“And a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud, ‘This is my beloved Son; listen to him'” (Mark 9:7).
When God speaks, we must listen. Other people may say things that interest us less, but certainly, when the Creator of the universe is addressing us, as He does today through the scriptures, the least we can do is sit up and pay attention.
It was an extraordinary claim when Jesus said that his teaching was authoritative because he was God in the flesh (Matthew 11:27; 28:18; John 5:18-27; 8:28; etc.). This was not merely the claim of a prophet, a man whom God was using as a spokesperson; It was a claim to equality with God and ultimate authority, a status far greater than that of Moses or Elijah. “And after six days Jesus took with him Peter, James, and John, and led them up into a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became white, such that no one on earth could make them whiter. And Elijah appeared to them with Moses, and they were talking to Jesus… And a cloud covered them, and a voice came from the cloud, ‘This is my beloved son; Listen to him'” (Mark 9:2-4,7).
It is sobering to realize that our destiny depends on how we listen to the Son of God. Jesus pointed to the problem of those who have heard but do not obey them when He said, “If anyone hears My words and does not obey them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to condemn the world, but to save the world. He who rejects Me and does not receive My words is the one who condemns him; the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day” (John 12:47,48). In the end, it would be a painful memory if we were to remember that we closed our ears to the words that could have saved us.
These days, there is rarely a person anywhere in the world who has not “heard” the gospel. Printed Bibles are everywhere, and digital copies of the scriptures are even more universal. So for most of us, the main question is what we have done with what we have heard, no matter how much or little it may be. Or perhaps we could say it another way: The question is not whether we have heard; this is what we did heard. We have heard enough truth to save the whole world. But are we paying attention? Is the truth sinking?
“It’s one thing to listen and another thing to hear” (William Friend De Morgan).
Gary Henry – WordPoints.com AreYouaChristian.com
