Understanding Our Faith 004 - Special Revelation 01 Direct Communication
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In the past few weeks we found out that God reveals Himself to everyone in what is called ‘General Revelation’. God reveals Himself in creation or nature, that is, the whole earth is full of His glory; in our consciences, that is a law within ourselves telling us there is a lawmaker; and in history, in that God is in control of the rise and fall of Kingdoms and in control of our lives too. But this general revelation is too general because we only get a glimpse of some of the attributes of God but none of these can lead to salvation or really knowing God at all.
Now we come to Special or Specific Revelation. It is Special because it is God revealing Himself and His will to specific persons – it is God’s intervention in a supernatural way into the natural order of things.
God has revealed Himself especially, not just through nature, conscience or history, but explicitly to people through three main ways:
Direct communication from God
God in Jesus or the Incarnation
Scripture
Today, then, we are looking at the ways God has directly communicated with people.
Adam walked with God in the Garden and was the first human to know His voice until he really didn’t want to hear it:
So he said, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.”
He knew it to be the voice of God because of their perfect relationship but God’s voice dimmed afterwards because of sin. All people stopped hearing God except for a select few that we are going to look at. Everyone was originally given the ability and faculty to be able to hear God. Sin gets in the way of us hearing God and the only way to reverse this is to keep on good terms with God confessing our sin.
God revealed Himself to Abraham
Now the Lord had said to Abram:
“Get out of your country,
From your family
And from your father’s house,
To a land that I will show you.
I will make you a great nation;
I will bless you
And make your name great;
And you shall be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
And I will curse him who curses you;
And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
God revealed Himself to Isaac
And the Lord appeared to him the same night and said, “I am the God of your father Abraham; do not fear, for I am with you. I will bless you and multiply your descendants for My servant Abraham’s sake.” So he built an altar there and called on the name of the Lord, and he pitched his tent there; and there Isaac’s servants dug a well.
Notice how often there is no other purpose of God speaking other than to bring comfort and hope and to reveal Himself to Isaac.
God revealed Himself to Jacob in a dream and directly giving directions
Then he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.
And behold, the Lord stood above it and said: “I am the Lord God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants. Also your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread abroad to the west and the east, to the north and the south; and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you.”
God reveals Himself in a dream but later on He spoke directly with him when He returned from his journey:
Then God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there; and make an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you fled from the face of Esau your brother.”
God revealed Himself in dreams to Joseph
Now Joseph had a dream, and he told it to his brothers; and they hated him even more. So he said to them, “Please hear this dream which I have dreamed: There we were, binding sheaves in the field. Then behold, my sheaf arose and also stood upright; and indeed your sheaves stood all around and bowed down to my sheaf.”
And his brothers said to him, “Shall you indeed reign over us? Or shall you indeed have dominion over us?” So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words.
Then he dreamed still another dream and told it to his brothers, and said, “Look, I have dreamed another dream. And this time, the sun, the moon, and the eleven stars bowed down to me.”
So he told it to his father and his brothers; and his father rebuked him and said to him, “What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall your mother and I and your brothers indeed come to bow down to the earth before you?” And his brothers envied him, but his father kept the matter in mind.
God reveals Himself in fire to Moses
And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. So he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed. Then Moses said, “I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush does not burn.”
So when the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, “Moses, Moses!”
And he said, “Here I am.”
Then He said, “Do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.”
God revealed Himself as Captain:
And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, a Man stood opposite him with His sword drawn in His hand. And Joshua went to Him and said to Him, “Are You for us or for our adversaries?”
So He said, “No, but as Commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.”
And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped, and said to Him, “What does my Lord say to His servant?”
Then the Commander of the Lord’s army said to Joshua, “Take your sandal off your foot, for the place where you stand is holy.” And Joshua did so.
God seems to appear in the way that they need Him to appear – for Joshua who was Israel’s General we find that the Commander of the Lord’s army appears!
God appears in what are called ‘Theophanies’ which are God revealing Himself in humanoid or angelic form before the birth of Jesus: For instance to Gideon:
And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him, and said to him, “The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor!”
Abraham experienced this when 3 men came to find out what was happening in Sodom and Gomorrah. 2 of them being angels and the other was Jesus.
Samuel was visited By God
and before the lamp of God went out in the tabernacle of the Lord where the ark of God was, and while Samuel was lying down, that the Lord called Samuel. And he answered, “Here I am!”
And all his life he heard God speak. Prophets of the Old Testament such as Samuel had two tasks each requiring they listen to God: First and most important, to teach what God is saying and second, to predict the future. Of Samuel it is said that none of his words fell to the ground.
Elijah heard God speaking in an unexpected way:
Then He said, “Go out, and stand on the mountain before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice.
So it was, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave. Suddenly a voice came to him, and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
Isaiah saw God:
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one cried to another and said:
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
The whole earth is full of His glory!”
I have not even begun to show how many times God spoke and revealed Himself and His purpose throughout history.
God still communicates directly with us today. I have heard God speak and according to Scripture, so have you.
My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.
Today, in the first part about Special Revelation we have seen that God has revealed Himself by speaking with an audible voice, through dreams and, though not touched on today, through visions such as Daniel’s and Ezekiel’s, and God has spoken through prophets and through angels and various other ways.
God has not hid Himself for He wants to be known. God has gradually revealed more and more of Himself and next time we will look at how He has revealed Himself in the most remarkable of ways.