What is silence? Is it good or bad? Sometimes both, sometimes neither, it depends on why. Is it a something or a nothing?
So many times we expect an answer from God, our spouse, a child, or whom so ever we are engaging with, but there is just silence or no reply. In that space of no reply many of us tend to fill in the blank with all sorts of stuff, sometimes pretty crazy stuff, and sometimes with ideas that are quite graceful. How do you deal with silence?
Some people can’t stand silence during a conversation, they think to themselves, “Hmmm…Something is wrong, it’s far too quiet.” But the truth may very well be nothing is wrong, it is just a pregnant pause of sorts. When you’re home alone, do you immediately turn the TV on or maybe some music? Many seem to need the noise in their lives saying it’s just “too quiet”. Many people, if not most, are very uncomfortable if there is silence at church, even for five minutes. Why?
i have a friend who never has silence. He says he can’t stand it. He has a radio that plays all night and all day …. never goes off. When he gets up in the morning he turns the TV on; when he leaves the house to go to work, as soon as he’s in his vehicle, the radio or music is on. He keeps a radio on at his desk all day, etc, etc, you get the picture i guess. There is never silence in his life, it is never quiet. i wonder….if we never have silence, do you think it could be kind of hard to hear the Lord?
Silence in scripture is seen as a wide variety of meanings. Like when Samuel told Saul, to “Be silent” in 1 Sam 15:16, as in “quit talking and listen”. Lam3:26, says “…it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD,” meaning to “sit still and be silent”. David writes in Psalm 101:5 that He will put to silence a neighbor who slanders in secret, meaning if they won’t cease their slandering gossip then he intends to shut their mouth for them.
Silence and being quiet is a big deal in scripture. Let’s dig into it some to understand the ramifications of silence.
Silence means being quiet; stillness; reticence; calmness; a state of rest; absence of mention; desistance from bustle and language.
Silence has to do with intent, and is easily seen in understanding the Hebrew letter aleph, which one of several meanings is “the sound made before the mouth is opened and a sound is made.” Intent. The first thing spoken to us when we are read our Miranda Rights is, “You have the right to remain silent.” A right is a “something”, which is by definition, “a person or thing of consequence”, and if a right is a person or thing of consequence then silence would also qualify as a thing of consequence, understanding that, by law, you have a right to it.
In Hebrew “nothing” is described as “existence that is not”, or what we would call “nil”. In mathematics, the concept of “nothing” means “nil” or “empty set”. Does God ever ask us to be “nil”? No. Does the enemy desire that we be “nil”? Yes. The opposite of nothing is something, so silence is never nothing. Silence is not nothing, it is not “nil”…. it is never “nil”.
In the book “The Shack”, when Mac was walking through the house as he came out on the porch, he saw Papa lying in a lawn chair in the sun. Mac said some smart-alecky thing like, ‘I guess even God has time to lay in the sun.” implying Papa was laying there doing “nothing” just because Papa was being silent. Papa opened one eye, looked at Mac, and said, “You have no idea what I’m doing.” Just because there is no obvious movement and no observable, action doesn’t mean “nothing” is going on, and just because it seems God is silent doesn’t mean God is doing nothing. Prov3:5-6, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.”
How should we handle silence? When should we be silent, and when should we not? That is something each person must weigh out in themselves and is unique to each individual situation. Consider though, Isaiah 62:6, “You who make mention of the Lord, do not keep silent”.
i believe silence is a kind of action. We’ve heard it said, “The silence was deafening!” Silence can speak volumes if we are willing to listen.
When we want an answer and feel in dire straits and God seems silent to us, our heartaches, and there grows such a yearning to hear a reply from the Lord, even if it is a rebuke, we think some reply from Him is better than no reply from Him. David cries out in Psalms 83:1, and again in Ps 109:1, Lord don’t be silent. What do we do with “The Silence Of God”? Now that is such a large question i can’t even begin to address it in this context.
Proverbs 31:8 “Open your mouth for the silent, those unable to speak for themselves in the cause (the judgment, dispute, condemnation) such as are sons appointed to destruction. 9 Throw open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy, vindicating as an opponent at law, pleading the case for the humiliated, oppressed, wretched, and abused.”
When we practice vindication it means to “free from allegation or blame, provide a defense for.” To say you are vindicated means you are from blame. This scripture implores us to not be silent and to plead, aloud, the case of the crushed and condemned.
