When God is Silent
July 7th, 2008 by JohnO
The inspiration for this post comes from this article, which I suggest you all read. The basic idea is that God is by definition a God who is not silent. The article supports this contention with the Psalm: “Our God comes, he does not keep silence”. This idea can also be widely supported by the whole Old Testament as compared to the other gods of the nations around them. The priests of the other gods had no revealed law, barely any prophecy either. They would cut open animals and lay out their entrails to receive a sign from their gods. They would cast lots and roll dice. They looked for anything, large or small, to receive a sign as to why there was a famine, or their nations were being conquered, or a drought, or their wives barren. YHWH rather, speaks openly, giving a law and laying our revelation to his prophets.
The author talks particularly about Jesus’ crucifixion, quoting Psalm 22. So the Christian, in their life experience, and in meditating on Christ have to understand what it means.
In the last hundred years the Jewish people particularly have also had to understand what it means when God is silent, particularly with the Holocaust.
After reading the article, have you had times when God is silent? What does it mean to you?
There have been a few times in recent years when God seemed silent to me. More accurately, it was not only that He didn’t SAY anything, but also that He didn’t DO anything. Needs went unmet, and I wracked my brain to figure out what I was doing wrong. In the old days I was taught that if my needs were not met it was because I was not believing.
Then suddenly things came together in ways I never could have imagined, and without me changing anything that I was doing or not doing. This has happened more than once, and I think God allowed me to go through it in order to show me that it has NOTHING to do with what I am doing or not doing, thinking or not thinking. God is in control no matter what I do. It’s all about Him not me. That needs to be my focus.