Seeming Silence

And the LORD said: “I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey …” —Exodus 3:7-8a (NKJV)

“I have seen. I have heard. I know. I have come.” Not just months. Not years, but centuries. That’s how long the Israelites had been in Egypt. Centuries of slavery, torture, abuse, need, and calling out to God for deliverance. Centuries of Divine Silence!

This particular cry the Israelites hurled up to God was not just an average half-hearted cry. It wasn’t a rote, traditional prayer. It was a shriek, a scream of desperation. It was the kind of cry that when a mother hears from her child, she drops everything and comes running. I don’t know what the Israelites thought when they were continually met with God’s silence, but one thing I do know is that they kept crying out to Him. And now, unbeknownst to them, the one man who had dared to stand up against their tormentors and had long since fled the country stands before the very Holy God that they had all been crying out to. And he is the first to hear, with his own ears, God’s words:

I might not know exactly what the Israelites thought about God’s seeming silence, but one thing I do know is that they kept crying out to Him. That’s not a bad pattern for us to follow, especially when God seems silent in a particular season of our lives.

We don’t know how God is going to work out all the details of our circumstances or what will come into our lives, but we can know for sure that He does see. He does hear. He does know. Sometimes, the seeming silence is the very thing that helps us see our real need. It helps us come to the end of ourselves to a place of wholly relying on Him. Then, when we send our shriek of pain out to God, He comes running. He will show up. He will be there.

If you do not know Him personally as the Lord and Savior of your life, He will show up when you cry out to Him. If you are already His, He’s right there with you in your crisis, drawing you close. From the moment of salvation, He indwells us through His Spirit. The Spirit comforts and strengthens us in our trials, teaches us, and reminds us of His promises in the midst of our present. He is our rescuer from our past. He is our hope in our tomorrows.

I love You, Lord!

“ … for He Himself has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’”
Hebrews 13:5b NKJV