We have just been having a few days of rest beside the Mediterranean Sea. A raging three-day wind and rain storm made us conscious of the sound of the waters day and night, pounding against rocks, crashing against the shore. We stood fascinated but with a feeling of respect tinged with fear as we watched a point on the rocks one afternoon: the water whirled and was sucked out into the sea, making a shallow area that suddenly seemed attacked by mountains of waves, higher than any of the rest, that crashed and thundered in to refill the drained-out area. The sound of the pounding waves kept us awake between four and eight o’clock in the morning as the wind rose and water washed in gusts against our windows. The sound of many waters penetrated our consciousness with the realization of power, power that human beings can do nothing about. Here is the power that is connected with floods, tidal waves, and breaking dams, the power that gives sudden illustration of the frailness of human defenses. Water—the sound of power. Many waters—the sound of great power, which demands some kind of attention.
“Afterward he brought me to the gate, even the gate that looketh toward the east: and, behold, the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east: and his voice was like a noise of many waters: and the earth shined with his glory” (Ezek. 43:1, 2). In describing the appearance of the living creatures he saw, which are to be seen in the future by many others, Ezekiel says this: “And when they went, I heard the noise of their wings, like the noise of great waters, as the voice of the Almighty, the voice of speech, as the noise of an host …” (1:24). Again here the voice of God the Almighty is compared to the noise of waters. John in Revelation 1:15 describes the One who stood before him, saying in part, “And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters.” The voice John heard as Jesus spoke in all his glory was not to be compared with that of the meek and quiet Jesus whom John knew as a daily companion earlier in his life. John’s description of the voice of the glorified Lord in all his power is the same as Ezekiel’s: it was like the sound of powerful waters, the kind of sound that permeates the whole atmosphere, shuts out other things, penetrates and awakens.
Come now to David’s description of the voice of the Lord in Psalm 29:3–9. “The voice of the LORD is upon the waters: the God of glory thundereth: the LORD is upon many waters. The voice of the LORD is powerful; the voice of the LORD is full of majesty. The voice of the LORD breaketh the cedars; yea, the LORD breaketh the cedars of Lebanon.… The voice of the LORD divideth the flames of fire. The voice of the LORD shaketh the wilderness; the LORD shaketh the winderness of Kadesh. The voice of the LORD maketh the hinds to calve, and discovered the forests: and in his temple doth every one speak of his glory.” Not only is the sound a sound of power, as God speaks, but results take place that no man can accomplish with his finite voice.
The voice of God is unique in the universe. When Jesus spoke in his voice, which had not yet the sound John was later to hear, the winds and the waves obeyed him. The sea suddenly became calm, so that the disciples not only might be safe from the danger of drowning but might have demonstrated to them very vividly the powerful results of Jesus’ voice. The sounds of wind-blown rain, seas raging in storms, tidal waves sweeping houses into rubble, waters unleashed from too frail dams, remind us of the sound of God’s voice. And they remind us also that his voice can change things that man can do nothing about. The results of God’s voice speaking in authority are awesome.
Although both Ezekiel and John were overcome by the awesome sound of power when they heard the Lord’s voice, they were able to report what the Lord said. In Ezekiel 43 we are told in verse 6, “And I heard him speaking unto me …,” and in the next verse, “And he said unto me.…” The content is full of very clear warning and judgment of the sin of turning away from God, of commiting spiritual adultery by following false gods and false teaching. There is the warning followed by a promise: “Now let them put away their whoredom … and I will dwell in the midst of them forever.”
The powerful voice of God warns of judgment, and the same voice expresses his compassion for those who come back to him in his given way. We are to listen with the same intensity of awe we feel when we observe the power of water. His spoken truth is not for us to judge or edit; we are to listen, absorb, understand, and bow.
What is it John heard said by the voice that sounded to him as the sound of many waters? “Fear not: I am the first and the last: I am he that liveth, and was dead; and behold I am alive forevermore, Amen; and have the keys of death and hades.” That same voice speaks on in chapters that follow with strong messages to the seven churches, and to us. “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God” (Rev. 2:7). “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna …” (2:17). In chapter three the voice should penetrate any who have “an ear” with which to hear: “Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked; I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed.… Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me” (Rev. 3:17, 18, 20).
The voice of God speaks with power and with clarity. In Revelation 12:11 the “overcomers” throughout the centuries are described, those who have listened to the voice of God in his written and preserved word and have followed what God has said: “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.”
