the published and unpublished works of angeline koh

He who has ears, let him hear
© Angel’s original . Written April 2000
Published in The Singapore NavNews June-August 2000

verses . read, reflect, respond

“Angel, turn on the radio! The silence is deafening!” my colleague cried out to me. In my hurry to complete a work project on time, I had not realised that the cassette player had shut off when the tape ended. I laughed over her plea and turned on the music but her bizarre remark caught my attention.

God wants to speak to us. This is evident by the numerous ways through which He communicates 1 . As evangelical Christians, we believe that He speaks primarily through His written Word. One other way in which God also powerfully speaks to us is silence. We are uncomfortable with silence and neglect it, much to our loss.

We do not hear Him because we do not listen well. We want to hide from God when we do wrong. But God still calls to us, ” Where are you?” just as He did in the Garden of Eden a long time ago 2 . When the people of Israel heard the voice of God out of the fire, their reaction was to hide. They were so terrified that they were willing to relinquish their privilege to hear God speak directly to them. “But now, why should we die? This great fire will consume us, and we will die if we hear the voice of the LORD our God any longer.” They chose instead for Moses to stand between them and the Lord. Go near and listen to all that the LORD our God says. “Then tell us whatever the LORD our God tells you. We will listen and obey” 3 . It can be a terrifying thing to hear God speak.

God not only speaks to us but He sets the volume at a level that best suits our receptivity to hear Him. A teacher friend once told me that he never shouts when the noise in his class becomes intolerable. Instead he whispers forcing his students to hush up in order to listen to what he has to say. God wants to speak to us but He does not always amplify His voice. When He spoke to Elijah, the LORD was not in the wind. not in the earthquake.not in the fire… To Elijah, God came in a gentle whisper 4 .

But God can also speak to us in the silence. Certainly to Job, God’s attention-grabbing statement came in the form of silence. “I cry out to you, O God,” Job uttered, “but you do not answer; I stand up, but you merely look at me. Oh, that I had someone to hear me! I sign now my defense – let the Almighty answer me.” 5 Job found God’s silence excruciatingly deafening.

Once, a woman caught red-handed in the act of adultery was brought to Jesus. “Moses, in the Law, gives orders to stone such person. What do you say?” His crafty, angel-faced adversaries asked. They were out for blood – His blood. The bait had been set, the verdict had been passed even before the trial could begin – anything He said would be used against Him – the Man on trial would incriminate Himself.

Then Jesus did a curious thing – He never spoke a word, but bent down and wrote with His finger in the dirt. The heat was on. Relentlessly the determined prosecutors kept at Him, badgering Him. Then He straightened up and said, “The sinless one among you, go first: Throw the stone.” Bending down, He wrote some more in the dirt.

The accused woman waited for what must have seemed like forever for the first stone of judgement to be hurled, her eyes cast down, hunched and in shame. Then one after another, beginning with the oldest, they quietly slipped away until the woman was left alone with Jesus. The silence was deafening. The self-righteousness could not withstand the silent force of the truth: “I cannot throw the stone. I too am guilty of sin.” So God spoke that day – in a word, in a whisper and in silence; together they brought about both the conviction of sin and the comfort of grace 6.

To hear the voice of God is to hear Him whether He speaks to us in a voice, a whisper or in silence. And to hear Him is an awesome thing.

Eugene Petersen in The Message translates Job 26:11-14 this way:

Thunder crashes and rumbles in the skies.
Listen! It’s God raising His voice!
By His power He stills sea storms,
By His wisdom He tames sea monsters.
With one breath He clears the sky
With one finger He crushes the sea serpent.
And this is only the beginning,
A mere whisper of His rule.
Whatever would we do if He really raised His voice! 7

Whether it is in words, in a whisper or in silence, God speak to us. The crucial question is: are we paying attention? And will we?

