I love Job’s statement in 26:14: these are the mere edges of His ways, and how small a whisper we hear of Him! He and Bildad were having a contest as to who could best describe God’s greatness. Bildad, in Job 25, spoke of His greatness and magnified it by mentioning how wimpy man is (v6). Job also describes God’s greatness, in creating earth and heaven. Then Job said: what we see and know of God is just a small portion of all there is to see and know. Think about it. The universe is the “edges” and a “whisper” of God’s greatness. I will never be an expert on God’s greatness. I will always be studying and worshiping Him!
God doesn’t blast us with all of Himself at once but gives it to us little by little so that we never exhaust the wonder of who He is! Which brings me to the Christmas story. That story is full of “whispers” that, upon further review, are whispers of His greatness. For example, take Bethlehem. Bethlehem is a whisper. That’s what Micah said: little among the thousands of Judah (Mic. 5:2). Yet, today, Bethlehem was a loud shout of the glory of God. Here’s what I mean.
Bethlehem whispers that a child is born. Yet there is a shout: that Child is God becoming a man (John 1:14).
Bethlehem was a small whisper of a town, under an evil king (Herod) who worked for the Romans. Yet there is a shout. In Bethlehem is “the One to be Ruler in Israel” (Micah 5:2), the Messiah/Christ.
To Bethlehem came an obscure couple, from another insignificant town, Nazareth. But shout it out: these two people were both descendants of David, Israel’s mighty King. And her child would sit on David’s throne (Lk. 1:32).
The Child’s conception was questionable, for those who did not know any better. How humiliating, lots of people were whispering. But shout it out: He is the heir of all things (Heb. 1:2), exalted King of kings and Lord of lords.
Bethlehem had no room in the inn, and only a manger in a pen for farm animals, and no fancy “kings clothing” but ordinary strips of cloth for a wrapping. You can barely hear the whisper. Yet, the whole scene shouts out that this is our High Priest who has a true feeling for our infirmities (Heb. 4:14-16).
Some of the poorest in Israel, shepherds, were invited to Bethlehem. But the angels shouted it out: a Savior was born, the Good Shepherd, the Lamb of God!
From Bethlehem, on the eighth day, He was presented at the temple with the peace offering of the poor. How perfect that the gospel shouts out that He became poor that we might become rich (2 Cor. 8:9).
We need to be in tune with the whispers of God. Like Elijah: God was not in the loud noises (wind, earthquake, fire) but in the “still small voice” (1 Ki. 19:11-12). Let us not be those who only hear God when it’s exciting or powerful or tickling to the ears (2 Tim. 4:3). Let us not always be looking for a sign (Jn. 6:30). Can you hear Him now? In Christ? In the Christ of the Bible?
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