Names, Fatherhood and Silence of God...

1. Shalom... The One who Gives Peace... The Lord Our Banner
2. Jireh... The God who Redeems... The Lord Who Provides
3. Adonai... The One who is Ruling... The Lord Our Master

This is our happiest conception of God...

“‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name...

[Matthew 6:9]

The price of having a happy relationship with God as our Father is how the Bible pictures God as loving, friendly, companionable, approchable and desirable. Pagan religions know nothing of a God which is a 'loving heavenly Father'. Pagan religions portray God as immense, terrible, cruel and one to be dreaded.

The silence of God does NOT prove His non-existence or indifference. This is because God wants us to find Him and come to Him even to His mercy seat where we can bring our cause and petitions before Him.

If only I knew where to find him; if only I could go to his dwelling! I would state my case before him and fill my mouth with arguments.

[Job 23:3-4]

Men have devised several probable answers to this age-old problem:

• Deism - God is a good God but He has no time to look after the details of life. God is only a spectator of the affairs of this life.
• Atheism - silence proves that God is a myth. A living God would speak
• Materialism - The world is governed by law, without a personal God. They teach that we are at the mercy of blind chance.

To reject God and the Bible only plunges mankind into greater darkness. The wrong answers given by man to explain God's silence followed by the explanation of how contradicting men's answers can be:

1. Indifference - Christ suffering on the cross cries, "My God. My God." God cared so much for our souls that He continued His wrath upon the Son.
2. Unobservant - This is contrary to the omniscient understanding of God.
3. Unloving - The parent that truly loves a child will punish it. Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? If you are not disciplined—and everyone undergoes discipline—then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all. [Hebrews 12:7-8]
4. Unwillingness - He sees the end from the beginning and plans our whole lives.

Here are the possible reasons for the silence of God:

1. Common sense view - A lot of the difficulty is a result of deliberate sin due entirely to man's carelessness, neglect and folly, such as accidents. Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. [Galatians 6:7]
2. Reverent view - Is it right that my puny mind should question the workings of the Almighty God? “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. [Isaiah 55:8-9]
3. The philosophical view - Human free will involves the consequences of those actions. Human freedom means moral responsibility.
4. Lover's view - God is a jealous lover. He seeks to divorce us from everything and cause us to cling closely to Him. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me... [Exodus 20:5]
5. Dispensational view - This is the day of man, the day of sin, the day of grace when God beckons, "Come Home" but a day of judgment, interference, and the silence of God will be broken with audible condemnation. God will yet reckon accounts with men and their relationships with God and society.
6. Faith view - Lord teach me to wait patiently. Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” [John 13:7]
7. The testing of my faith - These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. [1 Peter 1:7]
8. The mysterious works of God - “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. [John 9:3]

Live in a conscious sence of His presence even though He seems to be silent. Learn to think positively. I know God - I spoke to Him today. He spoke to me through His own precious Word. He spoke through answered prayers. God really does answer prayers in His own ways and at His own timing.

The best time to deepen our acquintance with God is during our quiet time with Him. Be still, and know that I am God... [Psalm 46:10]