In God’s silence, Job’s friends became proud and presumptuous, presuming to speak for God 8 . They were not listening. In Psalms 50:21, God was angry with the people …I kept silent; you thought I was altogether like you. But I will rebuke you and accuse you to your face. Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament prophets, contains 55 verses out of which 53 verses are speeches of the Lord verbatim. God’s cry and call was for His people to return to Him in repentance. Their proud response to His words were, How have You. How have we.?

When the people stopped listening, God stopped speaking – for 400 years! God was communicating through “silent mode” until one ordinary day when a priest stepped into the temple to burn incense. It stopped becoming a meaningless ritual when the priest – a man who supposedly mediates between God and His people – really heard God speak to Him. God broke His 400 year silence and they immediately recognised His voice 9 . (Whatever will it be like when God breaks His silence with us?)

Hearing God is a faculty not of the physical eyes nor ears but the heart and soul. In the Old Testament, Seeing God is a setting for His word. The decisive call is to hear. Our modern world on the other hand, much like the Greek culture gravitates toward seeing rather than listening 10. We receive and pass on masses of data, even religious data. (How many forwarded messages do you receive in a day through the Internet?) We are overloaded with masses of information with little time to truly reflect or think.

Amidst the clutter of noise and busy activity, God calls to us, Where are you? 11 .cease striving and know that I am God 12 . How will we respond? To cease striving does not mean that we become passive. Rather, it is a call to refrain from the vain activities that stem from a lack of confidence in God. This confidence that the LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress 12 can only come about as we are silent long enough in His presence to listen to Him.

If we would set the default mode of our hearts as Samuel did: Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening 13 , perhaps we would begin to catch a little of what He is saying to us in His words, His whispers and His silence. When we do so, life will begin to take its bearing because in Him we live and move and have our being 14 . We will experience the comfort of knowing it deeply in our souls that God is indeed Lord and in charge. And that He is with us to help us 15.

He who has ears, let him hear.

He who has ears, let him hear
© Angel’s original . Written April 2000
Published in The Singapore NavNews June-August 2000

the article . read, research, respond

All verses are in NIV unless otherwise stated.

1. Romans 1:20 – For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities–his eternal power and divine nature&–have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
2:15 – since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.
3:2,21 – 2 Much in every way! First of all, they have been entrusted with the very words of God… But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify.
John 1:1-17 – especially verse 14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth…
17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
14:26 – But the Counsellor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.
15:26 – When the Counsellor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me.
16:13,15 – 13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come… 15 All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you.
Hebrews 1:1-2 – 1 In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe.

2. Genesis 3:8-10 – 8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the LORD God called to the man, Where are you? 10 He answered, I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.

2. Deuteronomy 4:11-18 – 11 You came near and stood at the foot of the mountain while it blazed with fire to the very heavens, with black clouds and deep darkness.
12 Then the LORD spoke to you out of the fire. You heard the sound of words but saw no form; there was only a voice.
13 He declared to you his covenant, the Ten Commandments, which he commanded you to follow and then wrote them on two stone tablets.
14 And the LORD directed me at that time to teach you the decrees and laws you are to follow in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess.
15 You saw no form of any kind the day the LORD spoke to you at Horeb out of the fire. Therefore watch yourselves very carefully,
16 so that you do not become corrupt and make for yourselves an idol, an image of any shape, whether formed like a man or a woman,
17 or like any animal on earth or any bird that flies in the air,
18 or like any creature that moves along the ground or any fish in the waters below.
33,36 – 33 Has any other people heard the voice of God speaking out of fire, as you have, and lived?
36 From heaven he made you hear his voice to discipline you. On earth he showed you his great fire, and you heard his words from out of the fire.
5:23-29 , emphasis mine – 23 When you heard the voice out of the darkness, while the mountain was ablaze with fire, all the leading men of your tribes and your elders came to me.
24 And you said, The LORD our God has shown us his glory and his majesty, and we have heard his voice from the fire. Today we have seen that a man can live even if God speaks with him.
25 But now, why should we die? This great fire will consume us, and we will die if we hear the voice of the LORD our God any longer.
26 For what mortal man has ever heard the voice of the living God speaking out of fire, as we have, and survived?
27 Go near and listen to all that the LORD our God says. Then tell us whatever the LORD our God tells you. We will listen and obey.
28 The LORD heard you when you spoke to me and the LORD said to me, I have heard what this people said to you. Everything they said was good.
29 Oh, that their hearts would be inclined to fear me and keep all my commands always, so that it might go well with them and their children for ever!

