We are almost done with the old testament in our timeline series. We are about to transition from the old testament to the new testament, but as we do that we have to deal with something very important. Feeling abandoned and alone.
Now you may be asking, What does the transition between the old and new testaments have to do with feeling abandoned and alone? Stay with me and we’ll see.
It’s time to get really honest with ourselves. Have you ever gone through a time in your life when you felt alone...like even God had abandoned you? Things start going bad in your life and you start praying, looking for answers. But no matter how much you asked God for an answer, He was silent. Well, you’re not the only person to go through this scenario. We see this kind of situation play out in scripture several times.
Genesis 12:4 “4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.”
Abraham has an encounter with God. God tells him that he will make of him a great nation. This is wonderful news because his wife Sarah had not been able to have children. Then waiting.
Genesis 21:5 “5 Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.”
Abraham had to wait 25 years for God’s word to come to pass. What do you do while you wait, and God is silent? You probably get frustrated, and try to move things along yourself.
You start going to church more often, begin reading a “verse of the day” and when it gets really bad you resort to actually giving a little in the offering box. And despite doing all the stuff that you thought was supposed to earn you some favor with God...you got nothing. The result was just prayers that seem to bounce off the ceiling back at you. You feel alone, just sitting and waiting.
Here’s what Abraham did while waiting...and just to be clear, I don’t recommend this. Abraham took matters into his own hands. He messed up by giving in to what Sarah, his wife wanted. She suggested that Abraham take one of her maid servants (Hagar) and have a child with her. How do you think that worked out? Not too good. The child that Abraham and Hagar had was named Ishmael. Do you know what the descendants of Ishmael ended up doing? They started their own religion...Islam.
The miracle son that Abraham eventually had with Sarah was Issac and of course he is in the line that would produce the nation of Israel. Now who are the biggest enemies of Israel to this day? The Muslims. Do you see where taking things into your own hands can go terribly wrong?
Here’s another example of someone who heard from God, but then had to go a long time without another direction. Noah. He was 500 years old when God told him to build the ark, but the flood didn’t come until he was 600 years old. Now I’m no mathematician, but that looks like a 100 years to me. Noah remained on course, in his lane, and kept working on what God told him to do, despite not getting further directions for 100 years.
And there’s Joseph, who was in slavery, in prison and generally mistreated by everyone. But he kept moving forward and didn’t give up, even though by every measurable standard we have
today, we would believe God abandoned him. But God was using every event in Joseph’s life to move him closer to the job that he was born to do. And that was to save his family from a famine and move them to Egypt.
And how about Job? Can you remain faithful to God during difficult circumstances or will you be like Job’s wife and just give up, want to curse God and die?
We have all watched a movie that had an opening scene and afterward it faded to black and then the words “3 years later.” The story picks up later in time and they don’t explain the details of what was happening. There is something similar in the Bible.
If you were watching a movie of the entire Bible, right after the prophetic book of Malachi, which is the last book of the old testament...there would be a fade to black, and then text that says “...400 years later”
That’s right, 400 years. That is how much time elapsed between the last words of the Old Testament and the first words of the New Testament. They are referred to as the “silent” years, because there was no prophetic word from the Lord during those years.
The silent 400 years are known by Bible scholars as the intertestamental period. That’s just a big theological word that means “between the old and new testaments.”
Waiting for God’s timing has been a thing for thousands of years.
Just because God’s has you in a waiting period does not mean he has abandoned you.
Let’s look at what happened during the waiting time of the 400 year intertestamental period.
We can’t get into all the details, but here are the highlights: The intertestamental period divides into six historical divisions: the Persian Era (536-336 BC), the Greek Era (336-323 BC), the Egyptian Era (323-198 BC), the Syrian Era (198-165 BC), the Maccabean Era (165-63 BC), and the Roman Era (63-4 BC).
Kingdoms and kings were rising and falling during this 400 years.
But here’s the amazing thing...All of these events were predicted by the prophet Daniel in chapter 11 of his book.
The book of Daniel lays out what actually will happen during this “silent” period. You see God didn’t actually remain silent, He told them what would happen. There was no need to provide more information, He had already given them the roadmap. But they were not content to just wait on God’s timing.
There were 4 major Jewish groups that emerged during this 400 years of waiting, each with their own idea of what would move things along.
The Pharasees. They held firmly to the law and expanded it into every aspect of everyday life, making it impossible to keep. They valued their own tradition over scripture. Spiritual Legalism is their legacy. Jesus was not a big fan of these guys.
The Sadducees. They felt that God’s law and a nation’s politics were totally separate. They were skeptical of the Pharisees and thought of them as old-fashioned, irrelevant, and fanatical. They were the wealthy class and held the majority of seats on the ruling council, the Sanhedrin. They did not believe in the resurrection of the dead, and so they persecuted the apostles for teaching that Jesus rose rom the dead. Jesus was not a fan of these guys either.
