Discerning the right voice was an issue long before we had smartphones and talking dolls. The Scriptures are full of stories where people, including kids, heard a voice, and had to decide whether to respond.
Abram was hanging out in Haran when he heard a voice saying to him, "Go west, young man!" The actual reference is, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you."
Moses was tending sheep in the middle of nowheresville when he heard a voice coming from the burning bush.
Samuel was a little boy sleeping on a cot in the temple when he heard a voice calling his name .
Isaiah was in the temple when he heard the Lord say, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?"
Elijah was in the cleft of a mountain when he heard the "still small voice," and when he heard God say to him, "What are you doing here, Elijah?"
And then there was little fella named Jeremiah who heard a voice and decided to get interactive with it.
The voice, of course, is the voice of God. But we have to wonder how each of these heroes heard it and, perhaps even more importantly, what made them answer.
A 21st-century kid might have an increasingly tough time differentiating between a real voice and a computer-generated one, but Jeremiah knew right away that the voice he was hearing was the Lord's.
Elijah was in the cleft of a mountain when he heard the "still small voice," and when he heard God say to him, "What are you doing here, Elijah?"
And then there was little fella named Jeremiah who heard a voice and decided to get interactive with it.
The voice, of course, is the voice of God. But we have to wonder how each of these heroes heard it and, perhaps even more importantly, what made them answer.
A 21st-century kid might have an increasingly tough time differentiating between a real voice and a computer-generated one, but Jeremiah knew right away that the voice he was hearing was the Lord's.
How did he know, and how do we know, when we're hearing the voice of God?
