TADB 118: Discovering God in the Silence

Talk is silver; silence is golden ¹

Walking through the spiritual landscape of silence can be frustrating and confusing—anything but golden.  In this landscape, God does not seem to be listening or responding.  There is no fresh word from God.  He doesn’t speak to our hearts through His Word; His Spirit is mute.  Scripture seems like an ordinary textbook; we read it, but the words are just ink on paper.  Facing adversity, we pray earnestly, but God doesn’t answer.

The Psalmist was in the landscape of silence when he wrote, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?  Why are you so far away when I groan for help?  Every day I call to you, my God, but you do not answer.  Every night I lift my voice, but I find no relief” (Psalm 22:1-2).

We can incorrectly interpret this kind of silence as either God is indifferent or we haven’t earned enough credit to deserve an answer.  However, rather than doubting God’s goodness and grace, we should consider why God seems silent.

In the landscape of silence, there are two possibilities:

1. God seems to be silent, but he is not.
2. God seems to be silent, and he is.

We will briefly examine each one to discover how to respond.  Like our other landscapes, this one provides a unique opportunity to discover God in his various expressions. 

God seems to be silent, but he is not.

In this terrain, God is speaking, but we are not listening or hearing.  Jesus often told his audience, “He who has ears, let him hear.”  It sounds like a grade school teacher saying to her class, “Listen up!”  There are several reasons we do not hear God when he is speaking.

• We are listening from the wrong “deck.”

We are listening from the deck of a cruise ship rather than a battleship.  We are listening for the call to dinner rather than to our battle stations.  We do not hear his voice for the same reason Evangelist Billy Sunday said a criminal can’t find a policeman–he’s not looking.  Our self-focused agenda results in a deaf ear to God.

• We are asking the wrong questions. 

We are asking God why questions rather than what and how.  The why question is a strategic one, the kind of question an AWAC (Airborne Warning and Control System), flying at 30,000 feet, is equipped to answer.  What and how questions, however, are tactical.  They are the questions an A-10 Warthog pilot, flying below 1,000 feet in support of ground troops, would ask.  The A-10 pilot does not need nor have time for AWAC-type questions.  His job is to follow directions, not question them.  In the Old Testament, Job was like an A-10 pilot asking AWAC questions.  God reminded him that he was asking the wrong question.

We also need to remember that God has already spoken and answered our why questions.  God’s why answers involve:

• Our good:  His image-bearers transformed (Romans 8:28-29).
• His glory:  His name proclaimed in all its expressions (Hab. 2:14)
• His kingdom:  His kingdom expanded into every nation (Matthew 28:19-20).

• We are tuned into the wrong frequency. 

We may need to increase our bandwidth to where we can hear God speak.  Unquestionably, Scripture is our primary frequency, but he can use other means to complement what he has revealed in his Word.  God did use a donkey once to speak to a prophet, King David had Nathan, and Israel had their exile into Babylon.

At times, he may speak through the frequencies of a friend, the message of a song, circumstances, or the voice of the Holy Spirit to our conscience.  However the message, it will never contradict Scripture.

• We have too much background noise. 

We need to rediscover silence and solitude.  We are bombarded all day with competing voices with escalating volume.  Elijah expected to hear God speak in the storm, earthquake, and fire; instead, it was a gentle and quiet voice (1 Kings 19:12).  We need to make room in our lives and hearts for that same quiet voice.

God seems to be silent, and he is.

This is the second terrain in our landscape of silence.  We feel like Job when he says, “I shout for help, God, and get nothing, no answer!  I stand to face you in protest, and you give me a blank stare!” (Job 30:20 Msg).  For Job, it took 37 chapters before God spoke.  For Israel, there were 400 years between the last Old Testament prophets and God finally speaking to Zacharias, the priest.

There are several possible reasons why God is silent.

• He is testing, enlarging, and strengthening our faith.

Mary and Martha felt God’s silence when their brother, Lazarus, was dying.  They sent word to Jesus, fully expecting him to come and heal their brother.  After all, Jesus had healed a Gentile Centurian slave by just speaking a word.  Surely, for a friend, Jesus would come and answer their prayer.  Jesus responded to their request with delay and silence, resulting in their brother’s death. 

Jesus explained, “Lazarus’s sickness will not end in death.  No, it happened for the glory of God so that the Son of God will receive glory from this” (John 11:4).  In other words, the silence of Jesus would result in the sisters experiencing the glory of Christ in a whole new way.  They were looking for healing, but Jesus gave them a resurrection.  The delay also provided the platform for Christ to declare, “I am the resurrection and the life.”

The lesson is:  In our silence, we should not assume God is putting a period (.) where he intends an ellipsis (…) (to be continued).  The last verse of the Old Testament says, “Look, I am sending you the prophet Elijah before the great and dreadful day of the LORD arrives.  His preaching will turn the hearts of fathers to their children, and the hearts of children to their fathers” (Malachi 4:5-6).

Four hundred years later, God picks up the same theme in his promise of a son to Zacharias, the priest.  “He will be a man with the spirit and power of Elijah.  He will prepare the people for the coming of the Lord.  He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children” (Luke 1:17).  Four hundred years of silence and God picks up his theme right where he left off.   

We should not assume when God is silent, he is not working (Isaiah 64:4).  His silence doesn’t mean the end of the story, but rather it is “to be continued.”

• He is expressing his intimacy.

Deep friendships contain times of silence; presence is enough.  I remember vividly an evening when my wife and I sat on a deserted beach on the island of Kaui, Hawaii, watching the sunset as it reflected off the ocean.  At that moment, speech seemed not only unnecessary but irreverent.  We were two friends sitting in silence, celebrating 25 years of marriage, each reflecting on the various landscapes we had shared.  Silence was golden.  We just enjoyed each other’s company.

Oswald Chambers suggests a similar experience when God seems silent.  He says, “When you cannot hear God, you will find that He has trusted you in the most intimate way possible — with absolute silence, not a silence of despair, but one of pleasure, because He saw that you could withstand an even bigger revelation” (“My Utmost For His Highest”).

Responding when experiencing the landscape of silence

1. Add solitude to reduce background noise.  Allow God to speak in his still, quiet voice.
2. Remember what God has done in the past.  He has already spoken.  What did he say?
3. Wait with anticipation.  Don’t assume a period when God intends an ellipse.
4. Continue with spiritual disciplines even if they seem “dry.”  Remember, to retreat from contact with the Holy Spirit through God’s Word leaves us vulnerable, isolated, and unprotected.
5. Pray Scripture (Psalm 28:1).

¹ Attributed to Thomas Carlyle

For Reflection

1.  Remember a time in your life when you felt a “to be continued/ellipsis” moment.  How did the narrative continue?

2. Describe a time when God spoke to you on a different frequency than you expected.