Ep. 135 | When God is Silent | Genesis

Listen in as Pastor Eddie Blalock shares today’s daily devotional featuring Genesis 17:1-3. Let’s be Formed by The Word together!

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Transcript

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SPEAKER_01 0:01

Every one of us eventually reaches a place where we have to decide. Will I trust God even when I can't see where He's leading? That's not a new question. It's one of the oldest questions in the Bible. No one illustrates that journey better than Abraham. Welcome to Forms by the Word, where we open God's Word not just to study it, but to let it shape our hearts and transform our lives. Sometimes our journey of faith leads through familiar places. Other times it leads into the unknown. There are seasons of joy and seasons of waiting, moments of great faith and moments of painful failure. Genesis 11 through 25 tells the story of an ordinary man called to an extraordinary walk of faith, and in the process helps us discover that God still leads ordinary people, like us, into an extraordinary walk of faith. So whether you're driving, working, exercising, or simply enjoying a quiet moment with the Lord, I invite you to open your heart and let's learn to trust the God who always keeps his promises one step of faith at a time.

SPEAKER_00 1:10

When we last saw Abram, he was at a fork in the road and had made a poor decision. He decided he was tired of waiting on God's plan to work out and chose instead to see if he could make it happen. We're told at the end of that story that he was eighty-six years old. Now, as we turn our pages of our Bible to chapter 17, Abram is now ninety-nine years old. That's thirteen years later. Thirteen years, and Abraham didn't hear anything from God, or at least as recorded in scriptures, there was no vision, there was no voice, there was no visit from the Lord, only silence. Try to imagine complete silence on God's part for 13 years. Well, for some of us, that's not hard to imagine because for some of us we're waiting on an answer from God, and there's just silence. Some have waited a year, maybe two years, maybe thirteen years. I don't know. But I think most of us have had moments where we were just waiting to hear from God, but nothing but silence. Well, earlier, Abram hadn't handled the Lord's silence very well. If you remember, you may recall that after God's first appearance in Ur, Abram had been talking rather regularly with him. More than once the Lord had appeared to Abram with reassurances of his call. Around his 79th birthday, he'd met with God after a miraculous victory on the battlefield, but then he heard nothing more for another six or seven years. Silence. Then, when he was eighty-five, after six years of silence, he and Sarai decided to implement their own plan. Well, we remember how that went. When his decision to run ahead of God's plan ended in spectacular failure, Abram came to a kind of end. As the expression goes, he kind of came to an end of himself. But today we'll see that after 13 years of silence in his next encounter with God, Abram posed no questions, made no complaints about his long wait. He merely fell on his face before the Lord. Now, let's observe the text a little closer and see what God wants to speak to our hearts. And by the way, we're we're not going to really cover much ground today. Basically, one verse, maybe the part of another verse, and that's going to be it. But I think we see three things that just couldn't go quickly by the silence, the voice, and the response. Let's look at first the silence. It says in verse 1, chapter 17, when Abram was ninety-nine years old, that's a lot itself, right? When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him, saying, I am God Almighty. Live in my presence and be blameless. So it's been 13 years, right? The previous verse, the last verse of chapter 16, said that he was 86, so now he's 99. Do the math. It's been thirteen years of silence. The biblical narrator tells us absolutely nothing about those years. No recorded appearances, no recorded word from God, no altar built, no new promises made, just a jump from eighty-six to ninety-nine. Now, one thing is significant about this thirteen year span. It shows us that with the Lord, silence doesn't mean absence, and delay doesn't mean denial. In fact, I can think of several instances where that are similar in Scripture. You remember Joseph? Perhaps you remember he spent at least two years waiting in a prison cell for the promise that God had given. And what about Israel? They were slaves in Egypt for years, crying out to God before God sent Moses to deliver them. Some have suggested as much as 400 years. David. David waited patiently for the promise that he would be king. Even after being anointed by Samuel, David had to wait while Saul served out his time as king. And then there's that long period between Malachi and Matthew. We call it the intertestamental period, 400 years of silence between the last prophet Malachi and the coming of Jesus in the gospel message. So Abraham has waited a long time, but now God breaks the silence. So let's look secondly now at this voice that comes to Abraham. It's incredible. It says, verse 1, the Lord appeared to him, saying, I am God Almighty. Live in my presence. So after 13 years of silence, what are God's first recorded words? Not Abram. Let me explain where I've been. Not Abram. Here's why I made you wait. Not even Abram. Here's exactly what I'm going to do. He begins with who he is. I am God Almighty. One of my favorite expressions in the Hebrew. The Hebrew words there are El Shaddai. Two words. El, which is God, Shaddai. Most believe there is a lot of talk about the root of that word Shaddai, but most agree that the best rendering probably is the all-sufficient one. God, the all-sufficient, or the all-sufficient God. That's incredible. That's the first word he speaks. Abram, I am all sufficient God. Boy, don't we need to hear that today? Remember now, Abram is 99. Sarai is approaching 90. Humanly speaking, the promise is becoming more impossible with every passing year. And God essentially says, before we talk about the promise, remember the promise maker. I am El Shaddai. Before you tell me how this is all going to be impossible at my age, I am El Shaddai, the all-sufficient God. When you cannot understand what God is doing, my friend, remember who God is. God's silence doesn't change God's identity. Thirteen years earlier, he was Almighty God. During the 13 years, he was Almighty God. And when he finally spoke again, he was still El Shaddai. So God doesn't begin by explaining the silence. He begins by revealing himself. When you don't understand God and what God is doing, remember who he is. He is El Shaddai. The third thing I want you to notice is the response of Abraham. In verse 3, we're told, Then Abram fell face down and God spoke with him. When God speaks and reveals and reveals himself to Abram, Abram fell down with his face to the ground. Well, that is the proper response, right? Then this is important. Before Abraham gets an explanation, before Sarai becomes pregnant, before Isaac is born, Abram worships. Now there's an application here for us, I think, right there. Don't wait until you see the answer to your prayer, the answer to your question, or the answer to your predicament to worship the God who gave you his promises. Begin the worship now. When Abram surrendered himself to God and worshiped him, then God reiterates everything previously spoken in the covenant. He makes four I will statements. He says, I will make you, I will establish you, I will give you, I will be their God. The chapter that begins with 13 years of silence suddenly explodes with God's I wills. The years of silence did not erase one single I will of God's covenant. So let's close this down by making some application. What do I do when God seems silent? For the person who feels like God is silent today, listen, don't confuse silence with absence. God hasn't disappeared. Remember who he is. El shadow. That'd be a good word for you to learn, a good name for God for you to take to your memory in your heart. Second, don't confuse delay with denial. God's timetable isn't ours. Trust what he has said. Third, don't abandon what God has already said because he isn't saying something now. Keep walking faithfully. And then finally, I've said it several times. Let me say it again. Remember who he is, El Shaddai, God Almighty, God the all sufficient one, and keep worshiping while you wait. Here's the real challenge of God's command to Abraham. It's this God says to Abram, Now knowing that I am El Shaddai, live in my presence and be blameless.

