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September 13, 2025 |
| Who You Listen To | ||
The people in our lives, especially the people who are close to us, the ones we trust, have our attention. We see them and hear them, and we know that we will see and hear them again very soon.
We don't see and hear God in the same way. They are more "real" to us than God. That makes it easy for us to accept advice from people and to forget about God or about what God said.
Even the best of us can make that mistake. There are lots of examples where that led to trouble.
Our first example comes with the first trouble - the sins of Adam and Eve
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'" […] (Genesis 3:17)
God doesn't mean that Adam should have never listened to anything Eve ever said. He means that Adam listened to Eve, took her advice, instead of listening to God. Eve came up to Adam and said something like, "You've been working hard, here, eat this." Adam didn't pause to think about what God had said, "Do not eat from that tree."
I imagine that if God had been there right then to say, "That's fruit from that tree," Adam would have chosen to do what God said and not eaten the fruit. But God wasn't there. All that Adam had was his memory of what God had said. That has to contend with the image of Eve in Adam's eyes and the sound of her voice in his ears. Any of us could have made the same mistake.
We have that same problem in our time. It's easy to forget what the Bible said and to fail to pause to listen for the Spirit's guidance. In the immediacy of the moment, we can fail.
Because of that problem with memory, we need to give ourselves a chance to listen to God. To do that, we need to plan to give ourselves that chance. When God said, "Don't eat from that tree," instead of thinking, "OK, I won't," Adam needed to put into practice a plan not to eat from that tree. He could have, with every food that he ate, determined where that food came from before eating.
That would have caused a new problem though. Eve would think that he doesn't trust her. She would be in his face about that.
The phrase "listened to" does not appear again until we get to the story of Abram, who will become Abraham. Again, we see it associated with listening to a person instead of God.
So Sarai said to Abram, "Now behold, Yahweh has shut my womb from bearing children. Please go in to my slave-woman; perhaps I will obtain children through her." And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. (Genesis 16:2)
In the previous chapter, God had promised Abram that he would have a biological son, "one who will come forth from your own body" (Genesis 15:4), and a large nation would come from him. Sarai was up in years, and she was anxious to make this happen, but she saw no way that it could be fulfilled through her.
Again we see the "listened to" phrase. Abram has listened to Sarai, ignoring what God had said. God hadn't said anything about Abraham having to do something to fulfill God's promise. No special action on their part was required. It was a lapse of faith by Abram.
The result will be a disaster:
When Sarai tells Abraham to send the slave-wife and son away, Abram, now Abraham, is bothered by it and does not act. He probably thinks it would be a death sentence. As the story goes on, we see that that would likely have been the case if God hadn't intervened. Though slaves, she is still a wife to him and the boy is a son to him. God speaks to Abraham and tells him that it is OK to do what Sarah said to do. God is going to take care of the slave-wife and son.
That's where we see the next appearance of our phrase, though this time it is "listen to". This time, Abraham has waited for God to say what to do, though it might just have been reluctance that caused the wait.
So God said to Abraham, "Do not be distressed because of the boy and your maidservant; whatever Sarah tells you, listen to her voice, for through Isaac your seed shall be named. (Genesis 21:12)
There is another consequence of Abram's earlier failure. "God tested Abraham" (Genesis 22:1). God doesn't test people to see for himself. God tests a person so that the person can know himself and be built up. In this case, God wants Abraham to muster his faith and ignore all the other voices.
What voices? Abraham and Isaac are by themselves when the time comes for Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. The voices of people can be in our heads. We know what they would say if they knew what was going on. Abraham knew what Sarah would say if she knew he was going to sacrifice her only son - the gift from God. Abraham knew what people would say if he came back without Isaac. Even though he is in the middle of nowhere, Abraham can hear those voices clearly.
This is God's test: "Will you listen to me or will you listen to them?"
We know that Abraham chose to listen to God. God knew this would be the result, but God also knew the struggle. He is pleased with Abraham.
In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have listened to My voice. (Genesis 22:18)
Again we see the phrase "listened to." By that, God shows that he is pleased that Abraham made the choice to ignore all the other voices. He prioritized God's words over all others.
Four chapters and many years later, Abraham was dead, and God was speaking to Isaac, and he still brought up Abraham's choice to listen to God.
[…] because Abraham listened to My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws. (Genesis 26:5)
Our lives are very different from Abraham's. Abraham had fought and killed men in battles. He had slaughtered countless animals. Sacrificing a man wouldn't have been difficult for him … except for those voices. It's unlikely that God will ask us to sacrifice a child. But he asks us to do other things that are just as hard because we have to ignore all those voices that are calling us to listen to them. Going along with the crowd is easy. Standing up to say, "I won't" or "I will" is hard.