|
|
|
|
What is it about silence that causes such an uneasy feeling? The absence of sound seems almost unnatural to the human ear and causes one to almost wince in pain. Everyone has experienced this awkward moment in a group of people. The conversation suddenly dies; eyes dart right and left; feet shuffle back and forth and finally someone blurts out something. Anything! The idea that you can become so aware and conscience of silence can be very unnerving. If a moment of silence can cause such discomfort then what about 400 years of silence? The last words spoken by God in the Old Testament were, “Remember the law of my servant Moses, the decrees and laws I gave him at Horeb for all Israel. See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse.”(Malachi 4:4-6) After God spoke these words through the prophet Malachi, God went silent and did not utter another word. I do not know about you, but it is nice to escape your family once in a while. When you have five kids, the noise level in the house can be quite astronomical and cause you to wish for quieter days of yester years. But, when your wish does come true, it is amazing how quickly the absence of children, laughing, running, talking, and playing can draw your heart back to your loved ones. I often wonder if that was not one of the major reasons for the silence of God. The 400 years between Malachi and Matthew was a time of great turmoil for the Jews. In this period, they were subjugated by the Persians, the Greeks, gained their freedom for about a hundred years and finally crushed by the Romans. The Jews chafed under the heavy yoke of their rulers and started to turn to scriptures that foretold of a coming messiah that would establish his kingdom on earth. Would this hunger for the word of God been possible without God going silent? Was this not a way to ready and draw the hearts of his people to a yearning for broken silence? You would think that Matthew as an author would know how to write a more exciting opening to a book. For example, it was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair. (Charles Dickens, A tale of two cities) Now that is an opening, but what do we get after 400 years of build up? We get a genealogy. Yes, that’s right a genealogy! Here is a riveting excerpt. Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, Judah the father of Perez and ect…. I do not know about you, but I was deeply and emotionally moved. The genealogy may not interest the average reader, but it was of the greatest importance to the Jews. The book of Matthew was written with the Jews in mind and every Jew knew that the scriptures prophesied that the Messiah would come through the line of Abraham and David. In order for Jesus to have a legitimate claim as the Messiah, His blood line had to be traced through the proper family tree. Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Christ. (Mathew 1:17) There is another way of looking at the genealogy. God may have gone silent in word, but was not silent in deed. Just because God is not speaking does not mean that his hands are not at work. The genealogy is more than a group of names; each name represents a person’s life and the piece they played in God’s grand scheme. During this period of silence God was orchestrating the political, cultural, and religious settings that would culminate in the perfect situation for the coming of the Messiah and His kingdom message. The last fourteen generations from the exile of the Jews to the birth of Christ would live ordinary lives in turbulent times. Each one playing their part not knowing that they were helping set the stage for the awaking of God’s voice. Matthew 1:18-25 is a simple explanation of the birth of Jesus, but profound in its implications. “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” – which means, “God with us.” (Matthew 1:23) God with us? Yes, God in flesh and blood. How profound that at the end of Matthew chapter 1 that silence is broken by the cry of a baby. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
(c) 2009 the fountainChurch |
Broken
Silence 
