The Voice: Music to My Ears!

The Voice is a television show about discovering talent. It's a television competition series. Contestants come from all walks of life and the talent is judged in four stages by judges from the entertainment community who are artists themselves. The winner of the competition is just about guaranteed success in the music industry, unless of course, careers are cut short by drugs and fame.

There is another "Voice". This voice is part of "The Mystery of God" has much more importance than those merely singing! THE VOICE is mentioned casually early on, in scripture, but let's look first at a peculiar gospel.

Matthew, Mark and Luke are synoptic gospels. They tell pretty much the same story of Jesus' birth,  ministry, death and resurrection. However, the Book of John is a little different. It is a multi-layered, possibly a collusion of facts about Jesus. This gospel gives an account of the "spiritual" Jesus before he was embodied! Let's look at a few verses:

John 1:1 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. 17 For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. 18 No man hath seen God at any time, the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him." 

In John, it seems that Jesus' story introduced John's ministry, whereas in the other gospels, John came to introduce the world to Jesus! To be sure, Jesus' pre-existence is why John came to introduce Jesus who was here before John; long before! That is unique and that book.

This verse is key to another mystery of God! The Book of John explains the origins of Jesus! He always was. He was always at the side of God. He is God. He is the part of God who was made flesh, and he is the one CALLED Jesus. His purpose before his advent was to declare the things of the Father (God).

First off, Jesus was not the Christ's name. Jesus was his Name to us. Luke 2:21 says " his name was called Jesus". He WAS and IS God. He was also called "Christ" and "Emmanuel" which is "God with us".  On the cross he was called "King of the Jews", but by whatever name he was called, he IS God. John ensures the reader understands that Jesus always WAS before he was called anything. He was "the messenger of God" called often "The Angel of God" in not only the Old Testament (OT), but in the New Testament (NT) as well!

"Angel" mans "messenger". Messengers have messages consisting of words. Hence, messengers speak words, and in the Bible, it's the words of God. "The Angel of God" is a particular messenger. He speaks THE WORD. Our church fathers knew that "The Angel of God" is "THE WORD" and the WORD was made flesh and IS Jesus! Hence, any OT reference to "The Angel of God", "Voice", "God said...", etc. was The Messiah speaking. Jesus is throughout the entire OT! The OT is all about Jesus!

The purpose of Jesus is to save mankind from eternal damnation. That's the physical reason for Jesus. He came as the Son of Man (Mary) to save man! Jesus came to save by being the living sacrifice for mankind!

"The Word" had another purpose. His call was to declare what God wanted to told. Since he was God, it was not a sharing of thoughts from God he was to bring to mankind, but since he is God, he knew God's will first hand. The Word spoke God's direct Word. There was no need to reiterate the message and lose content!

Then all that remains is "What did The Word come to declare?" The Word came to tell mankind and the patriarchs "the mystery of God"!

Revelation 10:7 "But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets."

What did The Word tell the prophets? "He hath declared (as did the seventh angel) the mystery of God" (aka "The Mystery of Christ"). Hence, The Word came to tell the prophets of the OT about Jesus!  Is then, the mystery of God, the story of Jesus?

Colossians 1:25 "Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God; 26 Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: 27 To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:"

There are two parts to the passage: 1) Salvation is for all, not just the Jews, and 2) salvation is by Christ as Jesus was also "called".  Conclusion: The prophets knew about Jesus all along and their belief in Jesus is what saved them! Hence, the "Dispensation of Grace" was there from the beginning as it still is!

Throughout the entire Bible, OT and NT, whenever God spoke, it was "The Word" who was to become Jesus! Abraham had great faith because he spoke to the "person" who took on flesh and became Jesus. The Word told him all about salvation. The Word told Abraham how he was to die to save mankind! How do I know that? Because Abraham did symbolically after speaking with The Word, what Jesus did in reality! Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his own son demonstrated that he knew what God would someday do himself!

So "Jesus" spoke with Abraham. Does that make sense? Yes, it does for how else did he know to play the part of God and the Isaac play the Son? Not only did Abraham know about Jesus and speak with him, but even Adam and Eve conversed with the Savior! "The Word" and "The Voice" are one and the same!

Genesis 3:8 "And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden."

John speaks of Jesus from the beginning! Well since he was there, just where was he? Jesus was walking in the garden in the cool of the evening! "The Voice" they heard was "The Word" who later took on flesh and became Jesus!  Therefore, the Bible is about Christianity, not about Judaism. Salvation was always by The Word. He told them, not what to DO, but in whom to have FAITH.

This logic correspondents to "The Mystery of God" which is that salvation was always for everyone, not just the Jews, although the Jews were given special opportunities since they were God's "chosen" people: This is based on the scripture

Colossians 1:27 "God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles..." from the aforementioned quoted scripture.

Mystery Part 1 solved! The plan of salvation was always by faith in Jesus, either is coming or his going! Mystery Part 2 solved. Salvation was always open to everyone. The Jews were chosen people because Christ wore Jewish flesh! However, that Jewish flesh was shed for Jew and Gentile.

John 1:18a says "No man hath seen God at any time..."

Who, then did Moses peak to on the mountain? Who was it he saw?

 Exodus 3:2 And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: 4 And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I."

This speaks volumes! "The Angel of the Lord" APPEARED to Moses, although scripture cannot contradict itself when John wrote that "no man has seen God at any time" (John 1:18a). THE Angel of the Lord "called unto him (Moses)". That calling was "The Voice", also known as "The Word". It was Jesus who spoke to Moses! You see, this is all a part of the "Mystery of Christ"! Or as Paul wrote in the letter to Colossians:

(1:26) "Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints:"

The Messiah (Christ) when born incarnate was CALLED Emmanuel. He was CALLED Jesus. He IS God! What is His name?

Exodus 3:13 "And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them? 14 And God said unto Moses, I Am That I Am: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I Am hath sent me unto you.

God said. The Voice said. The Word said. Jesus said: "I AM" is his name! This is validated by Jesus when he was walking on water!

Matthew 14:26 "And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a spirit; and they cried out for fear. 27 But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid.."

This is transliterated from the Greek to English "it is I". More accurately, according to linguists, Jesus said "I AM", thus reinforcing that it IS God who is walking on the water and has appeared to them, and that Jesus of the NT is the same as "The Voice" at the burning bush!

The beauty of the Bible is that it's internally consistent. It never contradicts itself and God, according to his own words, never changes! According to Jesus, he is God incarnate, and there is one salvation.

Ephesians 4:4 "There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; 5 One Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all."

There wasn't one way to be saved in the OT and another in the NT. Salvation was ALWAYS  by faith in Jesus's grace. For the prophets faith in what HE WILL DO and for the saints, faith in what HE DID. Salvation has always been by the blood of Jesus!

Hebrews 9:18 "Whereupon neither the first testament (OT) was dedicated without blood. 9:22 And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission."

The shedding of the blood of animals in the OT was a substitute for the shedding of the blood of Jesus, who was to come and whose coming was accepted by faith.; and who had not yet been incarnated. When the priests made the blood sacrifice on an altar dedicated to God, it pointed toward the shedding of Jesus's blood. They knew this THEN because The Word (Jesus pre-incarnate) told them that THEN!

That "Voice" they heard in the time of the prophets is the same "Voice" that I hear. It says:

Matthew 11:28 "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."

Listen to those Words of Jesus. Listen to that "Voice"! That's the "Voice" that I hear and the same "Voice" that the prophets heard! That's a perfect and true voice. That is a champion Voice. That is the victor's Voice and that is the Savior's Voice. It's a sweet sound that we hear! It's music to my ears!