Talk about Not Talking
When the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and God answered with thunder. Exodus 19:19 NASB
With thunder – Months ago we looked at the difficulties with the translation of this verse (CLICK HERE). Perhaps you might be inclined to read that analysis again. Today we will investigate a second, but equally important implication of the Hebrew use of qol (translated here as “thunder”). In a nutshell, this verse raises the question, “How does God speak?” The NASB’s choice of “thunder” implies that God speaks with overwhelming power, with sounds so loud and fearful that we cower before Him. The NASB’s translation makes us afraid.
But Elijah’s experience is radically different. Yes, the storm was fierce. Yes, the earthquake was terrifying. Yes, the fire would have incinerated us.
And behold, the Lord was passing by! And a great and strong wind was rending the mountains and breaking in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of a gentle blowing. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave. And behold, a voice came to him and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” (1 Kings 19:11-13)
It’s important to realize that the word used here is not “gentle blowing.” It is “murmur.” It isn’t even articulate. The question comes next in the use of qol. When Elijah first hears the Lord, he hears something that isn’t language. He hears the sound of something not human. The sound of the Lord is so soft, so gentle, so quiet that unless we pay very close attention, we will not hear it at all. We will be caught up in the display and succumb to our fears instead of hearing the sound of the Father. We will expect thunder and never hear the murmur. We will desire the God of thunder, the God who scares us, the God of our making, fashioned like those tales of pagan deities that hint at our superiority. We won’t be ready for the less than noticeable approach of the Most High God.
The rabbis went to great lengths to reorder this verse in Deuteronomy so that Moses’ status did not appear to be elevated above YHVH. But perhaps that was unnecessary. Perhaps the qol of YHVH is heard when we stop talking. Perhaps we drown out the sound of YHVH because we do not know how to be silent. Certainly silence is uncomfortable. How else do you explain the constant din of “elevator music” in our lives? We surround ourselves with “thunder” so that we will not hear the agony of our emptiness. Thunder from the gods may scare us but it does not unravel us. That is the role of silence. As Nouwen suggests, silence is the furnace of purification of the soul.[1] Try it, if you dare. Try shutting off everything else so that the demama of YHVH emerges. Oh, by the way, demama, the word translated “whisper” in the Elijah story, the word for “murmur,” is from the root that means, “to be silent.” Perhaps God “speaks” without a sound.
Topical Index: thunder, qol, silent, whisper, demama, Exodus 19:19, 1 Kings 19:12
[1] See Henri Nouwen, The Way of the Heart.
Impressions on the heart. The research of brain scientist Dr. Caroline Leaf suggests that the thoughts in our brains do not actually originate in our brains, but that are formed from outside the brain. This is because there is an interval where we can, literally, choose to think the thought (or not). This can bring a whole new light to the verse that instructs us to capture all our thoughts. Before we think them is where (or is that when?) we are, ideally, supposed to capture them! Dr. Leaf relates that when she set out to verify what this verse was really telling us is when she found the key to the approach she now uses to train people to re-wire their brains. We are not prisoners of our thoughts! Theta waves, from the region of the heart, presumably, travel through the HPA axis on their way to the brain. There is a split second where we can critically examine a thought and decide whether or not we agree with it. If we agree, and want to think it, then our brain proceeds to do so. If we decide that that thought does not represent what we want in our brains, then we can reject it. At that point, Dr. Leaf says – and somehow she has managed to capture all stages of this process with brain imaging (she has pictures!) – the thought, which in the mode of transmission is composed of energy, disappears (dissipates) in, literally, a flash of energy, or what she calls “hot air”. It is gone, just like it had never been, and we retain no memory of it. Only the thoughts we do not resist go on to build or reinforce memories, through a physical process called protein synthesis. It is only what actually goes through our brains that becomes a real part of us.
When we worship God in spirit and in truth, we respond to Him in our spirit, for this is how He ‘speaks’ to us. Back in the dark ages of science when we believed that the brain represented the highest order of nature, it was inconceivable that we should go looking elsewhere for the base of operations, but it is now quite clear that there is a spirit in the human that does not originate in thought; conversely, all thought originates in it. Theta ‘brain wave’ (even though it is NOT a wave that originates in the brain) research is starting to break through some pretty severe barriers that we were limited by when it came to being able to understand the function of thought. We now are beginning to suspect that the organization of information lies elsewhere, and that the brain is more of a storage facility; albeit a really fancy one, rather than the end-all-be-all of evolution as we think of it.
