HEBREW WORD STUDY – SEEING VOICES – RAIM ETH EQULOTH  ראימ את הקולת

Exodus 20:18: “And all the people were seeing the thunder voices and the torches and the voice of the shofar and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled and stood at a distance.”

This verse presents a very obvious question, how could people see the thundering voices? Many translations will simply render this as “thunder and lightning.”   Still you can not get away from the fact that the words here are raim eth equloth which literally means see the voices.  Jewish sages teach that this is expressing a sensory experience beyond the normal division of the five senses. It is an overflow of experience that superactivates all the senses merging them together.  In this case you are actually seeing a sound. Your eyes are hearing and your ears are seeing.   Then there was the sound of the shofar and the people yarah (saw) the sound of the shofar.  How can someone see the sound of the shofar?  One thing to note is that yarah can mean both physical seeing and spiritual seeing.  

What is most likely happening here is that the people were seeing into the invisible, supernatural realm .  Their five senses were merged into one super sense. Another way of expressing this is that you are seeing, hearing, and speaking with your heart.  It is how Elijah communicated with the bears in the woods II Kings 2:24 and how Daniel communicated with the lions in the lion’s den.  Your heart is so joined with the heart of God that all others who are joined with the heart of God can see, hear and speak with their hearts through God so that others know our heart like God knows it. Pretty heady stuff if you think about it and it is something you don’t care to mess with unless you really have a pure heart.  We are not afraid of God knowing our hearts as we are pretty sure He is not going to appear and reveal its contents to everyone.  But if your pastor joins his heart with God as you join yours with God and He sees your heart like God sees your heart, he might not be as tight lipped as God would be about it. Fortunately, our hearts will never reach such a pure state in the flesh (or could it?).

You know, sometimes I think I am really getting close to the heart of God.  But then I think, “Oh my gosh, what if God repeats the Exodus 20:18 experience at the next church service or even my next class.  Am I that sanctified in my thoughts and motives that I would not mind who knew my heart?   If not, is my heart really one with God’s heart?  If my heart and motives were one with God’s heart and motives I could easily say: “Let the cloud descend for all to know my heart and motives.”  But if I am hiding something unclean in my heart, I wouldn’t mind that cloud as long as it was a feel good cloud of God’s presence.  But if it was the Exodus 20:18 cloud where everyone could see a voice would most likely make a quick exit.

Hey, I am not saying this is really the case and this is really the reason the people feared the cloud, this is all speculation.  All I am saying is, “What if…”