Jesus said, "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them and they follow Me. And I give eternal life to them and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand" (John 10:27-28.) Nevertheless, questions about God's silence are anything but new. They've been asked by the greatest of God's followers since the beginning of time. For example:
Why was God silent when He knew Eve (and her silent husband who was right there with her) was being tempted by the serpent?
Why was God silent with righteous Job when he was going through a kind of agony that you and I have never known? Job's attitude during all his suffering and all the silence of God was, “Though He slay me, yet will I serve Him” (Job 13:15.)
Why was God silent with David in Psalm 22:1-2, the beginning of a Messianic Psalm that was written in A.D. 963 and for great reason is called “The Song of the Cross.”
Why was God silent for FOUR HUNDRED YEARS between the Old and New Testament?
Why was God silent with Mary and Martha when their brother Lazarus, whom Jesus loved, was about to die? John 11:1-6
Question: When is the one time you can't ask your teacher for the answer to a question? Answer – and the answer to all of the above questions – You can't ask your teacher for the answer to a question while you are going through a test.
James 1:2-4: “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have it's perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”
Whenever you are laser-focused on just one question with God, He whose timing is ALWAYS perfect, though not necessarily in agreement with our own human timing, knows that you will have the answer either through things that will later happen in your life or because He has already given you the answer and for whatever reason you might not like what the answer really is. He's not responsible for you liking His answers or not liking them. That is totally up to you. However, your life IS being orchestrated by the One conductor every single moment of your life who LOVES YOU ENOUGH TO HAVE DIED FOR YOU and lives to ultimately bless you now (Romans 8:28.)
Examining the rest of the story in the above scenarios:
Adam knew that he and his wife were not to eat from the forbidden tree. God has given every human free will, including Adam. And since Adam already knew the answer, there was no reason for God to speak to him about the temptation. So, God was silent and through Adam came sin (Romans 5:12-21; 1 Corinthians 15:21-22.)
God DID answer Job in His timing and poured out double blessings on him for his patience (Job 42:10-17.) However, he didgive Satan time during Job's test to prove how righteous Job really was. God (the Alpha and Omega) KNEW Job would hold true.
God was allowing David to experience His silence nearly a thousand years before His only begotten Son would cry out the exact words from Psalm 22:2 during the greatest testing ever given man (remembering that Jesus was fully man as well as fully God. It was in both forms that He went to the cross for you and me.) Thus Hebrews 2:1-3 tells us, “Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us (In this case, not trusting Him fully while He IS silent), and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”
Christ came four hundred years after the Old Testament (the Jewish Bible) ended “In the fullness of time...” (Galatians 4:4-5.) For four hundred years, God was preparing Rome and Israel for the coming of Christ. Had He come any sooner, it would have been like taking a cake out of the oven before it was fully baked. FOR JOY IN THE MIDST OF ANY TEST IN LIFE, WE MUST TRUST CHRIST WITH EVERY MOMENT OF HIS TIMING FOR YOU AND ME AS WELL AS FOR ALL THE REST OF THIS WORLD IN EVERY MATTER.
Mary and Martha rejoiced to see their brother Lazarus raised from the dead IN CHRIST'S PERFECT TIMING, though their obvious emotionally painful questions were met with Christ's silence until that timing was perfect. The Jews believed the soul didn't leave the body of a dead person until the third day after they died. Thus, Jesus didn't arrive to raise him until the third day and He didn't rise from the grave Himself until the third day either. That stopped all speculation that Lazarus or He were still alive and hadn't really died before they rose.
To summarize: God's silence DOES have REAL PURPOSE. It isn't because He doesn't love you, or doesn't exist, that He doesn't answer you. When is the one time you can't ask your Earthly teacher or HeavenlyTeacher the answer to a question? - When you're in the midst of a test. The major purpose of God's test of silence is to teach you patience and endurance. His question to you is, are you willing to trust Him any time you have to wait for Him to reveal His answer, no matter how long it is that you must wait?
Study it again - James 1:2-4: “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing thatthe testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have it's perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” Verse 4 is absolutely worth the wait.