SILENCE

Silence does not indicate inactivity or insignificance. Look at God's most famous silence, the 400 year silence between the end of the Old Testament (Malachi) and the beginning of the New Testament (John the Baptist). To Israel it was a dark time: Not a single prophet, not a single word from on high, just a succession of conquerors and repression. Yet, without anyone knowing, these four centuries were crucial to God's strategy in human history.
 
Firstly, the Jews were used to hearing God through a prophet (or king) - they had to learn to hear His words from the Scriptures. Secondly, it allowed time for the finalisation of the Old Testament canon (the list of books accepted as the inspired word of God). Thirdly, it allowed time for 70 Jewish scholars to translate the Old Testament into Greek, the world language of the day - the so-called Septuagint, completed in 132 BC, which became "the Scriptures" for Jews living all over the then-known world.
 
"So what?" you may ask. Simply this: When the apostles and early disciples began to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to all nations, they had "the Scriptures" as an agreed-upon collection of authoritative writings, they had it in a language understandable to most people in the then-known world, and they had an initial Jewish audience used to hearing God speak from His Scriptures. They had everything they needed to conquer the world. It took God 400 years to finalise "the fullness of the times" for the coming of His Son. Three hundred years later His followers had reached their entire known world with His message.
 
God may have been silent, but He was very busy. Remember that the next time God seems to be silent. He is not inactive, and your silence has meaning and purpose.
 
 

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