I must sadly confess that it has been at least forty-four years since I’ve read anything penned by William Shakespeare. But I do remember one famous line embedded in the words of Macbeth:

“And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
the way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle.
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
that struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
and then is heard no more. It is a tale
told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
signifying nothing.”

I think we’d all agree that ours is also a era of such empty “ sound and fury.”

Each day of the week without fail, we are exposed to such vacuous sounds. It is true that our day is a day of many voices and noises that vie for our attention and call for our allegiance. In whatever direction we turn, someone is speaking to us, yelling at us, claiming to be the truth, the authoritative interpreter of ‘the facts,’ and the possessor of life’s ‘secret.’

To whom should we listen? What sound and whose voice should we discover and cherish among all of the countless options?

Well, this is where the author of Hebrews can help us.

In Hebrews 1:1-2, we are told that, amidst all of the meaningless “ sound and fury” of our age, there is but one Voice, one Authority to whom we should give our undivided attention. Here we encounter the twin claims that, “ God spoke,” and that “ He has spoken.”

It was Dr. Raymond Brown, the former principal of Spurgeon’s College in London, who said:

“ The letter to the Hebrews begins by asserting the greatest single fact of the Christian religion: God has spoken to man through His word in the Bible and through His Son, Jesus.”

It is this absolute claim, this sound coming from heaven, and its life-changing implications, that we will prayerfully consider on Sunday.