GOD'S FINAL WORD

I see a lot of discussion from God in the Old Testament. He speaks to Moses in great detail about the Law and how to build the temple and giving directions about proper worship. He speaks a lot to the prophets on how to correct the wrongs the people are doing and how to make them right. He is very direct and very detailed about what he wants done.

It’s a little different in the New Testament. There are only two times that are recorded that God, the Father speaks. One is when Jesus is baptized recorded in Matthew 3:17, “and behold, a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.’ ” The second is at the transfiguration of Jesus recorded in Matthew 17:5, “and a voice from the cloud said, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”

Throughout the rest of the Gospels Jesus speaks. “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law of the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them" (Matthew 5:17). “‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will I will raise it up.’ The Jews then said, ‘It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you will raise it up in three days?’ But he was speaking about the temple of his body" (John 2:19-21). “But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him…The woman said to him, ‘I know that Messiah is coming, he will tell us all things.’ Jesus said to her, ‘I who speak to you am he" (John 4:23-26).

I tend to pay close attention to final words. It appears that Jesus was God’s first Word, “In the beginning was the Word" (John 1:1), but Jesus is God’s final word as well. “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; LISTEN TO HIM.”