God is Strangely Silent?

When we observe people making careless, forgetful or foolish choices in the Bible, it means we too could make the same mistakes--likely have already done so.  God's word is able to discern the thoughts and intents of our hearts, clearly identify sin and exposes our fleshly propensity to practice it.  I have learned by experience I can identify with the villains in scripture because all people spiritually share sinfulness in common in its countless forms.  Spiritual maturity enabled Paul to say without exaggeration he was the "chief of sinners," and thus when God's people observe sinfulness in scripture it always hits close to home, having been written for our instruction.

Yesterday I read the passage that followed a miraculous victory God provided over the Philistines by Jonathan and his armour bearer who trusted Him.  After King Saul built his first altar to sacrifice unto God, we read in 1 Samuel 14:36-37, "Now Saul said, "Let us go down after the Philistines by night, and plunder them until the morning light; and let us not leave a man of them." And they said, "Do whatever seems good to you." Then the priest said, "Let us draw near to God here." ³⁷ So Saul asked counsel of God, "Shall I go down after the Philistines? Will You deliver them into the hand of Israel?" But He did not answer him that day."  Though Saul began his reign humbly and wisely, it was not long until Saul gave himself preeminence rather than God.  He placed his people under a curse and forbade them to eat food until "I have avenged myself on my enemies."  His priorities were corrupted by selfishness and a desire for glory and honour from his people rather than glorifying the LORD.  He built an altar to God, but his pattern of behaviour suggests this was more his sake than God's.

Notice what Saul did:  he decided it would be good to go down and attack the Philistines all night, and it sounded like a great idea to his subjects.  At the suggestion of the priest, Saul inquired of the LORD if they should go down after the Philistines and if victory was assured.  Yet God did not answer him that day.  I wonder how often we make this mistake, to make a decision and first run our ideas past people for approval rather then drawing near to God for guidance.  It is no surprise to me God did not speak to Saul when the king was quite full of himself and his own ideas.  He viewed public worship of God as an opportunity to honour himself among the people, and God would not be a pawn to be ordered around--to be allowed to speak only when spoken to.  How many people already have their minds made up when they have not even prayed!  We ought to seek God as our first priority because we live to serve Him and willingly lay down our will to do all He says.

When we feel slighted by friends, threatened by enemies, are victims of injustice or wonder what to do, our tendency is to lean on our own understanding rather than to first seek the LORD and wait on Him.  God asked His people who imagined God was clueless about wrongs they suffered in Isaiah 40:27, "Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel: 'My way is hidden from the LORD, and my just claim is passed over by my God'?"  God was not ignoring His people:  it was they who neglected to wait on the LORD!  Unlike people, God does not grow faint or weary.  He always knows what He will do and the good purposes He will fulfil by allowing enemies, suffering or injustice.  Let us glory in our God by seeking Him first as we read in Isaiah 40:29-31:  "He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength. ³⁰ Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, ³¹ but those who wait on 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."