It seems to me these days that everything has to happen in the headlines. World events are every human being’s subject for debate, anger, and insult.  It’s a trap of entanglement and even obsession.  There is also a tendency to read world events into the Bible and especially to interpret everything about Israel as signs of the second coming of Jesus.  Anyone is free to do so, of course, but it can shift our focus so much that our thinking gets bogged down in the affairs of the day.

It was a eye-opener to me to read that Hebrew has no word for disobedience.  Disobedience is indicated by deafness. If a person hears the Word of God, in other words the revelation of God’s character in the Bible, from the earliest times in the Covenant with Creation, Noah, and Abraham, and does not heed it—does not listen and act—he is deaf.  

It’s hard to hear God’s voice in the clatter and crackle of daily concerns.  We know ancient Israel celebrated the Feast of Trumpets as one of the Fall  Feasts – one day (like a Sabbath) in which they celebrated God’s voice, with a loud blowing of the ram’s horn. (Leviticus 23:23-25)  Today it is called Rosh Hashanah – literally the head of the year, thus New Year for the Jews. This designation developed roughly in the second century AD, a thousand five hundred years after its institution as all the Israelite festivals changed after the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD. The biblical Yom Teruah was very different from today’s Rosh Hashanah, which is marked by the civil New Year.

The Festival of the Trumpets was accompanied by a great cheer and joyful expressions from the people.  (Numbers 29:1) It is remarkable today that at sporting events and music festivals one shouts and roars, or in the street with posters and loudspeakers, but in church one has to be very quiet.  Any church that is a bit “noisy” is under suspicion with the excuse that God is a God of order.  Ancient Israel celebrated with abandon, with voice and dance, with joy and rejoicing.

Would one ever imagine God as a dancing being?  It was difficult for me at first to make the image of an actively rejoicing God fit into my preconceived idea of God the Father.  Yet I must yield to the truth of the words I study. 

The Lord your God in your midst,
The Mighty One, will save;
He will rejoice over you with gladness,
He will quiet you with His love,
He will rejoice over you with singing.” (Zephaniah 3:17, NKJV)

“The LORD your God is in your midst, A victorious warrior. He will rejoice over you with joy, He will be quiet in His love, He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy.  (NASB)

Rejoice with joy…cheer with shouts of joy.  In the footnote of my study Bible, the word is explained – God dancing and singing – literally spinning around with joy.  It’s a glorious image.  Just imagine the depth of joy when God rejoices over something.

He rejoices over you, son of man and part of His remnant.  He cheers for you who don’t give in to the pressure of the headlines and the agenda of the current political and social order that aims to push people into an iron mould of anger and fear over things they have no control over. 

We need to hear the voice of God singing, the choir of heaven, the stars, and the celestial beings.

“Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?
Tell Me, if you have understanding.
⁵ Who determined its measurements? Surely you know!
Or who stretched the line upon it?
⁶ To what were its foundations fastened? Or who laid its cornerstone,
⁷ When the morning stars sang together,
And all the sons of God shouted for joy? (Job 38:4-7, my emphasis)

God presents himself as a God who speaks, who answers prayer and proclaims His Plan of love and grace. (Isaiah 52:6; 65:24; Jeremiah 33:3) The life of Jesus resonates with the loudest shout in all of history, echoing the ultimate sound of the ram’s horn, the symbol of God’s voice.  Jesus’ life is God’s voice of grace and love that will never be silent.

Why don’t we hear it? The world staggers and storms forward in blind folly with a great noise.

The voice of God is not in competition with the empty cries of our environment.  The voice of God is a choice and can only be heard if we focus specifically and become silent.  It is in the calm of the storm that we hear.

Let’s learn from Elijah’s journey to Horeb after his angelic food strengthened him. 

¹¹ 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; ¹² and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice.. (1 Kings 19:11-12)

The wind, the earthquake, and the fire are all manifestations of nature that bring man to a standstill.  The wind blows and we take notice, measure it and name it; hurricanes and typhoons ravage. An earthquake is not something we can ignore; it doesn’t just go unnoticed. The date is burned into the record books.  A fire is destructive and must be extinguished; action in a panicked scramble.  These are the phenomena that fill the headlines.

It’s the soft silence, the whisper in the calm of the wind that goes unnoticed.  How can a voice be still? Only God’s voice is heard in complete quietness. That is what the prophet heard from God.  This is what invigorated him to take up his task and live his calling and purpose.

It is still so today.  It is for the human being who listens, specifically and focused, for whom the voice of God is clear. His voice echoes in our Bible, the written revelation of God’s character and thinking. 

With our attention focused on the Word of God, we hear the whispers in the calm of the wind.  It is in the silence we create because we choose to hear His voice that we hear what the rest of the world has no hope to ever hear.  In God’s Word, the spoken word of his Voice is audible to the ear of faith.  

Hear His voice as you read the promise that speaks to your soul in the moment of need.  Hear his Voice that establishes your thoughts. (Proverbs 16:3) Hear his Voice guiding you to choose and do the right things, mostly counterintuitively. Look back and write the miracles that mark your life, the streets of gold you walk on. (Revelation 3:18)

 For thus says the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel: “In returning and rest you shall be saved; In quietness and confidence shall be your strength.” (Isaiah 30:15)