Silent Before God

IF ONLY YOU WOULD BE ALTOGETHER SILENT! FOR YOU, THAT WOULD BE WISDOM. Job 13.5.

Our generation has become the most noisy of all. We love noise. Our fathers loved silence. That’s why they came up with the saying, “silence is golden!” We don’t speak any more. We shout! Have you seen any TV programmes lately? Why do wives shout at husbands all the time when it is not true? Why is it parents and children cannot talk without yelling? Why is it that patients shout at their doctors? Why do doctors shout at each other rather than discuss issues rationally? Court scenes are episodes from Wild West dramas and lawyers have shouting matches. Have you seen a sane concert in recent times? Scantily clad, madly raving performers scream at the top of their voices and the frenzied crowd yell and shout that no one can hear anything!

We have brought the noise and din into the Church! We have lost our concept of solemn worship of an awesome and holy God and substituted it with a festival mood. Yet we find a somber distinction between the two as you read God’s instruction in the Bible to His people of the olden times. I believe that God Almighty is calling us back to the heart of worship. A pious pastor of a church had enough of the din and noise of his congregation in the name of worship! He ordered his music director to have no music during the church service for a month!

The result: the music director came to realise what ‘the heart of worship’ was! He wrote the song, “When the music fades, all is stripped away, And I simply come…I’ll bring you more than a song, For a song in itself is not what you have required.. I’m coming back to the heart of worship, And it’s all about You, it’s all about You, Jesus. I’m sorry, Lord, for the thing I’ve made it, When it’s all about You, Jesus!” This chorus is now sung worldwide in churches. Pity we sing it with no less noise from the electronic sound system and with even greater shouts from the congregation! We are a 'peculiar people!' When we sing or read psalms that call us to 'shout to the Lord' we keep silent! When we are to 'be still before the Lord and know Him', we shout!

The psalmists, the sons of Korah, echoed the voice of God, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress (Psa 46.10,11). In today’s text, we have the plea of the exasperated Job who was already tormented and had to tolerate also the ‘never-ending self-righteous talk’ of ‘the friends’! He said in desperation, “If only you would be altogether silent! For you, that would be wisdom”. Our silence may speak louder than words, even to the Lord!

Dear friend, you and I who are so used to all the sound and fury at home, in the marketplace and now in our churches also, need to consider, “Is God Almighty speaking to you through the mouth of Job of old?” Does He want you to be quiet before Him and just listen? If the prophet Isaiah had been noisy like us in the temple of God, he would have missed the heavenly anthem of the seraphim and the touch and voice of God! Think about it!

I put myself on a ‘silent mode’ with fasting and prayer regularly so that I would stop hearing my voice or man's voices BUT HEAR THE LORD! Dear friend, I want you to respond to God’s plea, “If only you would be altogether silent”! That would be wisdom and you will hear God! This in no way should deter us from the celebration and festivities that we may enjoy at other times because of our rejoicing in the presence of the Lord. There is a time and a place for everything!

Pray and practise with me: Dear Lord, I hear Your call. Help me to make time to be silent before You. I want to know You and hear You afresh each time I draw near to You. Amen.