Adisciple of Jesus Christ must learn to understand God’s silences. One of the features of the book of Job was God’s silence toward him, though He was not silent to Satan, and though Job’s friends were not silent to him. With all that speech making, God did not enter into dialogue with Job until the end of the book (chap. 38), and even then He did not explain why He led him through the valley of humiliation.
In Job’s case, his knowledge of God’s will was delayed and indirect. That is the way God usually deals with us. Even Jesus was not given full and perfect knowledge of the Father’s plans (Matthew 24:36). God’s usual method of pedagogy is to let circumstances tell us the tale. That is why Job had no conception of God’s plan until he looked back on his path, very much as Bunyan’s Pilgrim, who saw every rea-son for his zigzag route afterward. Jesus said to His disciples, “What I am doing you do not now understand, but you shall understand afterward” (John 13:7, author’s trans.).
When God is silent toward me, it means I am walking in ignorance. That means I must trust Him implicitly, otherwise I will lose my way. The life of faith would end completely if God explained His every move to us. The natural man lives by reason, so he demands an explanation for everything. But the spiritual man lives by faith and he reserves God’s right to be silent, because he has implicit faith in God’s honesty and integrity.
“Someday we’ll understand” goes the hymn, and it is true. But the someday need not be in heaven. “Afterward” for the disciples was Pentecost. “Afterward” for you and me may be tomorrow, or the next startling event in our lives. “But He knows the way I take; when He has tried me [through dark, unseeing paths], I shall come forth as gold” (Job 23:10).
“For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I shall know fully just as I also have been fully known” (1 Corinthians 13:12).
Daily with the King 