In the second chapter of the very first book of the Bible, we read of God speaking to Adam as we would talk with each other. After Adam and Eve had sinned, "they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden" (Genesis 3:8). So palpable was the Lord's presence that Adam and Eve thought they could avoid the Lord's rebuke by hiding themselves.
Later, we read of God speaking with Cain, and still later, with Noah. We read of God's conversations with Abram (Abraham) in Genesis 12, 15, 17, 18, and 22. By the time we get to the end of Exodus, we have read of God talking to people by means of dreams, through angels, and from a burning bush, and we can fully appreciate the first part of the statement with which the letter to the Hebrews begins: "God...spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways."
Indeed, so consistently do we read of God's conversations with men, we may suppose that such was the norm. Having supposed this much, many conclude that such is the expected norm today. They expect to hear personal messages directly from God, and see their expectation as perfectly consistent with God's dealings with men as recorded in scripture.
However, in truth, personal, audible messages from God were not the common experience of people in Biblical times. Such were the exception. While it may seem that God talked directly to just about every famous Biblical character one can readily call to mind, the reality is that those which can be readily called to mind are famous because God talked to them. That is to say, those individuals to whom God spoke directly were thereby made to be exceptional and to play a prominent role in the Bible. Who would remember Abraham if God had not spoken to him and made the promises concerning his descendants to him? Who would remember Moses if God had not spoken to him on Mt. Sinai?
I have occasionally asked people to mention a few people from American history. Invariably, the first couple of people named are George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Both were presidents. Does this mean that nearly everyone in American History was a president? No, but those who were presidents, or in some other way were exceptional, are the ones who will be remembered.
It can be shown (and we will show it herein) that the primary means of communication from God to man has always been indirect, or "second hand revelation." Direct communication, or "first hand revelation," has always been the exception. The conclusion we will draw is that if God speaks to us today through the written word, and not directly, he is dealing with us just as he has dealt with most people throughout history.
Those to whom God spoke directly were known as prophets, and they were an exclusive group. Consider the account of Saul's ascendance to the throne (1 Samuel 9-10). When we first meet Saul, he and a servant are out searching for his father's donkeys. After a considerable search and no success, the servant suggested that they might get divine help. Note well that the servant did not suggest that he and Saul pray to God and wait for a voice from heaven to tell them the location of the donkeys. Rather the servant said, "Behold now, there is a man of God in this city...all that he says surely comes true....perhaps he can tell us about our journey on which we have set out." When the servant made mention of a "man of God," he did not mean a man who is merely faithful to God. He meant, a man through whom God speaks. The text explains
Formerly in Israel, when a man went to inquire of God, he used to say, "Come, and let us go to the seer"; for he who is called a prophet now was formerly called a seer. (1 Samuel 9:9)
Get the point: Saul and his servant did not expect that God would speak to them directly. Rather they expected that God would speak through a prophet who in turn would convey God's message to them. Verse nine tells us that this was the norm. When a man wanted to inquire of God, he didn't expect to receive an audible revelation. He went to a prophet.
It turns out that the man of God to whom Saul and the servant went was Samuel. When they met Samuel, Saul was told in essence, "Forget about the donkeys; they have been found. I have other news for you which I will tell you tomorrow." The next day, Samuel said to Saul, "Has not the LORD anointed you a ruler over His inheritance?" (1 Samuel 10:1). Samuel then described certain events which would transpire as signs from God, verifying that it was indeed the word of God that Saul would be king. One of the signs was that Saul would meet a group of prophets, and the Spirit of the Lord would come upon him, and he would prophesy with them (1 Samuel 10:5-6). All the signs transpired as Samuel had said they would, including Saul's prophesying with the prophets. Verse 11 of this passage is important:
And it came about, when all who knew him previously saw that he prophesied now with the prophets, that the people said to one another, "What has happened to the son of Kish? Is Saul also among the prophets?"
Notice that "the prophets" were a particular group of people. Notice that when Saul, not previously thought of as a prophet, prophesied with the prophets, the question naturally arose, "Is he also among the prophets?" Such would not have been the case had it been commonplace for the Spirit to come upon a man in this manner.
Once again, in 1 Kings 13, an incident is related to us which is helpful in showing that the expected recipient of direct revelation was a "man of God," i.e., a prophet. One identified throughout the context as "a man of God" came to Bethel from Judah at the Lord's command and delivered a message to King Jereboam of Israel. Thereafter, he was to immediately return to Judah. However, there was an old prophet living at Bethel who desired to entertain the visiting man of God. The latter at first declined, saying,
I cannot return with you, nor go with you, nor will I eat bread or drink water with you in this place. For a command came to me by the word of the LORD, "You shall eat no bread, nor drink water there..." (1 Kings 13:16-17)
But the prophet from Bethel persisted, saying,
I also am a prophet like you, and an angel spoke to me by the word of the LORD, saying, "Bring him back with you to your house, that he may eat bread and drink water."
The text leaves no question as to the veracity of the prophet in Bethel. It says, "he lied to him." Notice that the lie was made plausible by the introductory, "I also am a prophet like you." It apparently would not have been at all credible had an ordinary man of Israel claimed, "God told me it was alright for you to come home with me." But when a prophet made such a claim, the lie was more credible. Unfortunately for the man of God from Judah, he believed the lie and disobeyed what he himself had been told by God.
In contrast to those today who seem to think that God will speak directly to them any time they decide they want to hear from Him, the prophets of old did not get revelations on demand. Remember that David was a prophet (Acts 2:30) and wrote many of the Psalms, the Holy Spirit speaking through his mouth (Acts 4:25). Nonetheless, David himself was often dependent upon other prophets who would reveal to him God's will. In particular, Nathan and Gad were often the messengers of God's will to David. (See for example 2 Samuel 7:8-17, 12:1-15, and 2 Samuel 24:10- 14.) In 2 Samuel 24:11, Gad is identified as "David's seer." This man, David, through whom God spoke to generations, this man who is described in the inspired text as "a man after God's own heart," who was the beginning of the line of kings culminating in Jesus the Christ, and whose son the Christ is said to be, even he turned to his seer for revelations from God.
The point of all this is that the norm was that man did not get messages directly from God. The norm was that man got indirect revelations, or we might say "second hand" revelations. However much at odds that is with our sense of what should be or with what should have been, that's the way it was. Even the prophets themselves could not rightly expect to get a direct revelation concerning any topic any time they so desired. Even David was dependent upon second hand revelation much of the time.
In the minds of many religious folk, the Bible is an important historical foundation for Christianity, but personal revelations are supposed to be necessary for daily guidance. However, even in Old Testament times when God did speak "in many portions and in many ways," the written word was the resource for daily guidance. Moses wrote down the law that was revealed to him and warned the people of Israel to "observe all the words of this law which are written in this book," (Deuteronomy 28:58). Even Joshua, who did receive supernatural revelations, was told,
This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success. (Joshua 1:8)
Part 2: How God Spoke to Man in N.T. Times