Want to Hear God’s Voice? (Parashat Lech Lecha)

Have you ever wished God would speak to you the way he spoke to Abraham? Imagine how much easier life would be if God simply told you what to do and where to go. But while Abraham experienced some incredible encounters with God, those encounters were much less frequent than we might imagine. The good news is that we have something Abraham didn’t have: the written Word of God.

In this week’s Torah portion, Lech Lecha (Gen. 12:1–17:27), we’re introduced to Abram, who would later become known as Abraham. God calls Abram to leave everything familiar behind and journey to an unknown land:

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.” (Genesis 12:1)

So God tells Abram to leave his homeland, his relatives, and his father’s household. And where is he supposed to go? To a land God hasn’t even identified yet! Nevertheless, Abram obeys.

Now, when we read stories like this, it’s easy to envy Abraham’s relationship with God. After all, God spoke directly to him. Wouldn’t it be amazing to have that kind of relationship with our Creator?

But there is something we don’t often consider: God didn’t speak to Abraham nearly as often as we might imagine.

Indeed, sometimes we read the biblical narratives as though God was Abraham’s buddy who stopped by every morning to chat over coffee. We picture Abraham receiving constant supernatural guidance about every decision he needed to make. But that’s not what the Bible describes.

In fact, Scripture records only about eight occasions when God spoke to Abraham over the course of roughly a hundred years (Gen. 12:1–3, 7; 13:14–17; 15:1–21; 17:1–22; 18:1–33; 21:12–13; 22:1–18). And some of those encounters were separated by decades of apparent silence. Of course, it’s possible that God spoke to Abraham more frequently than the biblical record indicates, but you’d think something as significant as God speaking directly to someone would be worth mentioning.

Think about that for a moment. Abraham, the great patriarch of our faith, experienced long stretches of life without any recorded direct communication from God. Suddenly, his experience doesn’t seem quite so different from ours, does it?

Of course, I believe God still speaks to his people today. Perhaps you’ve experienced moments when you’ve felt the Holy Spirit prompting you to go somewhere, reach out to someone, or make a particular decision. Those experiences can be wonderful. However, for most of us, they don’t happen every day.

So what are we supposed to do in the meantime? Are we supposed to sit around waiting for the next supernatural encounter? Should we put our lives on hold until God gives us some unmistakable sign about what to do next?

Not at all. In fact, we have something Abraham didn’t have: the written Word of God. 

God Still Speaks Today.

As incredible as Abraham’s encounters with God were, he didn’t have a Bible sitting on his nightstand. He couldn’t open the Scriptures and read God’s revealed instructions for how his people ought to live.

But we can. And that’s an incredible blessing we sometimes take for granted. God has already revealed his will to us in Scripture. We don’t have to wait for a voice from heaven to tell us everything we need to know about how to live faithfully.

Let us consider a simple example. Suppose you’re wondering what God wants you to do today. Where should you go? How should you spend your time?

Well, here’s a question to help you know what you should be doing: is today the seventh day of the week? If so, God has already given you specific instructions:

Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work. (Exodus 20:8–10)

Additionally, Leviticus 23:3 tells us that the Sabbath is also a day for a holy assembly. So there you go. God has already told you what to do and when to do it. Set aside your ordinary work, rest, and gather with other believers to worship the Lord on the seventh day of every week. See how easy that was?

Of course, Scripture doesn’t give us a personalized answer to every question we might have. It doesn’t tell us which job offer to accept, which house to buy, or what we’ll be doing five years from now. But it does reveal God’s commandments, his priorities, and the kind of people he calls us to be. And that gives us plenty to work with.

Sometimes we’re so focused on getting God to reveal the next big step in our lives that we overlook what he's already told us to do. We want some extraordinary revelation while neglecting the ordinary instructions he’s already given us. But why should we spend all our time waiting for new instructions when we haven’t yet put the ones we already have into practice?

Abraham’s faith was demonstrated by his willingness to obey God’s word. Genesis 12:4 tells us, “So Abram went, as the Lord had told him.” That’s the example we’re called to follow. We may not know everything God has planned for our future. Abraham certainly didn’t. But we can obey what God has already revealed to us today.

So the next time you find yourself wishing God would speak to you, remember that he already has. Open your Bible, read what he has said, and then put it into practice. You don’t have to wait for a supernatural encounter to hear God’s voice and start walking in his will.

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About David Wilber

David is first and foremost a passionate follower of Yeshua the Messiah. He is also a writer, speaker, and teacher.

David’s heart is to minister to God’s people by helping them rediscover the validity and blessing of God’s Torah and help prepare them to give an answer to anyone who asks about the hope within them (1 Peter 3:15)…