I really like these chapters because in them, we get to see the reason why this book is called Silence. After going through relentless torture and persecution despite their faithful dedication to the Lord, the characters have every right to question His reasons behind staying silent during a time where they need Him the most. Multiple times throughout the read, they ask themselves what have they done to evoke this silence, what sins did they commit to cause God to turn His face away from them. This observance leads me to ask my own self something: when did we humans start to see God's silence as solely demotion? Why can't we instead see it sometimes as promotion?
To put this in better perspective, remember the time when you were old enough and mature enough that your parents allowed you to stay at the house by yourself? In my view, this is exactly what's going on when God seems to "go away for a little while" (he never actually fully leaves us). He's trusting us to keep things in order and abide by His rules until He "returns". He wants to return finding a servant that has maintained integrity even while His Master has been away. So, in the cases of the characters, I think they need to stop imploring God what have they done in the past and instead pay close attention to what God's doing in their now, as hard as it is, harder than we could ever possibly imagine. God's silence can be the greatest gift He can give you. Sometimes it means you have gotten to a special point in your relationship with Him that He knows you will stay true to Him no matter what, even when you can't sense He's around.
"Silence is God's first language"-John of The Cross
Commented on blogs by Hailey and Moriah.
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As Japan's Christian community is going through this tragic crisis, no one else in the world seems to care very much. People are not rushing to go and help their brothers and sisters, but instead most people from other nations don't even seem to realize what's happening.