“The LORD answered him not.” (1 Sam. 28:6)
Saul was trying to reach God and nothing worked. I cannot think
of anything more horrible. If God is the Word, nothing in this
life is more serious than silence. The first time the astronauts
circled the moon controllers had to endure a awful period of silence
and a blackout of radio transmission. The moon itself came
between those men and all that were on earth. Thankfully, the
silence was broken and communications restored. When the heavens are
silent it is worse than being on the dark side of the moon. I can
think of nothing more awful than God not speaking to me. I must
remain on speaking terms. Those terms are clear. With sin
communications with God is in danger of breaking up and breaking
off. “Adam, where art thou?” Even Adam was not as pitiful
as Saul. At least God was calling Adam. Saul met with an
awful silence. Nothing worked. He could not find God in
prayer, in dreams, in Urim, nor by prophet. Silence.
I said I cannot think of anything worse than God not speaking to me,
however there is one thing that comes in second in its sadness, that is
God speaking to me, and I not listening. This lesser sadness is
only a hairs breath from the greater. God looks for us and calls
out to us from the garden of the Old and New Testament each morning, in
the cool of the day and if we are not there, how dangerous. I
would much rather have God’s violence than His silence.
Isaiah described the spiritual “bad connection” in great detail.
“The Lord’s hand is not shortened that He cannot save, nor His ear
heavy that He cannot hear, but your iniquities have separated between
you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he
will not hear.” It is not that He “cannot,” but He “will
not.” When Jesus stood before Herod and was pelted with
questions, the Bible says that our Lord “answered him nothing” (Lk.
23:9). In the commercial, the customer of a certain phone company
keeps asking (from the remotest places) “can you hear me now?”
The idea is perfect communication is possible no matter where you
are. Not so in the spiritual world. Psalm 66:18 is in the
instruction manual. "If I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord
will not hear me." Leave the province of God’s will, enter areas of
sin, walk in the “dark” rather than in the “light,” and the answer to
the “can you hear me now?” might be just silence. May we make
sure that nothing ever comes between heaven and our heart.