The Herodians. They were a political party. Their major aim was to further the cause of Herod’s government, because they viewed him as sort of a messiah. They were perhaps motivated by a fear of the Roman government and the possibility of total destruction that could result from an act of rebellion by the Jews.
The Zealots. They were also a political party , but they had a fiery nationalistic spirit. They sought to overthrow the roman government. The teachings of this group stressed a type of man- made, military deliverance rather than divine intervention.
When Jesus comes along, He challenges the ideas of all these groups, and they hate Him for it. Their hatred for Jesus was the one thing that could bring them together. Killing Jesus became their goal.
All of these groups came into being because of their attempt to move God’s plan along in the way they saw best. They should have been content to wait and be at peace with God’s timing. It is very hard for humans to maintain a course when they don’t have constant reassurance that they are going the right direction.
Does this remind you of a time when you had to wait and felt abandoned by God. I think it does for most of us. Let’s talk about how we are supposed to view those times. And what to do if you are in one right now. This may be the most important thing we can learn as Disciples of Christ. How do we deal with the times when God seems silent?
Here is the question. Can you maintain course, when the GPS is silent? Do you need constant reassurance that you are going the right direction? Do you get anxious and convince yourself that this can’t be the right direction?
It’s difficult when our life is going down a smooth highway and
God tells us to turn off onto a bumpy back road and then goes silent. We convince ourselves that certainly God would not want me on this difficult narrow road where I’m going through rough neighborhoods at night. Maybe I’ll just start looking for a sign that leads me back to the interstate. And so we start praying for that sign...but God is silent, because that is not what He wants for us.
The road we are on has a purpose, even when we don’t see it or like it. We just have to keep going, and trusting that “even though I’m traveling through the valley of the shadow of death, He is with me.”
If you decide you know best and turn back onto the highway, that is when you find that it is at a complete standstill from the wreck that’s up ahead. Maybe that’s the wreck God was trying to protect you from. Do you trust Him?
Do you get nervous when God is silent? Do you try like Abraham to make a turn that God didn’t tell you to make?
If you are headed the right direction, all you have to do is keep going. God will tell you as you approach the turn He wants you to make? It’s all about remaining steady and waiting to hear God’s directional voice.
Isaiah 40:28-31 “28 Have you not known? Have you not heard The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. 29 He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. 30 Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; 31 but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up
with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.”
Waiting patiently is the key to overcoming your anxiety during trials that make you feel alone. Are you tired? Do you need some strength? Wait on the Lord and stay the course. His timing is perfect.
Lamentations 3:25 “25 The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.”
Are you seeking His kingdom?
Psalm 27:14 “14 Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!”
Don’t run ahead and try to move God’s plan along faster.
Psalm 130:5-6 “5 I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope; 6 my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning.”
Wait for the Lord with anticipation. Like a watchman on a wall waiting for dawn. At dawn the overwhelming feeling of anxiety that was so real during the night is over. You should look forward to God’s resolution with great anticipation, while you wait.
Remember this, if you feel alone, if you feel abandoned, if you feel afraid...it is just a feeling. We are not supposed to be ruled by our feelings, but by the facts of God’s word. Here is what His word says about what we do while we are waiting:
Psalm 27:1-14 “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?2 When evildoers assail me to eat up my flesh, my adversaries and foes, it is they who stumble and fall.
3 Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war arise against me, yet I will be confident.4 One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.5 For he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble; he will conceal me under the cover of his tent; he will lift me high upon a rock.
6 And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me, and I will offer in his tent sacrifices with shouts of joy; I will sing and make melody to the Lord.7 Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud; be gracious to me and answer me!
8 You have said, “Seek my face.” My heart says to you, “Your face, Lord, do I seek.”9 Hide not your face from me. Turn not your servant away in anger, O you who have been my help. Cast me not off; forsake me not, O God of my salvation!
10 For my father and my mother have forsaken me, butthe Lord will take me in.11 Teach me your way, O Lord, and lead me on a level path because of my enemies.12 Give me not up to the will of my adversaries; for false witnesses have risen against me, and they breathe out violence. 13 I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lordin the land of the living!14 Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!”
As the body of Christ, we are now in another time of waiting. We await the arrival of our Messiah Jesus, as the victorious King. We are not to lose heart as the times get worse and worse. We are to look forward with great anticipation and work to grow His kingdom with every passing day. Even though there will be those who deny that Jesus is going to return.
2 Peter 3:3-4 “3 knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinfuldesires. 4 They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.”
You see, we are just like Israel who had to wait on the Messiah to arrive during the 400 years of “silence.” They were told the things that would take place before His arrival, by the prophet Daniel. And we have also been shown the things that will take place before His next arrival in the New Testament. We must hold on to the hope that we have been given.
Luke 21:25-28 “25 “And there will be signs in sun andmoon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and thewaves, 26 people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world. For the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 27 And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. 28 Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”
Do not lose heart today. We are not alone. He has not abandoned us. Wait on The Lord! Our redemption is drawing near!
Comments