Sometimes our silence can be harmful to us. When David practiced silence regarding his sin, there were mental and physical consequences – bodily symptoms caused by mental and emotional stress, called “psychosomatic” symptoms. Psalm 32:3-4, “When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. Selah.”
Did Jesus practice silence? Matthew 26:62-63, “Then the high priest stood up and said to Jesus, “Are you not going to answer? What is this testimony that these men are bringing against you?” But Jesus remained silent.”
People practice silence for all sorts of reasons: sometimes in reverence, sometimes in transgression. As to practicing reverential silence, take Zephaniah 1:7, “Be silent in the presence of the Lord GOD; For the day of the Lord is at hand, For the Lord has prepared a sacrifice; He has invited His guests.” There is a time for speaking and for being silent, as in Eccl 3:7 “A time to keep silence, and a time to speak.” In Luke9:33-35 it would have served Peter well to keep silent, for in vs.38 God spoke from Heaven saying, This is my Son, Listen to him. In other words, quit talking Peter and listen!
Even Heaven practices silence. Rev 8:1 “When He opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.”
Then there is silence that is transgression: We’re sometimes silent because we get caught with our poor attitudes or wrong actions… in 1 Kings18:21 Elijah went to the people and said, “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.” But the people said nothing”… they were silent because they were guilty of bad attitudes and being fence riders. i believe the people were waiting to see who would win the epic battle and then they would side with the winner, declaring they knew it all the time. They got caught playing it safe. Can you relate to that? i don’t know about you, but i sure can.
Sometimes, silence is practiced because a trap is laid or there is the intent of ensnaring. The Hebrew “trap” paints us a picture of setting a silent snare by bending wood, like bending a bow and there is energy stored in the limbs of the bow. The word has a negative leaning referring to the laying of a snare to cause trouble or to silence someone. “Laying wait at my neighbors’ door” speaks of being silent while waiting to spring a trap and there is an unrighteous silence in the tension of the scenario. Isaiah 29:21, “…those who, with a word, make a man out to be guilty, who ensnare the defender in court, and with false testimony deprive the innocent of justice.”
The snares of the devil are like that … silent, slippery, and have the tension of a drawn bow built into them. Silence practiced with the intent to deceive and ensnare others is an evil. When we bring to the courts an issue that is just straight out wrong and demands justice, yet no matter how often we petition the judges, the court is silent, it is an evil in the earth. Sadly, we see that very thing in action in our government and politicians all the time.
Consider silence in action. Doing nothing says something and saying nothing does something. Esther 4:14, “For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish.”
Silence, as in the absence of mention, makes room for everyone who is listening to fill in the blank however they want, as in the phrase, “To be understood by your silence.” This kind of silence can also be expressed as “a lie by omission”, meaning the talebearer purposely excluded the condemning part of the story, so that any “understanding” is according to the listener. Often the prudent is wisely silent, as in Amos 5:13, when corruption was so sweeping, to bring a case of injustice to the judges would have inspired an even greater injustice. In the sense of… if every time i asked someone a question, the next words were a lie, then it would be a mercy for me to cease asking questions so as help them to stop lying.
Sometimes silence is practiced when we are too terrified or astonished to speak, or to even move to run away. In Amos 8:3, historically, the slaughter was so great, that anyone left alive was too frightened to even speak.
In our modern society, often we think we are safe if we’re silent. But, really, is silence a safe haven? Just because we are silent on an issue doesn’t mean we are relieved of any responsibility. To resolve a problem that has come to silence, resolution of the conflict is the responsibility of all parties. Resolve is a two-way street, for a one-way street only runs just so far.
Silence as a safe haven is not always safe. In Job 38:18 and 42:4, God demanded of Job to “declare” and Job was silent… Job’s lack of an answer appeared as a safe haven, and it was so not safe!
Job 33:33, Elihu takes Job’s silence as “tacit” approval, meaning approval expressed without words.
Silence is often taken for consent. Bad things happen when good people say and do nothing, or are silent! Many a person was judged guilty because when they did not disagree and their silence was taken as consent.
The truth is, silence proves and disproves nothing. Silence is both wisdom and can also be cruel intent… like “Giving someone the silent treatment”. Being silent without making a move towards resolve, like giving someone the silent treatment, is a power struggle in pain tolerance… it is a contest to see who can care less the most the longest.
