What Will You Miss?

“What will you miss if you don’t encounter God in all the ways he chooses to reveal himself?”

Turning of Days p. 9

God’s revelation of Himself is both specific and general. There have been times in the past (and some will say still today) when God did something unique (like the burning bush) or relegated certain forms of communication to certain time periods (like the Urim and Thummim) to reveal himself to certain individuals or people. The debate of whether things like these continue today is not the focus of these musings. But these revelations in the past to Moses or to the nation of Israel as a whole, I’m calling specific, unique revelations. This is not to be confused with the specific revelation of the Word of God—what we call the 66 books of the Bible. In addition, God uses general revelation: how God has chosen to reveal himself to all mankind and that is accessible to all mankind through God’s creation.

Now, we can’t say we’ve missed something if God chooses not to reveal himself in that way to us—say in a burning bush. We can say—must say—we’ve missed something if we have not been exposed to his word or fail to pay attention to his creation. Both word and creation can speak of the same things; though, they may do so in different ways. But just because there are similarities, does not mean we can get by with only one. We cannot say, “I’m good with seeing God’s creative care of me as I view nature and therefore I don’t need to read his word.” Nor can we say, “I don’t need creation at all; I don’t need to pay attention to how God has made his world as I have all I need in the Bible.”