The Voice of The Spirit

Witness To The Great Acts Of God

The Scriptures are a kind of a heroic epic poem, in which the great acts of God related to the plan of salvation are intermingled with human history. In describing those events, the divine and human instruments are combined. God inspires the prophet to participate in the history of the plan of redemption, and then supplies, through visions and dreams, the information the prophet lacks. When the chosen messenger is part of the historical events, the Spirit inspires and encourages him to relate his eyewitness testimony. VOTS 58.1

Moses is a classic Old Testament example. For the most part, the books of the Pentateuch—the first five books of the Bible—describe human history. Nevertheless, it is history that relates the great acts of God. Moses, of course, needed special revelation to write the first chapters of Genesis dealing with the creation of the earth and of humanity. Those who attempt to find a human explanation for divine inspiration conclude that the biblical authors depended on other sources such as oral traditions, legends, or theories popular in their times. If, however, Moses depended on the common traditions or theories of his day about these origins, then the story of Creation would have been very different. It is true that the leader of Israel could have received certain oral traditions passed down from generation to generation from his Hebrew ancestors, starting with Adam himself. On the other hand, the attention and dedication to detail that the Lord revealed to His servant in matters such as the construction of the tabernacle, or the dietary and sanitary laws, assure us that God must have wanted the history of Creation recorded in the most perfect and detailed way. It is possible that some day modern science will verify and accept the biblical account and discard evolutionary theories. But even if that does not happen, we may be assured that the redeemed will be able to affirm the truthfulness of the first chapters of Genesis. That story is a prophetic revelation, and the prophetic word is “more certain” (2 Peter 1:19) than any other source of human knowledge, simply because it originates from divine knowledge. VOTS 58.2

The book of Exodus is a different matter. There the inspirational “model” is different. Moses did not need visions and dreams to relate the history of the Exodus. He himself was part of it. In this case, God inspired the prophet and leader of Israel to relate his own eyewitness account. Nevertheless, this personal testimony is also unique, because the description of historical events is consistently intertwined with divine intervention. That intervention is sometimes a direct presence, sometimes a voice that directs and commands, at other times a symbolic presence, such as the cloud by day or the pillar of fire by night. Moses’ eyewitness account combines with divine intervention to make this a unique type of history, because it is the history of the saving acts of God. VOTS 59.1

The books of Moses are not an exception in the Old Testament. Several others, such as Joshua, Ezra, and Nehemiah, come down to us as result of the personal testimony of their authors. Other prophets, such as Isaiah, Jeremiah, or Daniel, combine their personal experiences with the visions revealed to them by the Spirit. VOTS 59.2