IN THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE BIBLE LESSON December 28, 2009 Issue

LISTEN TO HIS VOICE

ANN EDWARDS

THIS WEEK'S CHRISTIAN SCIENCE BIBLE LESSON, titled "God," brings out the wonderful truth that God is continuously voicing His instruction, guidance, and healing truth to His beloved creation.

The Golden Text and Responsive Reading describe God's voice as "full of majesty" and "powerful" (Ps. 29:4), and His voice rings through every section. The Psalmist saw creation as a response to the voice of God, declaring that God "spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast" (Ps. 33:9, citation 23). The book of Job tells us that "God thundereth marvellously with his voice" (37:5, cit. 20). The Revelator heard the voice of God "as of a trumpet" (cit. 21). And the citations from Science and Health echo this theme: "The Soul-inspired patriarchs heard the voice of Truth, and talked with God as consciously as man talks with man" (p. 308, cit. 1).

Mary Baker Eddy saw spiritual understanding—not the five material senses—as the means by which we hear God speaking to us: "Divine Science reveals sound as communicated through the senses of Soul—through spiritual understanding" (p. 213, cit. 2). And it was through spiritual sense that Abraham, in his 99th year, heard the voice of God commanding him to walk before Him, and to be "perfect" (see Gen. 17:1, cit. 3). He also heard God's promise that He would establish a covenant with Abraham and subsequent generations.