Solomon said there is “A time to be silent and a time to speak” (Ecclesiastes 3:7). There is a time to speak to praise God and there is a time to be silent before God. We must learn when to do each. Often in our times of silence, we can learn more and express more than when we speak.
Be Silent When God’s Judgment Is Exhibited
In Leviticus 10:1-3 the Bible gives the details when Nadab and Abihu, Aaron’s sons who were priests offered fire that God had not authorized. He killed them instantly. Immediate judgment! To us, fire is fire, what difference would it make? What made the difference? It is the disobedience rather than obedience. God explained when He said, “By those who come near Me I will be treated as holy, and before all the people I will be honored” (Leviticus 10:3). Sin may not seem like a big deal to us, but when we sin, we are saying, “God you not holy, and we do not have to honor You. We must learn the great lesson that God is to be treated as holy and that is shown by our obedience. When we sin, we deny His holiness!
Only those of you who have suffered the heartache of having a child die while the parent lives can understand the grief Aaron must have felt! Yes, these men had sinned but that did not keep Aaron from feeling any less grief. But, if the instant death of Nadab and Abihu was not enough burden on Aaron, the next statement is even more shocking. When God told Aaron why his sons were killed his reaction was, “So Aaron, therefore, kept silent” (Leviticus 10:3). The Hebrew word for “silent” is the strongest word in the Hebrew language for silence (damam – Bible Student’s Commentary on Leviticus by A. Nooratzij, p. 110). The Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament says this about that Hebrew word, “To be dumb – astonished – to stop – to perish – to hold one’s peace” (#1826).
Aaron did not have any argument to present before God. He could not blame God. He could not react negatively against God. God’s actions in judgment were correct and Aaron was not to say anything against what God had done. God’s instructions to Aaron were made very clear, even though they were very hard to carry-out. Aaron and the two other brothers of Nadab and Abihu were not even to show any grief over their loved ones’ deaths.
“Then Moses said to Aaron and to his sons Eleasar and Ithamar, ‘Do not uncover your heads nor tear your clothes, so that you will not die and that He will not become wrathful against the congregation’” (Leviticus 10:6). Those actions would have been signs of grief and would have been a signal for the congregation to express their grief. If any of them had shown any grief, God’s wrath would have been executed on them! We must understand how God reacts to sin!
Another Example
The nation of Judah was carried into Babylonian captivity in three deportations – 606, 596 and 586. Ezekiel, the prophet was carried away early and was to minister to his people who were in captivity. In 606 B.C. when the city of Jerusalem and especially the temple were destroyed by the Babylonians, God conveyed the message as to how those already in captivity were to react. Their sins had brought about Jerusalem’s destruction. Ezekiel was a prophet who used many different “visual aids” to convey God’s messages. The saddest one was when God told Ezekiel that Jerusalem was to be destroyed, He said in so many words, “Your wife is about to die and when she dies, you are not to show any grief!” Ezekiel was to “Keep Silent.” What a difficult, but powerful sign to make God’s people see that you are not to grieve over Jerusalem’s destruction. In both cases given above, God wanted His people to see that His judgment is not to be questioned because those on whom His judgment comes, brought it upon themselves (Ezekiel 24).
Question
Often, we wonder, “How will we feel when we get to heaven and realize that our loved ones have gone to hell? Maybe the answer is that we are not to grieve because we realize that God’s final decision came because those who are lost had refused to obey Him. We can be satisfied because we know God gave them an opportunity to be saved and they rejected it. Therefore, we are not to grieve for them.
Application
When God disciplines us through events that come into our lives, let’s learn to be silent before God. We need to learn the lesson and to realize God’s actions are for our good. The same can be said when God’s judgment comes on nations because of their sins. God’s judgment is justified. The United States may be going through the judgment of God because of our sins. May we not blame God nor argue with Him, but be silent before God, knowing we have brought His judgment on our nation!
Wayne Burger