Deuteronomy 4:12: “And the Lord spake unto you out of the midst of the fire,  you heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude, only you heard a voice.”

My personal definition between a cult leader and a pastor is that  a cult leader will tell you: “You cannot understand this passage of scripture without me. Let  me show you what it means.”   A pastor will say: “You cannot understand this passage without the Holy Spirit, let me pray with you so you will clearly hear His voice.” Of course by my definition practically every church in American would be a cult (except for the church I attend).

We clearly speak of depending upon the Holy Spirit to reveal all truth to us, yet rather than dig into the Word of God ourselves, spend time in meditation and prayer on the Word of God we go to a human teacher or pastor to tell us what the truth is rather than to seek confirmation from this teacher or pastor on what we have learned through our study.

Hearing the voice of God has been a lifelong passion of mine.  I am just never really sure if it is the voice of God I hear or my own imaginations.  As I journey to the heart of God in my Hebraic studies I am learning just how regimented our English translations of the Bible really are and as a result how some important knowledge can be hidden from us simply because our English translations lack the flexibility that is inherit in the Hebrew Language. Deuteronomy 4:12 is one such example.

We have the passage: “And the Lord spoke unto you out of the midst of the fire.” The word in Hebrew for fire that is used here is ha’ash.   This comes from the standard root word for fire esh with the article Hei added and a Bible translator will never give it a second thought.  That is, unless, that translator is really searching for the heart of God and seeking to hear His voice.   You see ha’ash could also be an interrogative or an adverb.  Ok now I know the English syntax would not call for an interrogative or an adverb and my former Hebrew professors would throw salt in the air over such a suggestion, but I met some good orthodox rabbis who would wink and say: “Go for it.”

If I were to do such an unchristian but Jewish thing I would have: “And the Lord spoke to you out of the midst of what is it?”   Or I could say: “And the Lord spoke to you out of the midst of there is or there exist.”   I know it sounds awkward in English, but it is really very poetic in Hebrew.   Let’s put this in context with the rest of the verse.”  “You heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude,  only your heard a voice.”   There is a couple interesting things here in the Hebrew.  First the word similitude is mavan which means form or fashion.  Actually specifically it is speaking of something substantial, natural, something that you can see, feel, hear, taste and touch.   Take a close look at this phrase: the voice of the words or the qol of the devar. Qol can be  rendered as voice or sound and devar is a reference to words from the Heart of  God.   Then the passage says a very strange thing: only you heard a voice.  The word for hear is not shama which is your standard word for hearing a sound, but it is the word ra’ah which is the word for seeing.  How can you see as sound?  This word ra’ah can also mean a spiritual sight.  This could be a dream or vision.

Here is the thing that gets me.  The word spake is at the beginning of this verse is devar. When used with God it is a reference to words flowing from the heart of God.  I could render this verse as: “The power from the heart of God flows from something not seen, felt, heard, tasted  or touched and then you saw this power.  Yet, The word devar is in an imperfect form and should be rendered: “The power from the heart of God is continually flowing but you cannot see it, feel it, touch it, taste it or hear it, but you know it is the power of God.”

I know I am not walking in lock step with mainstream Christianity with this rendering, but this verse means nothing to me from the way it is normally rendered as I have never heard a voice from the midst of fire nor have I met any other Christian who has.   Yet, every Christian I met will say that they have experienced the voice of God.  It was mavan or had no substance that you could  experience  with your five senses, but yet, you knew it was the voice of God because he demonstrated it..   That I can relate to.  God speaks no different to us today than he did back in the days of Israel.

Yet, like the people of Israel, God was ready to speak to them personally, but they said: “Moses you go and tell us what God says.”   God will speak to us personally.  We don’t need our pastors, teachers or friends to tell us what God is saying, we only need them to confirm it for us. The Bible is a love letter to us from God.  If a young woman receives a love letter from her boyfriend, she does not need to run to some handwriting expert or professional psychologist to interpret that letter for her, she is quite content to ponder those words in her own heart and let her heart interpret those words. When God speaks to us from His heart (debar) we must understand with our hearts.