Being silent with the intent to hear correctly is VERY different than silence whose intent is to wound, destroy, or cause to fail.
Can we silence our conscience? We can be silent to others, and possibly silence our state of mind, but we cannot so easily silence our conscience … the only conscience which is silent is a reprobate conscience. Without a conscience, conviction has no foothold, and condemnation has full run of the field! Paul speaks many times, for a good reason, about the value of owning a conscience that is not silent.
Okay, so here’s the bottom line question: Other than reverential silence, what is the common thread throughout silence, in general? What drives our silence, even to the point of consciously, but passively participating in things we know are wrong? Silence may be golden, but it isn’t always the right choice you know. i believe the common thread many times is… Fear. i believe fear drives us to silence more often than we care to admit.
We are silent when the enemy threatens to expose our past. We are silent for fear of rejection. We are silent in the face of persecution, being marginalized or minimized. We are silent when we think our looks or homes are “unacceptable” to others, imaginary or real. We are silent many times to justify our behavior while citing someone else’s. We are silent when words are about to be spoken and shouldn’t. We are silent because someone might discover our secrets, we are silent for fear of being ostracized because we are different at church. A little too big, too small, too heavy, too loud, too… just too something.
We as a society in America today are largely, hugely driven by fear. The Lord doesn’t merely suggest we not be afraid, He commands it 68 times saying, “Be Not Afraid!” and “Fear Not”. The Lord repeatedly tells us, “Fear not for I AM with you”, “Fear not, peace unto you”, “Fear not for I have heard your prayers”, “Fear not for I AM in this place”, “Fear not, nor be discouraged”, etc, etc. But yet in the face of God’s commands and promises, still, we are so terribly driven by fear. i have 21 pages of exaggerated, illogical, and inexplicable fears that Americans are riddled with, today, right now … they are called phobias. Our top ten fears are, fear of the dark, fear of heights, fear of open spaces, fear of closed spaces, fear of spiders, fear of pointed objects, fear of germs, fear of disease, fear of snakes, and here is the most incredible…
number 10 is… fear of the number 13… that’s right, fear of the number 13 is so pervasive it has actually influenced an entire modern culture. No 13th floor on high rises, no 13th row on many airplanes, people won’t buy a house which has the number 13 in the address many times, rarely 13th Avenue or 13th street, rarely is there “Road” or Hwy 13.
Not in the top ten, but certainly in the top 20 are 4 in particular – fear of failure or of being wrong which is absolutely rife in our society; socialphobia, which is a fear of being evaluated negatively in social situations; sedatephobia, fear of silence; and Ymophobia, fear of being contrary or being in opposition. 21 pages of exaggerated, illogical, and inexplicable fears do not speak of people who are strong and courageous.
If we will trust God and cast our cares upon Him, hope will spring fresh in our hearts, and in hope we will step into faith. In the silence of the righteous, as we wait upon the Lord, there is hope!
Hope! Hope & Faith! Faith is the opposite of fear. Hope is the forerunner of faith. When we find faith we can believe hope was there first.
Hope generates a vision of transformation. Hope, the expectation of becoming and overcoming, and every believer in Christ has an expectation, in one fashion or another, of being a “becomer” and an “overcomer”! Hope must have an object to act on, and the object of Hope is Expectation. Hope is a character trait of the righteous, they have an attitude of anticipation with an expectation that something will happen to further fulfill the vision of transformation. Our hope is based on God’s faithfulness, and He is always, eternally faithful. Our hope is a result of trusting God. Our hope is to remember what God has done. Hope lifts our face, and opposingly, despair causes our face to drop.
My friends, let fear flee away, let us open our mouths and be silent no longer. How long can we not break out in praise? How long will the men of this nation be silent with their praise and worship of the Living God? Open you gates and let glory come forth. Consider these words, or “think about it”.
i’m Social Porter and thank you for joining me here at Outposts. Being silent for the right reasons is righteous, but i believe, by far and large, most of us are often silent for all the wrong reasons. Silence may truly be golden, but it is not always the best choice. Let us believe God, take Him at His word, and put our foot on the neck of fear that drives us to silence so often.
Be strong and courageous this week, lift up your voice, and praise the Lord. Open your mouth unto Him and let it fly. Amen!