The Inflection of God’s voice

When God confronts you over sin, what tone of voice do you hear?  Sometimes, we hear the voice our parents used when we were in trouble as kids.  It uses our middle names and has that rising, questioning tone.  Maybe it’s shouting.  Maybe it’s an ominous whisper.  Or just silence. 

The first time God confronts sin in the Bible, he uses a question. “Who told you that you were naked?”  (Genesis 3:11 NLT) I hear accusation in the tone of voice.  It has exultation too because he has just caught them in the act.  It’s an “Ah hah!”  An “I told you so!”

My heart acutely feels its shame.  It hears the accusation and instinctively grovels.  Maybe if I beat myself, no one else needs to do it.  If I berate and shame myself, then no one else needs to know and God can see how sorry I am.  I have learned my lesson and don’t need more correction.  Maybe God will only scold me and not give me the full measure of punishment.

After awhile, I learned to dread being in God’s presence.  It’s painful and only serves to remind me of my shame and imperfection.  I felt that I needed to crawl into his presence and show him all my self-inflicted wounds to prove I was already amputating the sin.  But, I also needed to open myself up for examination to see if I’d missed anything first. 

Eventually, I hid like Adam and Eve did. 

But this is not God’s voice and it is a very distorted version of his attitude towards us. 

That god had no remedy for the shame and guilt.  But, if you are anything like me, this is often the god we bow before.  The shame of true sin and the voices of others combine on our backs and heads and bow us low.  We name ourselves bad, ugly, unloveable and we hide our name tag under jackets of achievement, victimhood, education, pleasure, and anything that might help us forget our names.

However, God gently walks into our lives and says, “Where are you?”

I still struggle with God’s tone in answering Adam’s reply, “I’m hiding.” But, I know God was inviting them to exit their hiding spot, shed their layers of fig leaves and find love that erases shame.  Love that erases shame can only be found where we know we are seen for who we are and still loved.  Though consequences come, we have met acceptance and help.  And not the help that simply shakes its head in pity, shrugs, and writes an extra credit assignment.  Help that loves truly and never leaves you. 

If that is what greets us at the door and takes our jackets, not the forced confession and punishment, then we will race each other to the entrance.  God will whisper our true, glorious names into our ears as he warmly embraces us.  We will gladly dump our jackets and peel off the sticky, stupid name tags to feel the warmth of his presence more closely.  The entrance is open to us because Jesus took our sin and shame and paid for it all.

If you find yourself hearing accusation and exultation in the voice of God, maybe you are hearing from the same god I was.  He is no god at all.  Run with me into the real God’s presence to hear his voice full of love and freedom.