Hearing God Through Other People

PASSAGE FOR THE DAY:
11:27 But the thing David had done displeased the Lord.

12:1 The Lord sent Nathan to David. When he came to him, he said, “There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor. 2 The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, 3 but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him.

4 “Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him.”

5 David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, “As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this must die! 6 He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity.”

7 Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man! This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. 8 I gave your master’s house to you, and your master’s wives into your arms. I gave you all Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more. 9 Why did you despise the word of the Lord by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. 10 Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.’

11 “This is what the Lord says: ‘Out of your own household I am going to bring calamity on you. Before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to one who is close to you, and he will sleep with your wives in broad daylight. 12 You did it in secret, but I will do this thing in broad daylight before all Israel.’”

13 Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.”
Nathan replied, “The Lord has taken away your sin. You are not going to die. 14 But because by doing this you have shown utter contempt for the Lord, the son born to you will die.” (2 Samuel 11:27-12:14, NIV)


REFLECTIONS:
As you probably already know, this story takes place not long after David's sinful encounter with Bathsheba. As a refresher, here's the back story: After the death of Saul, David was instructed by the Lord to go to Hebron, where the people anointed him "king over the house of Judah" (2 Samuel 2:4). Upon his ascension to the throne, David began consolidating his power. He won wars, becoming king over all Israel, and he moved to Jerusalem (the capital of the united kingdom), taking the Ark of the Covenant with him. At the height of his power and influence, David saw Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite, taking a bath, and he coveted her. The account in 2 Samuel simply records: "Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her… The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, 'I am pregnant'" (11:4-5). To cover his tracks, David conspired to bring Uriah, a soldier, back to Jerusalem so that he could have sexual intercourse with his wife, but Uriah refused to abandon the troops. So David ordered his general, Joab, to send Uriah to the front lines so that he would be killed at the siege of Rabbah. Then David brought Bathsheba into his house as his wife. At this point, Nathan confronts David with his sin.

As we examine this passage, we first noticed that Nathan was sent by God. God spoke to Nathan, a specific person, about David's sin, and then spoke through Nathan to David. Nathan stood in a long line of prophets through which God relayed messages to the Hebrews. Not only did he obey God and deliver the message to David, but Nathan made no attempt to soften God's message, although David could have killed him or had him killed on the spot. Nathan stood his ground and delivered the message as he had been directed by God.

God's word for David came through the living personality, mind, and body of Nathan, who customized it to fit his style of communication. Nathan wisely couched God's message to David in the form of a story. The story let David draw his own conclusion and recommend a punishment for the rich man. Nathan did not accuse David of anything; instead he let David indict himself. Jesus used this method many times in his parables. Sometimes the people understood the message of the parable; at other times, he answered, "This is the reason I speak in parables: 'Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand.' … But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear" (Matthew 13:13, 16). David heard and understood God's message.

One thing that makes Nathan's story about the rich man's confiscation of the poor man's lamb so compelling is the comparison it draws between rich and poor. Underlying these comparisons is the fact that the rich man had the power to take what he wanted using any methods he wanted, and the poor man was powerless to stop him. Even though David came from a humble background as a shepherd, he had evidently forgotten how precious each sheep is to a person who has very little money. He had lost touch with the common person. God's message was "customized" for David.

Nathan's message from God prompted David to repent, but his sin still had serious consequences. As predicted, David and his descendents knew unending grief. The child born to Bathsheba died. Trouble came into David's household when one son raped a stepsister and another son took revenge and had his stepbrother killed. Later the same son usurped David's throne, forcing David to flee Jerusalem. God's message to David from Nathan prompted David to repent of his sin but could not head off future trouble.

………

Today's Scripture passage reminds me of a passage from Dallas Willard's book, Hearing God: 

No means of communication between God and us is more commonly used in the Bible or the history of the church than the voice of a definite, individual human being. In such cases God and the person he uses speak conjointly. It may be that the one spoken to is also the one spoken through… The word is at once the word of God, God's message, and the word of the human being who is also speaking.

