When God Spoke In The Very Best Way

"For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways," declares the Lord. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts." (Isaiah 55:8-9).

Once upon a time, there were a group of goldfish who lived in a bowel. They had lived in the bowel as long as they could remember and none of them had ever left the bowel and come back to tell about what was on the outside.

One day, one goldfish asked another, "What do you think is outside the bowel? This question generated quite a bit of speculation and, after a while, the goldfish came up with several possible answers.

One goldfish maintained that there was nothing outside the goldfish bowel. He maintained that, since he could see nothing in the side of the bowel but his own reflection, it was silly to believe in the existence of anything that could not be seen.

Another goldfish suggested that perhaps the goldfish bowel was surrounded by another goldfish bowel and that this bowel sat inside another bowel which itself was in a bigger bowel. He theorized that there might be an endless succession of goldfish bowels.

A third fish stated that the goldfish bowel must have come into existence just by chance and that it was the result of a "big bang. He described this phenomena in big words so that the other goldfish would be properly impressed.

There was one little goldfish who was dissatisfied with all of the theories of his companions and he decided that the only way to find out what was on the outside the bowel would be to try to leave the bowel. With this in mind, he circled three times and then swam straight up as fast as he could.

The other goldfish watched him as he jumped out through the shimmering surface of the water. They continued to watch, but the little goldfish did not return. After a while, the first goldfish said, "He must have ceased to exist, because we all know that nothing can exist outside the bowel." The second goldfish said, "Oh no, he moved up to a higher plane of existence. He has gone on to that larger bowel. The third goldfish said, "You are both wrong. He has evolved and changed into a new life form." And to this day, the three goldfish still disagree as to what happened to their small companion.

We are not goldfish, but we share a similar characteristic. We all live in a bowel that we could call the Natural Bowel. By this, I mean that we are bounded by time and space. There is a whole world of the supernatural that is unknown to us because we are limited by our natural bodies.

We are unequipped to know anything about God or about angels or about life outside our own physical existence. But we do not have to remain ignorant about these things. God has spoken. He has spoken through prophets and He has spoken through dreams and He has spoken through signs and He has spoken through His written word. Most importantly, He has spoken through His Son. Jesus Christ entered the goldfish bowel by Himself becoming a goldfish.

This is the message of the book of Hebrews. It is that God has made Himself known to man by becoming a man in the person of Jesus.

GOD SPOKE TO THE FATHERS

God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways (Hebrews 1:1).

The writer begins the book of Hebrews in the form of an essay. He skips over the customary salutation and greeting that would be found in an epistle and goes right to the heart of the matter. He is going to talk about the fact that God has spoken.

We could sum up this verse in three points.

There are three major truths which are presented.

1. God Exists.

This is not argued. It is not proven by the author. It is simply taken for granted as an obvious truth. By the way, I did not begin this lesson by trying to prove that I exist. My existence is clearly evident. If I do not exist, then who wrote this paper that you are reading? In the same way, God never sets out to prove His own existence. He takes it for granted.

2. God Has Spoken.

God is on the outside of the goldfish bowel of our physical existence. He cannot be seen by our eyes or measured in a laboratory. He cannot be reproduced in a test tube. This means that, unless He had spoken to us, we could never know Him.

3. God Spoke in many Portions and in many Ways.