This month features excerpts from an article in the June 25, 1981, issue of the Adventist Review, in which L. Jean Sheldon wrestles with the apparent silence of God and how we can have confidence in God’s love even in the midst of the storms of life.
Nothing is more frustrating than to talk to someone who never responds.1 Silence from God is even harder to accept. . . . Silence is usually an indication of an I-don’t-care attitude, and certainly God cares.
Yet there are times when God seems silent. Maybe it is at night when you lie in bed looking up into the darkness, struggling to hear something, anything, and all you get is silence. . . . Perhaps you have just received word that someone very close to you has died, and the only response to your prayerful questions is silence.
At such a time it’s tempting to say to God, “Why don’t You answer? Don’t You care?”
But God is not an uncaring Being who lets our prayers get shoved into the third file drawer. . . . He may be silent, but never without a reason.
Why does God sometimes appear to be silent? The answers are many.
1. We need to listen to God. The problem may be that we are not listening, not that God is silent. We may be screaming so loudly at heaven that we have overloaded the communication lines. . . . Through silence He may be inviting us to listen.
Silence may also be God’s way of showing us sins we have hidden even from ourselves. “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened that it cannot save,” wrote Isaiah, “or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you so that he does not hear” (Isa. 59:1, 2, R.S.V.).2
Perhaps we have left His side to walk alone. God will not force Himself on us if we choose not to keep up our relationship with Him. Often He patiently, silently, waits until we discover our separation from Him.
2. Silence strengthens our faith. Job, a man struck by terrible tragedy, discovered this. Often he felt God’s silence so intensely that it seemed to him that God was unconcerned. “I cry to thee,” he prayed, “and thou dost not answer me; I stand, and thou dost not heed me” (Job 30:20, R.S.V.).
But later, when Job’s faith had been tested fully, God answered him with a revelation of Himself. The silence, though nearly unbearable, had strengthened Job’s faith.
God suffers with us when we suffer and He is silent.
Faith, like taffy, must be stretched in order for it to harden. One of the best faith stretchers is silence. It is in silence that we strain to hear more clearly God’s compassionate voice, His gentle whispers of peace.
Silence also gives us opportunity to think about God and review the evidence that He is trustworthy. . . .
One of the most comforting reasons
3. God is in control. . . . Silence may be evidence that there is no need for God to speak. The situation is in His hands. Even though life may seem to have reached disaster drop-off, all is well with God.
Habakkuk had to learn this lesson of silence. “O Lord,” he cried, “how long shall I cry for help, and thou wilt not hear!” (Hab. 1:2, R.S.V.). The answer? “The Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him” (chap. 2:20, R.S.V.). Or, as a friend of mine put it, “Hush up, Earth! All is well with heaven!”
Later Habakkuk was able to say, Even if everything disappears and there is nothing to eat, “yet I will rejoice in the Lord” (chap. 3:18, R. S. V.).
4. We would misunderstand. Just before His death Jesus was faced with the dilemma of how much to tell His disciples about His sufferings on the cross. He had much to tell them, He said, but they could not endure it yet.
Sometimes God would like to show us what is really happening or why events occur, but if He did we would not comprehend His purpose. In order to keep us from misunderstanding Him or even rejecting Him, He has to wait for us until we are ready and can understand. In some cases we may not understand until we reach heaven.
Like an artist, God cannot paint the entire picture of our lives at once. Sometimes He must shade in a darker part, one that looks ugly and perplexing. But later He may splash His brush across the darkness with gold to let it radiate His glory.
5. Silence indicates that God suffers too. Sometimes there is a reason for silence beyond God’s personal will.
As in the story of Job, Satan may be saying to God, “You’ve got to let me see whether he really thinks You’re worth his trust when everything goes wrong.” So God waits, all the while suffering with the individual.
How His Father’s heart must have been wrung in anguish when, in the silent darkness of Calvary, Jesus cried, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matt. 27:46, R.S.V.). How He must have longed to say something comforting to His own Son!
But Jesus’ faith that His Father’s silence was not a sign of unconcern should give us courage. God suffers with us when we suffer and He is silent. Even when He is silent because we are not listening, He is full of pity for us when we cry, “Oh, God, where are You now?”
He is never far away. Silence is His gracious way of giving us new opportunities to check out our lives to see whether they are connected to His. It is our chance to show those around us that we still trust Him, believing that He is in control and that someday we will understand.
And, while waiting for Him to answer, perhaps we can look up through the night into His face and see the tears in His eyes, knowing that He too suffers with us in silence.
1 L. Jean Sheldon, “When God Is Silent: While we wait for God to answer, we can look up through the night and see the tears in His eyes,” Adventist Review, June 25, 1981, pp. 4, 5.
2 Bible texts credited to R.S.V. are from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1946, 1952, 1971, by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Used by permission.