The Victory of Silence – Silence engages the deliverance of the Lord
This week’s article The Victory of Silence follows last week’s publication where I introduced the subject that we are looking at over the next few weeks, that of Silence.
Exodus 14:14 “The Lord will fight for you while you keep silent”
This command in verse 14 of chapter 14 of Exodus follows the point of entry into the Red Sea by the Israelites at the command of Moses. They are being pursued by Pharaoh’s army and fear has gripped them.
Notice how remarkable this statement is! The deliverance of God is engaged by our silence. The Lord fights for us while we are silent! Here the passage does not refer to verbal silence alone but suggests that the Lord is engaged to fight on our behalf when we ‘do’ nothing! The silence and stillness of our ‘whole life’ releases the Lord to fight on our behalf.
Vindication
An example of a battle that we attempt to win is that of vindication. We can find ourselves in a situation where we are unjustly accused of something so we take up arms, emotionally and sometimes verbally to win the battle that is being waged against us. David finds himself in this same situation when he writes in Psalm 26;
V1 Vindicate me, O my Lord, for I have walked in my integrity, and I have trusted in the Lord without wavering.
Vindication is a battle in which we are to keep silent. We do not need to justify ourselves if we have walked in integrity. Our silence is an opportunity for the Lord to fight the battle for us. Again, David writes;
Psalm 7:8 ‘The Lord judges the peoples; vindicate me, O lord according to my righteousness and integrity’
Judgement is not a battle that belongs to me. If I become engaged in this battle then I will never win, for my judgement is not just but the Lord’s is.
Isaiah confirms this approach in Exodus:
Isaiah 30:15 ‘For thus says the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, has said, “In repentance and rest you will be saved, in quietness and trust is your strength”’. (My emphasis added)
Isaiah is saying that you will be delivered from the place in which you find yourselves, you will be rescued by finding a place ‘in’ repentance and rest. He also promises strength that comes from being ‘in’ a place of quietness and trust. To get into something we have to get out of something else! We have to pull ourselves out of a place of activity and action and find another place to locate our lives, we have to be ‘in’ repentance and rest and ‘in’ quietness and trust.
In chapter 7 of Isaiah, when, under the Lords instruction he is advising Ahaz the defender of Jerusalem, because it is under attack from two kings, Rezin and Aram, the Lord tells Isaiah to go and meet Ahaz the King of Judah, – we pick up the story in verse 4;
‘and to say to him, “Take care and be silent, have no fear and do not be fainthearted….” V 5 Because Aram, with the Ephraim and the son of Remaliah has planned evil against you, saying, “Let us go up against Judah and terrorize it, and make a breach for ourselves in the walls and set up the son of Tabeel as king in the midst of it. “Thus says the Lord it shall not stand nor shall it come to pass”.
Here’s a thought! Go and meet the King who is under attack and say to him, in effect “shut up”! But as he does as the Lord has instructed Ahaz’s silence engages the deliverance of the Lord. The many words spoken by his enemy, the threats and the plans are disabled as Ahaz’s obedience to be silent draws the Lord into the battle and we see He declares ‘it shall not stand or come to pass’.
I wonder if there are some battles in which we are not seeing victory because we are just too busy doing the Lords work for Him! Perhaps we are shouting at mountains and walking around walls shouting, when in fact He is saying “shut up, this is not your battle this is Mine!
Jeremiah follows this theme that Isaiah talks about, in Lamentations 3:26 he says this;
‘It is good that he waits silently for the salvation of the Lord’
The salvation and deliverance of God seems to be inextricably linked to finding a place of silence, the quietening of our soul. The point at which we cease activity is the point at which we see the salvation of the Lord.
Can you be silent and so enjoy the victory that He can bring?
Adrian