Why God Is Silent

Though God tells the people of Israel that he loves them and calls them to return, they answer him back no fewer than six times: when has he loved them, and how are they to return? In Judah, after the death of King Josiah, the wicked persecuted the righteous and still no judgment came, so the people mocked God’s silence and counted repentance as futile.

God is silent not because he is unaware of their sin but because he is waiting for the time of judgment. When wrongdoing goes unpunished at once, people lose their fear, like those whose conscience has been seared, and grow ever bolder in sin; yet the moment he lifts his hand, there is no further chance. Even in this silence God kept putting questions to them, bearing with them patiently to the very end.

A faith that merely repeats its forms, without good character and genuine repentance, finds no forgiveness. The righteous must live by faith alone, even in suffering, and fix their eyes not on the prosperity of this world but on the eternal Kingdom. Remembering the day when they will stand before the judgment seat, they need to take hold of the last chance God gives and turn back.