"Today If Ye Shall Hear His Voice"

by G. PRASHER, SR. | Category: General | Aug 1962

The term "Today "in Scripture has various features. In connexion with the Sonship of Christ we find the words "this day," which we judge to be the eternal day in which the Divine Being exists. "This day have I begotten Thee" (Hebrews 1.5). Again we are told that "one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day" (2 Peter 3.8). Time is really an infinitesimal portion of the great eternity; and the Spirit of God testifies, " Thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy" (Isaiah 5". 15). Further, "The day of the Lord" is a period commencing with the Lord's coming to the earth to execute judgement on His foes, and set up His kingdom on the earth (2 Thessalonians 2.2-10; 2 Peter 3.10).

So also the term "Today" appears to have features that vary from periods to particular instances that might be regarded as consisting of 24 hours. That was a solemn day the account of which is given in Numbers chapters 13 and 14, when the spies returned from spying out the land of Canaan. The twelve men as they traversed the land had full proof or evidence of the truth of the LORD'S description of the kind of land it was. Also that great branch with one cluster of grapes on it, borne upon a staff between two, with the specimens of pomegranates and of figs, bore witness to the wealth of the land to the whole congregation. God had spoken truth. "We came unto the land whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it " (13.27). But why that great cry of distress, and the loud voice of weeping? for the people cried and wept and murmured. Alas! ten of the twelve spies brought back an evil report concerning the people of the land and the cities. "The people that dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fenced, and very great: and moreover we saw the children of Anak there" (13.28). "We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we ... the land ... eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of great stature ... and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so were we in their sight." In contrast to the report of the ten the words of Caleb and Joshua are soul-stirring, "Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it". These men had heard and hearkened to the voice of God, but the others had hardened their hearts, and what was true of the ten was true of the congregation, for they also hardened their hearts, and as a result failed to enter into the rest of God. The hardening of the hearts had no doubt been a process of many days during which they had failed to hear and hearken, and now in this solemn day they provoked God to anger by their disobedience. Summary judgement is meted out to the ten men who brought back the evil report, for they died by the plague before the LORD. As for the rest who were disobedient, "Your carcases," said the LORD,

shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against Me, surely ye shall not come into the land, concerning which I lifted up My hand that I would make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun ... But as for you, your carcases shall fall in this wilderness" (14.29-32).

Hearkening or hardening! How solemn and far-reaching are the issues from each! Pharaoh hardened his heart and brought upon himself and his people the dread judgement of God. Saul the king was exhorted to hearken unto the voice of the words of the LORD, but he failed to obey and thereby lost a kingdom. Let us also remember that we are living in a world where the very atmosphere is such as will harden the child of God, and our only safety is in hearkening to the voice of God in the Scriptures. In Matlock Bath, Derbyshire, there are petrifying wells where such items as a bird's nest with eggs in it, or, say, an old kettle, placed under the drippings of the mineral waters, are petrified in the course of some nine months. They become stones. But if a living thing, say, a plant, is put under the dripping water, there is no petrifying effect. This indicates the importance of life. We may learn from it that unless we are alive spiritually we are in great danger, and our hearts may become hard and such that God cannot write His laws thereon. We may become like Israel in the day of the provocation, arid lose what can never be regained. Year by year went by of those thirty eight years from that fatal day in Kadesh-barnea, and all that time the bones of the disobedient were being scattered in the wilderness. They must know the revoking of the Lord's promise. "But your little ones, which ye said should be prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have rejected " (14.31).

Let us fear therefore, lest haply, a promise being left of entering into His rest, any one of you should seem to have come short of it" (Hebrews 4.1). This " Let us fear," together with the " Take heed of chapter 3 is the voice of God to us "Today." Will we hear and hearken to His voice, and thereby obey, and experience the bliss of the rest that remaineth for God's people ? I recall hearing a brother lead the assembly in prayer in one of the North American assemblies: he prayed, "Lord, help us to hearken that we may hear." Is it not so that too often we fail to hear because we fail to hearken ? The angelic hosts afford us an example: "Bless the LORD, ye angels of His: ye mighty in strength, that fulfil His word, hearkening unto the voice of His word" (Psalm 103.20). Notice, please, the solemn words in Leviticus 26. 14-24, " If ye will not hearken unto Me ... I will appoint terror over you ... If ye will not yet for these things hearken unto Me, then I will chastise you seven times more for your sins... And if ye walk contrary unto Me, and will not hearken unto Me; I will bring seven times more plagues upon you." The Lord in His love for His people desires for us His greatest blessings, but these can be obtained only as we hearken to His voice. Which will it be with us, hardening or hearkening?

" Today if ye shall hear His voice,

Harden not your hearts " (Hebrews 3.7, 8).

G. PRASHER, SR. | Aug 1962
General