Symphony

DAILY BYTE

If you had to compose a symphony based on the salvation story (as it is recorded in Scripture), you probably would have to begin with the most beautiful, soul-stirring and life-giving notes that you could find. This would describe God’s act of creation ... God singing, harmonising and bringing everything into being.

However, after the Fall of Adam and Eve described in Genesis 3, there would have been a sudden change in our symphony to discordant, jarring notes – something almost heavy-metal in tone. This would well symbolise the chaos that ensued as a result of Adam and Eve’s disobedience.

The third part of the symphony would have brought another drastic change. This time there would have been silence. Not outright silence but something so soft that it would have been on the edge of hearing that you would have to strain to hear it.

This is because the third part of the salvation story represents calling, and at its very heart, calling is about listening. We have many misconceptions and misunderstandings about calling and what it means for us, so if you are going to remember anything – let it be this – that calling is about listening.

In fact, if you look at the stories of chaos found in the book of Genesis between chapters 3-11 (the heavy metal part of our symphony), you will find that central to them is the failure to listen and the result is a falling out of harmony with God’s creative and redemptive music.

Adam and Eve did not really listen to what God had to say about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Cain killed Abel because he failed to truly listen to what God had to say about his worship offerings. In Noah’s time, a flood wiped out humanity because they stopped listening to God and instead were doing evil.

Even the Tower of Babel story is about a people who once shared a common language, but then lost the ability to hear and understand each other because of their pride, arrogance and selfishness.

It is then our salvation symphony takes its shift. Genesis 12 is about the first time God called people to begin doing something about the chaos. It is a faint song that you will really have to stop and listen for carefully before you will be able to hear it at all.

Calling is listening! This monumental shift in the symphony, the salvation story, begins with, “the Lord said to Abram” (Genesis 12. 1), but it would also have ended right there if Abram had not stopped to listen.

Calling is listening – without that none of us will have a beginning in God.

PRAY AS YOU GO

Almighty God, help me to hear you today – give me the strength and discipline I need to put aside everything that weighs me down and dominates my thoughts, and allow me to simply listen for your voice. Not only today, but may this become a constant discipline of my life. Amen.

FOCUS VERSE

Genesis 12: 1-2

Now the LORD said to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.