We collect and process sound, sight, smell, physical sensation, and taste in our brains. As the discipline of science is, quite obviously, limited to the collection and analysis of the data from these senses (and as I think we are guilty of tending to want to worship this discipline), I think it has taken us a long time to work up the courage to go asking questions that can not be so easily answered by such limited feedback. The question of exactly HOW we are what we are, we now know, is not going to be able to be answered by a simple analysis of sensory data. Spiritual things, the Bible tells is, are spiritually discerned. Well, duh!
The transmission of relating to another is obviously not limited to the 5 senses; therefore, we are not going to be able to convey this act of transmission – we are not going to be able to understand this point of contact with another – by a simple recording of sensory impressions. At this point, I think that for us to say God transmitted His Word directly to us is not the same thing as saying that He made a sound, or that we heard one. He has flat out told us that He is a Spirit, and that we are to worship (the only way for us to be in contact with Him) with our spirits, and in the sincerity of our hearts. After we establish that contact, at some point, it is probably going to register (but maybe not always!) in that limited-to-five-senses-data brain of ours as a memory probably built with language (but not always!). In our Greek training, it just may not occur to us that communication is not limited to, or by, our senses, and that just because an interaction has been recorded as being PERCEIVED by one of those senses does not necessarily mean that it was limited in its transmission by that sense. He may speak, and we may hear, but in Hebrew, the act of ‘hearing’ was also understood to include the action that occurred BECAUSE OF that hearing. When we ‘hear’ God say “jump!”, if we do not respond with “how high?”, we may not have heard Him at all!
Relationship is the act of what we call “making a difference”. If I am not changed, and you are not changed, by our encounter with each other, then perhaps it could be argued that we did not actually even have one. Spiritual connections from the heart – from the truth of where we are really coming from – must form the basis of all our encounters. Whether or not that encounter represents our allegiance to, and therefore our worship of, YHVH, is going to determine whether or not that ‘encounter’ was a sin (actual separation: um, the OPPOSITE of encounter!) or not. I think it can be argued that only those who have set their hearts to obey Him can even hear Him, for the ears are downstream from the heart.
Thanks, Laurita, for this and reminding me of Dr. Leaf! There are several good sites about her and her work. To get started, go here: http://drleaf.com/about/toxic-thoughts/
Story about myself. If reality bothers you, don’t read this. It all began in a church service when the minister asked everyone to kneel during prayer. My reaction was Sir if you knew how sore my knees were from this arthritis you would not ask this, and I refused to kneel. The next day I was collecting a brain stem for BSE surveillance from a cow I had just euthanized. (Government program) There I was down on my knees in soupy manure and blood about 2-3 inches deep cutting the cows head off when the still small voice said to me, You wouldn’t get down on your knees on a clean carpeted floor for me, but for $100 you will get down in this mess and your knees don’t seem to be bothering you at all. There was no thunder and lightening or visable presence of God. Others were present, but I was the only one who heard the whisper in my ear. I was caught by my duplicity. Did I learn my lesson? Probably not. Did I manufacture this message some where in my own heart or mind out of regret for past action? I choose to think not, because of how it affected me.
Reminds me of Psalm 46:10 – “Be still and know that I am God;…”
Yes, and it’s a lot more than simply stop moving.
Skip ended this message by suggesting that perhaps God speaks without a sound. My wife, who is hearing impaired, would certainly agree. All of us hearing people don’t know what we’re missing!
I would suggest that “demama” is not too far from the sound your heart makes…
Pro_17:28 Even a fool, when he is silent, is counted wise, and he who shuts his lips is counted as a man of understanding.
Zec_2:13 Be silent, all flesh, before Jehovah; for He has risen out of His holy dwelling place.
Yes, ABBA speaks in a wee small voice, in our innermost being, not when we are still and not moving, but in the most unexpected crowded, noisy places in a cafe, and even in the process of crossing the road!! Still small voice perhaps in the quietness of our spirits, but loud enough for one to hear clearly and respond! Still takes one by surprise though; not only of ‘hearing’ His voice, but by His care and concern of us by the messages.
Amazing beautiful experiences.