The Silent Treatment
We all yearn for moments of blissful silence, those times we can shut out the world and its cares: Sitting on the back porch sipping on a glass of iced tea, a light breeze tickling our cheeks, watching the orange-red glow of the sun as it dips slowly below the horizon; relaxing next to a gently flowing stream listening to its laughter, the cool wind floating lazily past us, wrapping us in its refreshing hug; a few quiet minutes alongside a crackling fire, sipping a cup of hot chocolate, mesmerized by the butterfly-like motion of gently falling snowflakes. Ah, yes. Precious, glorious moments of silence.
Not all silence is golden, however. If you are a parent, you know that there are times when you don’t hear your children it puts you on alert. Are they doing something they shouldn’t? Are they ok?
Silence can be a way for us to “recharge our batteries” or it can heighten our senses. It can also be frustrating if we are awaiting to hear from someone. For anyone who has turned in a job application or resume to a prospective employer, silence can be agonizing. “When will I hear back? Do I have the job?” Or, for the men out there who know this feeling: the SILENCE between the “Will you marry me?” and the hoped-for “Yes” can be agonizingly and excruciatingly loooong!
There is a story captured in the book of Ezekiel that illuminates the importance of silence regarding our growth and maturity in our walk with God. It is found in Ezekiel 12. God used Ezekiel to bring some very hard-hitting and sobering messages to the nation of Israel. Oftentimes, God used Ezekiel as a living object lesson. This story is one of those occasions.
You can read it on your own if you’re curious, but a quick synopsis is that God told Ezekiel to do something that didn’t seem to make sense. What he was asked to do amounted to what would appear to be nothing more than outdoor theater. Most of us would ask the big question before we agreed to the task…WHY??? But not so with Ezekiel. Carefully observe what it says in 12:7, “And I did what I was commanded.”
Part of the story is that Ezekiel was asked to dig a hole in the wall and haul his luggage through it. After digging the hole in the wall, he apparently spent the night there. There is no mention that he and God discussed what he was going to do or what was going to happen. A night with no further instruction or illumination. A night of silence. He might have thought, “Did I really hear God to tell me to do this? What was the purpose? All I see is a hole in the wall. I’ve got my bags packed with nowhere to go. I’ve done what was asked. NOW WHAT?”
It may have been a long night for the prophet of God. He may have finally laid his head down and gone to sleep. Scripture doesn’t tell us the details, but we can ponder for ourselves: Did he wonder what the next step would be? Did he wonder if there was going to BE a next step? Did he finally drift off to sleep out of sheer exhaustion or did he sleep soundly, knowing he had obeyed God’s instructions and that is all that mattered?
No matter what happened during the night, what is important, and crucial to this story is what happened in the morning. It was after a night of silence that God once again spoke to Ezekiel: “In the morning the word of the LORD came to me…” (verse 8).
Are we willing to obey God even if we do not understand the reason? Are we willing to do what God instructs, even if it means moments of waiting for an answer, stretches of silence from Him? If we are willing to obey God, we will hear from Him again. God will speak and we must be ready to listen!
