When God's Silent, He's Not Still...

I love Exodus 2:23-25 because it proves the ole saying is true: When God is silent, He's not still. Just think about it, in these verses we read about Israel's agony and the Lord's action. We reflect on Israel's crisis and God's compassion. Let's take a closer look...

In Exodus 2:23 we come face to face with Israel's difficulties. In fact, we find them groaning and crying out to God because of their oppressive slavery. And I'm sure as the time passed by while "their cry for help ascended to God" (Exodus 2:23, HCSB), they wondered if the Lord was planning to do anything about their dire situation!

But this is precisely where we find out that when God is silent, He's not still. Exodus 2:24-25 gives us no less than four verbs describing the actions the Lord took against the background of Israel's sufferings. First, God "heard" their prayers. Second, God "remembered" His promises. Third, God "saw" His people, and fourth, God "took notice" of their pain.

Now try to apply this to whatever valley and struggle your facing today...

• God hears your prayers. Aren't you glad this is true? First John 5:14-15 plainly says, "This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us - whatever we ask - we know that we have what we asked of him" (NIV). Of course, the key phrase in these verses above is "according to his will." In other words, God doesn't just do whatever we want; He does His will which is perfect in every way. Yet, the great confidence we have is that He hears our prayers, and we know He'll answer every prayer according to His will.


• God remembers His promises. God always makes good on His promises. We see this point surface twice in the book of Joshua within the span of less than three chapters. For example, after Israel began to settle in the land of Canaan, Joshua 21:45 says, "Not one of all the Lord's good promises to the house of Israel failed; every one was fulfilled" (NIV). And then again in Joshua 23:14, some of Joshua's final words to the people of Israel in general were: "Now I am about to go the way of all the earth. You know with all your heart and soul that not one of all the good promises the Lord your God gave you has failed. Every promise has been fulfilled; not one has failed" (NIV). It's clear: God remembers His promises.


• God saw His people. Aren't you glad to know that God has His eye on you? I love all ways the Scripture talks about the "eyes" of the Lord. For instance, Noah found favor in God's eyes (see Genesis 6:8); "The eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him" (2 Chronicles 16:9a, NIV); and Jesus saw Zacchaeus and saved him (see Luke 19:1-10). The simple truth of the Bible is that God "sees" you. In fact, there's not a single place you can go to escape His presence (see Psalm 139).


• God took notice of their pain. Not only does God hear, remember, and see your pain, but He's touched with it! This is so obvious in the life of Jesus. For example, "when [Jesus] saw the crowds, he had compassion on them" (Matthew 9:36a, NIV). The idea here is that Christ was moved with love for the crowds. Also, Hebrews 4:15-16 crystallizes this truth for us when it explains: "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are - yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need" (NIV). Again, it's pretty clear here: Christ takes notice of our pain. And this truth brings us back full-circle to the first point we mentioned - Since He sees your pain, He's ready to hear your prayers.

So there's strong Biblical support for the ole saying: When God's silent, He's not still. Of course, in the very next chapter, Exodus 3, the Lord reveals His action by mobilizing Moses. Pretty interesting thought, don't you think? God invites us to be His hands extended to touch others in their suffering so they can know His powerful deliverance.

But this sounds like another blog...