4. 1 Kings 19:11-12 – 11 The LORD said, Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by. Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake.
12 After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper.

5. Job 30:20 – I cry out to you, O God, but you do not answer; I stand up, but you merely look at me.
31:35 – Oh, that I had someone to hear me! I sign now my defence–let the Almighty answer me; let my accuser put his indictment in writing.

6. Verses quoted from John 8:1-11 , The Message

7. Emphasis mine

8. Job 42:7 – After the LORD had said these things to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite, I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.

9. Luke 1:5-12 – 5 In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah; his wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron.
6 Both of them were upright in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commandments and regulations blamelessly.
7 But they had no children, because Elizabeth was barren; and they were both well on in years.
8 Once when Zechariah’s division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God,
9 he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense.
10 And when the time for the burning of incense came, all the assembled worshippers were praying outside.
11 Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense.
12 When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear.

10. According to The Theological Dictionary of The New Testament , In the Greek mysteries and Gnosticism more stress is laid on apprehension of God by seeing. The Old Testament and Judaism have a different emphasis. Seeing God is a setting for His word (Isaiah 6:1ff). The decisive call is to hear (Isaiah 1:2,10; Amos 7:16a).

11. Genesis 3:9 – But the LORD God called to the man, Where are you?

12. Psalm 46:10 , NASB – “Cease striving and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”

13. 1 Samuel 3:9 – So Eli told Samuel, Go and lie down, and if he calls you, say, ‘Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.’ So Samuel went and lay down in his place.

14. Acts 17:28 – ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’

15. Psalms 46:10-11 – 10 Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.
11 The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.

He who has ears, let him hear
© Angel’s original . Written April 2000
Published in The Singapore NavNews June-August 2000

the article . verses

Reflect
1. Why do you feel uncomfortable with silence?

2. In what ways are you noisy?

3. What does the noise in your life do for you? What does it reveal about you?

4. What difference would it make in your life if you learned to be quiet?

5. What are some ways you can cultivate quietness in your life in order to listen to God?

Research

1. What are some of the ways in which God speaks to us?
Deuteronomy 4:11-18, 33,36; 5:23-29
1 Kings 19:1-15
Job 26:10-14; 33:14-20; 38:1-4
John 1:1-17; 14:26; 15:26; 16:13,15
Romans 1:20; 2:15, 3:2, 21
Hebrews 1:1-2

2. What does God’s response to Adam and Eve’s silence reveal about God?
Genesis 3:8-10

3. Here are 2 occasions that called for silence. What impact do you think the silence might have made on the people?
Habakkuk 2:20
Revelations 8:1

4. What do the people’s response to God’s silence reveal about them?
Psalm 50:21
Isaiah 57:11

5. Note the progression of Job’s response to God’s silence. What did God’s silence do for Job?
Job 10:1
Job 32:15-20
Job 42:1-7

6. The psalmists pleaded with God to speak (Psalm 28:1; 35:22; 83:1; 109:1). Isaiah and Habakkuk were perplexed about God’s silence. How did they deal with their feelings?
Isaiah 64:12
Habakkuk 1:2-3,12-2:1

7. Why do you think Jesus remained silent? In what ways could this be an encouragement to you?
Isaiah 53:7
Matthew 26:62-63
Mark 14:61

8. What does God invite you to do?
Deuteronomy 27:9
Psalm 46 (especially verse 10)
Lamentations 3:21-33
Mark 6:31-32
Luke 8:18

Respond

1. What would it cost you in order for you to accept His invitation?

2. What is the one thing you will do this week to remove the noise and clutter in your life in order to listen to God?