Posted by: Bill Hornbeck | December 2, 2010

Just listen!?: The Importance of Listening and Obeying the Right Voice

Today’s devotion continues to focus on John 10:4-5.
 
“4  “When he puts forth all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. 
                     
 5  “A stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers.”  John 10:4-5.
                                

———————————–

There are 382 verses with the word “voice” in it.  Click here: BibleGateway.com – Keyword Search: voice    As I started with Genesis 3:17, I quickly began to understand the importance of listening to the right voice.  Some say:  Just listen!  But, Scripture, quickly and from the very beginning, contrasts the dangers and curses of listening and following the wrong voice compared to the blessings of listening and obeying the right voice.  Here are just a few examples from the first two books of the Bible. 

See what happens when one listens and follows the wrong voice.  

Genesis 3:17
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’;  Cursed is the ground because of you;  In toil you will eat of it All the days of your life.

Genesis 16:2
So Sarai said to Abram, “Now behold, the LORD has prevented me from bearing children.  Please go in to my maid; perhaps I will obtain children through her.”  And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.

But, see what happens when one listens and obeys the right voice.

Genesis 22:18
“In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.”

Exodus 15:26
“And He said, ” If you will give earnest heed to the voice of the LORD your God, and do what is right in His sight, and give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have put on the Egyptians; for I, the LORD, am your healer.”
                                                       
Exodus 19:5
” ‘Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine;”
                          
 
It is clear that we should listen and obey God’s voice to avoid dangers and curses and to obtain blessings.
                                                 
And, how so we listen to God’s voice?   We read and meditate upon Scripture and true doctrine like the Reformed Confessions which summarizes Scripture.
                              
And, do we just listen to God’s voice?  No, we should obey God’s voice and do what He commands.
                                      
“But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.  For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror;  for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was.  But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.”  James 1:22-25. 

Posted in Uncategorized

«
»

Categories