27 WHEN YOU THINK GOD IS SILENT

 

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WHEN YOU THINK GOD IS SILENT

TODAY'S CHAPTER IS Psalm 32

Silence and God's Speech
In the Bible we have many examples, including David, who was unfaithful to the married woman Bathsheba, where in all his zeal to hide the sin he also became a murderer. From the text in 2 Sam 11 and 12 we can calculate that David tried to hide the sin for up to a year. A year when he did not speak to God. He expresses it himself in Psalm 32:3: "When I kept silent, my body wasted away, while I groaned all day long".

Shame always says: "Hide it".

God always says: "Come forward, confess it".

We encounter this with David, when Nathan is sent to David and exposes him as the one who has sinned against the Lord.

Why does God do this? To make David extra ashamed? To portray David as a particularly great sinner? No, God does it because He has something very special He wants to say to David. For the moment David stepped into the light and confessed: “I have sinned against the Lord” (2 Sam 12:13a), there was no hesitation with God: “The Lord will now forgive your sin.” (2 Sam 12:13b).

Jesus’ encounter with sexual sin

As God dealt with David in the Old Testament, so did Jesus when He was here on earth. Jesus did not avoid people who fell or lived in sexual sin.

On the contrary. He sought them out, spoke to them, and met them with a grace that was stronger than their guilt and shame.

Three examples
The silent confession

In Luke 7:36-50 we meet the woman about whom it is written, “that she lived in sin in that city” (v. 37).

She enters the Pharisee’s house, where she certainly does not belong. She comes with an alabaster jar full of oil. She says nothing. She cries. She anoints Jesus’ feet. Her whole body confesses what her mouth cannot say.

What is she bringing? An alabaster jar full of oil. How did she get something so expensive at that time? Yes, in all likelihood, the money was earned through her prostitution, so what she is really bringing is her entire life.

These are her sexual sins and everything that has followed in their wake.

Jesus does not reject her. He does not hand her over.

Jesus says: “Her sins, which are many, are forgiven” (v.47) “Your sins are forgiven” (v.48).

As Christians, there may be sins that are easier to confess, perhaps those mentioned at the beginning. But when it comes to sexual sin, words may stop. Here, perhaps all that is left are the tears. The body, mind and heart know what is wrong – but the fear of condemnation keeps me quiet. Jesus’ encounter with the woman tells me: I don’t need to explain everything to Jesus, he already knows. I just have to come to him, and the fact that I come with my “alabaster jar” and give it to him is the confession that Jesus acts on and says: “Your sins are forgiven.”

Seen, known and loved

In John 4 we meet a woman with a chaotic life. She had had five husbands, and the man she had now was not her husband. She came to the well alone in the middle of the day – probably to avoid the degrading looks of the others.

To her great surprise, Jesus began a conversation with her. Partly because she was a woman, partly because she was a Samaritan, and a Jew, as Jesus did not speak to Samaritans. But Jesus did.

He began with a conversation, and despite the woman’s many antics, Jesus arrived at what he had in mind. The silence had to be broken, her life had to come to light with God. Jesus exposed her, not for the sake of exposure, but to save her and bring forgiveness into her life.

What is remarkable is her reaction. She runs back to the city and says:

“Come, see a man who told me all that I have ever done.”

What was once guilt and shame in the woman’s life, what used to be a burden on her, so that she went out to get water at a time when she had the least chance of meeting others, now becomes the testimony that she tells the whole city. Not because her life had become perfect, but because she had met someone who knew the whole truth about her but did not turn away.

Many today fear that if God really knew them, He would withdraw His love. “How can God love me when I have failed so much in the sexual area?” The Samaritan woman testifies to the contrary: “You are fully known, and you are fully loved.” That is the essence of the gospel.
Amen