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It may strengthen our grasp of this important fact if we survey the evidence of
Scripture and consider the many claims it contains to divine authorship. First let us
collect some of the passages where Scripture declares that the Lord hath spoken:--
"And God spake unto Noah" (Gen. 8: 15).
"And the Lord talked with Moses" (Exod. 33: 9).
"And God spake all these words" (Exod. 20: 1).
"Speak unto the children of Israel" (Lev. 1: 2).
This is the recurring burden of the books of Moses, and not only of the books
of Moses, but of all the O.T. Scriptures. "The mouth of the Lord hath spoken it"
(Micah 4: 4; Jer. 9: 12) is the recurring statement of the prophets. "Hear the word of
the Lord" is the way in which many prophecies are introduced (Isa. 28: 14, Jer. 10: 1).
Again and again we read that "the word of the Lord came" to the prophets:--
"The word of the Lord came to Nathan" (II Sam. 7: 4).
"The word of the Lord came to Shemaiah" (I Kings 12: 22).
"The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord" (Jer. 11: 1).
Then we have more specific statements, like the following:--
"Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say"
(Exod. 4: 12).
"With him will I speak mouth to mouth" (Numb. 12: 8).
"The Lord put a word in Balaam's mouth" (Numb. 23: 5).
"That the word of the Lord, spoken by the mouth of Jeremiah, might be
accomplished" (II Chron. 36: 22).
"I have put my words in thy mouth" (Isa. 51: 16).
"The Lord said unto me, Behold, I have put My words in thy mouth" (Jer. 1: 9).
The testimony of Peter, recorded in the Acts, is very emphatic on this point:--
"This scripture must needs have been fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost, by the mouth of
David, spake before concerning Judas" (Acts 1: 16).
Here we have reference to a Psalm in which David records in the first instance his
own sorrows and afflictions; yet is the writer so under the control of the Holy Ghost that
what he writes is "Scripture", words "which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David"
indicted. This is no isolated instance. What is true here of David is also true of all the
prophets:--
"But those things which God before had shewed by the mouth of all His prophets, that
Christ should suffer, He hath so fulfilled" (Acts 3: 18).
"The time of restitution of all things which God hath spoken by the mouth of all His
holy prophets since the world began" (Acts 3: 21).
It is evident from this testimony that, whoever the individual speaker may have been,
the mighty Moses, or the lowly Amos, the royal seer, or the runaway Jonah, the ungodly
Balaam, or the wicked Caiaphas, it was God Who spoke and it is His word that we hear.