Hearing Voices

After Gabriel appeared to Zechariah in Luke 1, he then appeared to Mary. Gabriel was a busy angel those days. Angel visitations are not that frequent an occurrence in the Bible, but they do happen. God spoke and continues to speak to humans in all kinds of ways. In fact, I think God speaks to us human beings all the time and in many different ways. The question is not whether God is speaking, but whether we are listening.

When I am away from my wife and she calls me on the phone, I don’t answer, “Who is this?” I better not! Nowadays we have all kinds of aids such as caller ID. But when a voice or a sound is important to us, we learn to identify it. We’ve just acquired a couple of cats. Whoever penned the expression “as difficult as herding cats” knew what they were talking about. But I’ve learned something about both Columbus (he) and Persia (she) [and both neutered]. Even after a short time and being independent-minded felines, they are starting to recognize the sound of their names as being addressed to them and their humans’ tones of voice.

Start ignoring your morning alarm ring and you’ll train yourself to sleep right through it. Respond to that ring and you’ll start to wake up to it. I can even anticipate my alarm by a few minutes, as long as I’ve had enough sleep!

Was it the visual appearance of Gabriel that spoke to Zechariah and Mary or was it the fact that they were people who tended to be practiced in listening to God? Hard to say. God certainly confronts people who aren’t listening to him, but take a fresh look at those instances and see what you find. More often than not, like Saul who became known as the Apostle Paul, they are people who are reaching out to God, if in the wrong ways.

When Gabriel came to these devout followers of Abraham’s God, he had messages for them that contained explicit information. That information was not contrary to what they already knew in the Scriptures, but it was information that they wouldn’t have known otherwise. Zechariah was going to have a son named John who would bring the people of Israel back to God. Mary would have a son named Jesus who would be the Promised One.

To hear God’s voice is one thing. To act on it is another. Zechariah and Mary heard what Gabriel said because they were used to listening to God’s voice and acting on it. In this passage, Zechariah did have a harder time believing what the angel said, but in the end, both believed and followed through. Every last one of us has had a word from God. Paul writes that creation itself speaks to those who have no other witness. Most of us – at least those reading this blog – have much more. We call it the Bible. Start believing and acting on what you read there and then see how much more God speaks to you.

Nonbelievers are skeptical when Believers talk about hearing God’s voice in every last little thing – and there are some kooky ideas out there. But to the believer with a trained ear, we hear our Beloved’s voice in even the most subtle tones – God speaks to us everywhere. Zechariah and Mary were not unique in getting messages from God – they just got very unique messages.