Trusting In God's Silence

Read: John 11:1-10

Can you believe that? Jesus, knowing about Lazarus being sick, doesn't immediately respond! What kind of God is He? Doesn't He care? I mean, isn't Jesus the one that said, "cast all your care upon Him, for He careth for you?" Didn't Jesus weep as He looked over Jerusalem? Isn't He the one that healed the lame, the blind, and many others? Why wouldn't Jesus immediately head toward Bethany? Or why, didn't He just heal Lazarus from where He was? He did it for the centurion in Matthew 8?

So, why did Jesus stay two more days? Was it because He didn't care? NO! Jesus reminds us of His reason in verse 4: "This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God's glory so that God's Son may be glorified through it" (John 11:4).

Oswald Chambers says this, in regards to this passage: "Has God trusted you with a silence - a silence that is big with meaning? . . . Think of those days of absolute silence in the home at Bethany! Is there anything analogous to those days in your life? . . . His silence is the sign that He is bringing you into a marvellous understanding of Himself. . . . If God has given you a silence, praise Him, He is bringing you into the great run of His purposes."

Even Solomon understood that sometimes there is a need for silence, when he said, "There is . . . a time to be silent" (Eccl. 3:1,7). There are times, in God's sovereignty that silence is necessary for us. The reason we don't like it, is simply because we are not used to silence. We are a people consumed and overwhelmed with noise. Just think about what it is like when there is a "moment of silence" somewhere. What do you usually do after a few seconds? You do what most people do, they start looking around. Why? Because we are uncomfortable with silence.

And yet, within God's plan for our lives are times of silence. Times when trusting in His silence is difficult but necessary.

A.W. Tozer, in his book, In the Pursuit of God, says this about silence: "Whoever will listen will hear the speaking Heaven. This is definitely not the hour when men take kindly to an exhortation to listen, for listening is not today a part of popular religion. We are at the opposite end of the pole from there. Religion has accepted the monstrous heresy that noise, size, activity and bluster make a man dear to God. But we may take heart. To a people caught in the tempest of the last great conflict God says, 'Be still, and know that I am God,' (Psalm 46:10) and still He says it, as if He means to tell us that our strength and safety lie not in noise but in silence."

God wants our activity, but we need His silence!