Can you think of a mystery about God’s ways? One mystery I can find is why are there times when God is silent—at least it seems that way. I was mystified when I knew thousands of righteous people prayed for Connie’s healing. Yet, He remained silent for no reason known to us. All I could do was to speculate about His reason for being silent. God was silent for about 400 years before He sent Jesus to be born on earth. Again, all we can do is speculate based on all He inspired to be written about Him, His words and ways before and after His time of silence. Hopefully, you can relate to these mysterious ways of God.
I suspect He is especially interested in how we respond to His silence or inactivity. Do we turn to our logic, or do we simply leave such mysteries as such and let them help us understand that our trust in Him cannot be based on our logic? It can only be based on who He says He is. He does tell us My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts, says the LORD. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9, NLT2). This forces us to decide whether we will humbly accept that we are human, and He alone is a sovereign God. I, for one, have found great security and sustainable peace when I rest on Him being far wiser than humans and can therefore know and do what only a God is capable of. Perhaps it might be like insects or animals being forced to accept the fact they are not human.
One Bible clue that can relate to this mystery came during one of the times the Jews were in one of their chronic spiritual lows. Isaiah writes in chapter 28 how the priests and prophets had succumbed to the ways of their culture and become alcoholics. It was so repulsive their tables were filled with their vomit. They responded to Isaiah’s warning by arrogantly defending their culturally accepted condition. In this depraved context, Isaiah was inspired to write a couple of profoundly insightful things about God’s values and ways. For the LORD has poured out upon you a spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes (the prophets), and covered your heads (the seers) (Isaiah 29:10, ESV).
To see what this deep sleep may look like, Jesus explained, this is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. Indeed, in their case the prophecy of Isaiah (Is. 6:9-10) is fulfilled that says: You will indeed hear but never understand, and you will indeed see but never perceive. For this people’s heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them (Matthew 13:13-15, ESV). It was like Jesus (and Isaiah) were saying, ‘ok, since you insist on refusing to listen, you can now have it your way!’ Is that kind of silence sobering or what?
Notice His solution to the problem when His disciple asked Him about why He spoke in parables. (Seeking Him for answers gets His attention!) And when his disciples asked him [to explain the parable] he said, To you [those who seek] it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others they are in parables, so that ‘seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand (Luke 8:9-10, ESV) God gives revelation to those who take time to seriously seek to understand what He says. Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with their whole heart (Psalm 119:2, ESV). He leaves the prideful lethargic to their self-induced blindness. Do you believe God considers you as seeking Him with your whole heart?