unknown 9:52

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 9:53

So the takeaway for today, very simple. Thirteen years of silence didn't erase one promise of God. Remember, when God seems silent, keep walking in what he's already said. Genesis 17 doesn't actually tell us why God was silent for 13 years. That's part of what makes this passage so powerful. Abraham doesn't get an explanation for the silence. He gets a revelation of God. Sometimes what we need most is not an explanation of why, but a fresh reminder of the who. Abram and Sarai remind us that the question isn't simply which road will get me there faster. The question is which road requires me to trust God. When God's road seems slow, don't take the nearest exit. Stay on the road of faith. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I am so glad that when we come to forks in the road of life or on the pathway of our faith journey, that we can be assured that you are there to offer direction, even when it seems you are silent, even when we wonder if you hear, teach us to trust who you are and not what we're seeing, not our own understanding. Amen and amen.

SPEAKER_01 11:03

Thanks for joining us today on Formed by the Word. As we journey through the life of Abraham, we're learning together what it means to walk by faith and trust God one step at a time. Wherever you are on your own journey today, remember, the same God who called Abraham is still calling, leading, and faithfully keeping his promises to his people. Pastor Eddie would love to hear how God is using these devotions in your life. Your thoughts and comments are always welcome. Until next time, remember, God rarely shows us the whole journey.