Do you ever feel like God is silent?
Are you convinced the silence means He’s not listening, or He doesn’t care, or maybe He’s not even there?
Perhaps you’ve prayed and prayed and prayed and prayed about this one person, or this one thing, or this one situation. You’re desperate for relief or confirmation or acknowledgement or peace. Your knees are sore from all the praying, from all the waiting. And yet….
God is silent.
I recently heard an incredibly powerful sermon by Dan Buraga, the young adult pastor at my church.
He preached from the story of Esther.
He talked about how Esther, a Jewish queen, delivered God’s people from death.
Then he made the connection to Jesus – our ultimate deliverer.
He made the connection to the most crucial moment in history, when God’s beloved son hung on that cross and cried out to His father from the depths of his soul, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
And the Father, who had perfect communion with the Son, did not answer. He did not reach out and save His boy.
God was silent.
And in that silence, He offered deliverance to us all.
This is the same God whose name can be found in one form or another in every single book in the Bible.
Every single book except one.
The book of Esther.
A story of deliverance.
And God is not mentioned once. He is completely and utterly silent. Just as He was completely and utterly silent that day on the cross.
Yet His presence shouts.
From the pages of Esther, where a Jewish queen saves her people. From Golgotha, where Jesus was crucified. From the temple, where the curtain was torn. From the earth that shook. And the sky that darkened.
His presence shouts.
And we’re reminded that God’s silence does not mean His absence.
