Why Doesn't God Still Speak Audibly?

Question: In Exodus 20 we read that God spoke to the people. Why did he speak then but not now?

Answer: Yes, the Lord had laid down his 10-point manifesto for the people verbally – he spoke to the children of Israel. 

God chose the Sinai Desert in the late 1400s BC to proclaim his laws, not only to the Israelites but to all humanity. We can view the people gathered there as witnesses that God chose to relay the 10 laws to the rest of humanity.

The morning that God spoke aloud began with thick cloud, lightening, and thunder, which is not particularly supernatural but alarming. The Israelites were about to have the fear of God put into them a little further by hearing a trumpet sound too. Moses led the people away from the camp towards the foot of the mountain.

The pillar of cloud had started to envelope the whole mountain and smoke like that from a furnace rose from it.

God spoke in a direct manner to the whole community. God’s first communication to the people was to introduce himself, much like people do when first meeting. God had previously introduced himself to Abraham at the city of Ur, and later on Isaac got to know the Lord in Canaan. God also made himself known to Jacob in a dream and Moses in a burning bush, now he made himself known to the people who had come out of Egypt. “I am Yahweh your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery” (Exod 20:2).

God makes this point plainly: it wasn’t lucky chance. It was Yahweh who engineered the process of emancipation for the slaves in Egypt—in case any of them were still wondering!

The Lord God spoke from Mount Sinai, so the people heard a voice but saw no form. The voice caused consternation and alarm among the people who were near to panic, but not unnerved enough to fail to comprehend what the voice was actually saying.

Moses attempted to calm the people.

That morning the Lord spoke briefly and to the point. Ten points actually, in what theologians call the Decalogue or what most people know as the Ten Commandments.

Then the voice from the mountain stopped. The people remained at a distance. After the voice from the mountain had finished speaking, the people had a chance to regain their equilibrium, and they approached Moses.

Hearing Yahweh speak from heaven had been an ordeal for the people—the trauma and trembling they felt from such a numinous experience overcame them—so they requested that Moses speak to them himself rather than having the trauma of hearing God speak to them.

They said to Moses, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die” (Exod 20:19).

Moses knew Yahweh fairly well at this point and was aware that God is love, and would only cause the people consternation for an important reason.

Moses told the people not to be fearful: there was a reason why they were allowed to hear the voice. Moses was also talking to himself, as the people’s leader he needed to muster up his own courage. Exodus 19:16 states that “Everyone in the camp trembled.” That includes Moses too, as he was in the camp. The New Testament picks up on this fact in Hebrews 12:21: “The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, ‘I am trembling with fear.’”

So remembering that the people in the Sinai wilderness were witnesses on our behalf, their request for God not to speak directly was heard by the Lord. And generally speaking, the human race will not hear his voice directly, as they requested. So God spoke through his servant Moses and other prophets.

“On many past occasions and in many different ways, God spoke to our fathers through the prophets” (Heb 1:1).

And let's not forget that "in there last days he has spoken to us by his Son (Heb 1:2).

Some people may be privileged to hear the Lord directly, but even so it may not be easy, “I, Daniel, fainted and was sick for days; afterward I arose and went about the king’s business” (Dan 8:27).