within a personal relationship. And this personal relationship in which God’s speaking occurs is always in the bounds of a covenant community. God is in charge of the speaking, of the persons who are addressed, and of their covenant relationship to Him and to one another within the wider creation. The Sovereign God chooses to speak to those whom He has made for relationship with Him in what must be termed a gracious community context, or Covenant of Grace. Even prior to and apart from the fall of