Sarai said to Abram, “Now behold, the LORD has prevented me from bearing children. Please go in to my maid; perhaps I will obtain children through her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. After Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Abram’s wife Sarai took Hagar the Egyptian, her maid, and gave her to her husband Abram as his wife.” Abram was 86 years old when Hagar bore Abram a son, Ishmael.
Abram should not have listened to his wife’s instruction. Not only was polygamy a sin, but the couple’s decision was a foolish way of taking matters into their own hands and not trusting the Lord. Great heartache came from the decision; the couple fought, jealousy reigned in Sarai’s heart, and Hagar and Ishmael became despised by Sarai. Voices that compete with the will of God are always to be dismissed. God had a plan and a timing for executing His plan. It wouldn’t be until Abraham was 100 years old and Sarah 90, that God would have them conceive a child together (Genesis 21:5).
After their son Isaac was born, Sarah had wanted Abraham and Isaac to herself. Sarah had made it clear to Abraham that she wanted Hagar and Ishmael gone, and this decision greatly distressed Abraham. God intervened and directed Abraham. Notice what God says to Abraham here about listening to Sarah’s voice. Genesis 21:12, “But God said to Abraham, “Do not be distressed because of the lad and your maid; whatever Sarah tells you, listen to her, for through Isaac your descendants shall be named.” In this case, although Sarah’s motives were based on jealousy and disdain for Hagar and Ishmael, nonetheless, God had a plan for Abraham’s family, as well as Hagar and Ishmael.
Sarah’s voice was not something that Abraham was to belittle. Like any husband, he should absolutely consider the voice of his wife. In fact, when a husband is inconsiderate to his wife, the result is that the husband’s prayers become hindered (1 Peter 3:7). The key is not to follow a wife’s direction when it’s in conflict with the Lord’s. Abraham had learned a lesson after taking matters into his own hands and he refocused on trusting in the Lord. As such, God blessed Abraham and said to him, “In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice,” Genesis 22:18. If you want God’s blessings, and others to be blessed through you, then obey His voice!
We later read that Abraham’s son Isaac was blessed because Abraham had obeyed the voice of the Lord. In Genesis 26:4-5 God says to Isaac, “I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven, and will give your descendants all these lands; and by your descendants all the nations of the earth shall be blessed; because Abraham obeyed Me and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes and My laws.” A father’s obedience to the Lord brings blessing upon his children.
Looking at another story, we read in 1 Samuel that the prophet Samuel was about to anoint Saul as king over Israel. God told Samuel that Saul’s enemies would be given into his hand, especially the Philistines. 1 Samuel 9:16 reads, “About this time tomorrow I will send you a man from the land of Benjamin, and you shall anoint him to be prince over My people Israel; and he will deliver My people from the hand of the Philistines.” Later, after Saul was made king, Saul experienced the Lord’s hand being upon him and Israel’s enemies were defeated by God’s intervention.
At a later date, when Samuel was once again confirming Saul before Israel, Samuel said to the Israelites, “If you will fear the LORD and serve Him, and listen to His voice and not rebel against the command of the LORD, then both you and also the king who reigns over you will follow the LORD your God. If you will not listen to the voice of the LORD, but rebel against the command of the LORD, then the hand of the LORD will be against you, as it was against your fathers,” 1 Samuel 12:14-15. God provided the people another clear instruction that listening to His voice is the pathway to enjoy blessings. However, Saul would eventually go from listening to the Lord, to listening to the voice of men.
God eventually instructed Saul to defeat the Amalekites, but not to take any of their animals as spoil. However, after Saul’s army had defeated the Amalekites, the Israelites saw that their animals were valuable and good for plunder. They pleaded with Saul to take them and Saul obliged. This rebellion against the Lord’s instruction incited God’s anger. The Lord sent the prophet Samuel to speak to Saul and say, “Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, He has also rejected you from being king.” Then Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned; I have indeed transgressed the command of the LORD and your words, because I feared the people and listened to their voice,” 1 Samuel 15:23-24.
Listening to the voice of others cost Saul his reign, but Saul’s reign wasn’t stripped away immediately. In the meantime, God had anointed David to be Saul’s replacement, and soon enough it became time to introduce David to Israel. Once again, the Philistines rose up against Israel. God had previously said that under Saul’s leadership, Israel would have victory over the Philistines (1 Samuel 9:16). However, Saul once again failed to listen to the voice of God. The army of the Philistines camped out against the army of the Israelites; each on opposites sides of a valley. A giant of a man named Goliath came from the Philistines and offered that neither side fight each other, but just one Israelite fight him to the death; winner take all. Whoever lost, that nation would be slave to the other. Saul listened to the voice of the Philistine as 1 Samuel 17:11 records, “When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid.”
As the story unfolds, David, a young shepherd, took up the challenge and fought Goliath and defeated him. This happened because David believed the Lord and didn’t listen to the voice of Goliath. David said, “For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should taunt the armies of the living God?” David said to Saul, “Let no man’s heart fail on account of him; your servant will go and fight with this Philistine…Your servant was tending his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and took a lamb from the flock, I went out after him and attacked him, and rescued it from his mouth; and when he rose up against me, I seized him by his beard and struck him and killed him. Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, since he has taunted the armies of the living God.” And David said, “The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” And Saul said to David, “Go, and may the LORD be with you,” 1 Samuel 17:26-37.
Notice how David said that the Lord will deliver him from the hand of the Philistine. This was exactly what God told Samuel would happen as long as Saul listened to God’s voice. Saul listened to the voice of Goliath and trembled, but David listened to the voice of God and killed the giant. Once David cut off Goliath’s head, his victory ignited the whole army of Israel and they rose up and conquered the Philistines. Because David listened to God, all Israel was victorious.
Who you listen to matters. Consider what you’ve lost when you listened to the voice of others and not the Lord. Obeying God’s voice blesses you and blesses others.
Aside from hearing God through the Bible, make time to listen to the Lord in prayer. Get a pen and paper ready and pray, “God I want to hear from You as You talk to my spirit. I’m listening.” Then, as you patiently listen and wait, begin to write down things the Lord’s telling you.