 

The two do not exclude each other any more than humanity and divinity exclude each other in the person of Jesus Christ. We can say that God speaks through us, as long as this is not understood as automatically ruling out our speaking with God and even, in an important sense, through God. The relationship must not be understood as an essentially mechanical one with God simply using us as we might use a telephone. No doubt that would be God's option, should he choose, but usually he does not…

 

I believe I can say with assurance that God's speaking in union with the human voice and human language is the primary objective way in which God addresses us. That is, of all the ways in which a message comes from outside the mind or personality of the person addressed, it most commonly comes through a human being.

 

This is best suited to the purposes of God precisely because it most fully engages the faculties of free, intelligent beings who are socially interacting with agape love in the work of God as his co-laborers and friends. This is obvious from the contents of the Bible. And of course the Bible is itself a case of God's speaking along with human beings—usually so in the process of its delivery to mankind and now always as it continues to speak to us today.

In this passage from Hearing God, Dallas Willard notes that sometimes "the one spoken to is also the one spoken through." Like the word given to Nathan, a word from God may be given to a person we know well or even a stranger as a way to correct our behavior or identify a wrong we have committed. At other times, the word that comes through an intermediary guides, encourages, warns, or enlightens us. Many of us have never been aware of receiving a direct word from God that we then pass on to another person, but some of us have at times heard a word through a teacher, minister, or priest in the form of a sermon, devotional, lecture, or lesson that was especially applicable to the situation we faced. 

 

………

 

God uses many people to communicate with us—pastors, friends, acquaintances, mentors, spouses, family. It is up to us to cultivate the habit of listening for his words. Sometimes the message is one we enjoy hearing, such as an answer to a question we have, the solution to a problem we are facing, an insight that gives us more faith, a confirmation that we are going in the right direction, or a warning before we make a mistake. At other times, as with Nathan's message to David, the words may be hard to hear but beneficial in the long run. God wants only good for us, and in the course of our lives he will send people who help to bring and keep that good in our lives.

 

Listening to God through others is supernatural and natural at the same time. We just need to listen. Sounds easy, doesn't it? But as with all of the other ways of listening to God, it begs the important question: How do we know when it is God? We should question any message we think we have received if it contradicts what we know about God from the Bible. But we can look other places as well for confirmation of a message from God. Jean Darnell advises confirming any message three ways. "If you believe God has told you to do something, ask him to confirm it to you three times: through his word, through circumstances, and through other people who may know nothing of the situation."

 

 

POINT OF ACTION:

Re-read the above excerpt from Hearing God. As you read, let its truths sink deep into your heart. Then, as you go about your daily routine—there's no need to do anything special—be aware of advice you receive from others, offhand comments they may make about your work or you as an individual, and conversations you may have with people on the telephone, while shopping, or during breaks. If you happen to attend some sort of a church function, pay careful attention to what Pastor Greg (or other leaders) teach and preach. As you listen to others, be quietly attentive to the Lord and ask, "What are you trying to tell me?" You may want to carry a small piece of paper or a notebook to write down impressions about what God may be saying to you through other people. If you have never done this before, it may be a little hard at the beginning. But as you become more accustomed to listening for the voice of God through other people, it will become easier.

 

 

PRAYER:

To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.

Make me to know your ways, O Lord;
    teach me your paths.
Lead me in your truth, and teach me,
    for you are the God of my salvation;
    for you I wait all day long.

“Come,” my heart says, “seek his face!”
    Your face, Lord, do I seek.

Give ear to my words, O Lord;
    give heed to my sighing.
Listen to the sound of my cry,
    my King and my God,
    for to you I pray.

 

WHO AM I?
I am Tres Sansom, and I can recall a number of occasions over the years in which I've personally experienced the "voice" of God through the words or writings of others. Sometimes those "words" from God brought searing conviction, other times they led me to feel overwhelmed by his amazing grace, and still other times they enlightened my eyes to a new understanding of God's nature and/or working in the world. I'm so grateful for the way in which God has personally spoken to me through others. I think I've learned to discern God's voice through others because of the particular "weight" with which his words hit me. When a word has been from God, it's tended to carry with it an authority and a power that I knew was from God. Sometimes this "weight" or authority been easy to distinguish, but other times it's only become apparent through contemplation and recollection of the conversation.