Q&A: God Talking

Question

Could you please tell me who God talks to in the Old Testament? Does he talk to anyone face to face?

Answer

God talked to quite a number of people in the Old Testament. Most of those to whom God spoke were prophets, such as the writers of the Old Testament books of prophecy (they generally say something like "the Word of the Lord came toà"), Moses, Samuel, Elijah, Elisha, and a number of others. God also spoke to many of the patriarchs, such as Abraham (Gen. 12-22) and Jacob (Gen. 28 [in a dream]; 31), as well as to many ancient saints like Adam (Gen. 3), Noah (Gen. 6-9), and perhaps Enoch (Gen. 5). He even spoke to some evil people, like Cain (Gen. 4) and Balaam (Num. 22), and to some who were not favored within his covenant, like Hagar (Gen. 16).

We do not know precisely how many people he spoke to face-to-face, as the Bible is not always explicit regarding this detail. We do know he spoke some people this way, such as Abraham (Gen. 17), Jacob (Gen. 32:30), Moses (Exod. 33:11; 34:10), arguably the entire nation of Israel at one point (Deut. 5:4), and Isaiah (Isa. 6).