God’s Silence………..

“Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.”   I Cor. 13:12  NLT

As a disciple of Jesus Christ I must learn to understand God’s silence.

One of the features in the book of Job was God’s silence towards him, though He was not silent to Satan, and though Job’s friends were not silent to him.  With all the speech making, God did not enter into dialogue with Job until the end of the book, chapter 38, and even then He did not explain why He led Job through the valley of humiliation.

In Job’s case, his knowledge of God’s will was delayed and indirect.  That is the way God usually deals with us.   Even Jesus was not given full and perfect knowledge of the Father’s plans (Matt. 24:36).  

One of God’s ways is to let circumstances tell us the tale.   That is why Job had no conception of God’s plan until he looked back on his path.

Jesus said to His disciples, “What I am doing you do not now understand, but you shall understand afterward” (John 13:7).

When God is silent toward me, it means I am walking “blindly”.  That means I must trust Him implicitly, otherwise I will lose my way.

The life of faith would end completely if God explained His every move to us.   The natural man lives by reason, so he demands an explanation for everything.   But the spiritual man lives by faith and he reserves God’s right to be silent, because he has implicit faith in God’s honesty and integrity.

“Someday we’ll understand….” goes the hymn and it is true.   But the someday need not be in heaven.

“Afterward” for the disciples was Pentecost.

“Afterward” for you and me may be tomorrow, or the next startling event in our lives.

“For He knows the way I take; when He has tried me [through dark, unseeing paths], I shall come forth as gold.”  Job 23:10