The Twenty-Four Days of Christmas Day Twenty-Three

Silence

 

Our home is filled to the brim with hundreds of books of every kind.  We have so many books that we do not have enough shelf space.  As if those are not enough, within ten minutes I can drive to a library where there are thousands of books (and video, and audio recordings) available to me. 

Most of us have multiple Bibles in our home.  Our house has at least a dozen (we donated a lot in the past year).  In addition we have commentaries, Bible study books, Bible histories, Bible dictionaries, and many, many other works that explain the Bible more thoroughly.  I can just sit down whenever I want to, pick up my Bible and read it for myself.  

Every Sunday, and almost every Wednesday (at least when we are healthy), we drive to church and our preacher explains more of the Bible to us.  We pray together as a church, we share with one another how those prayers are answered from week to week.  We point out to one another instances throughout the week when we have seen God's hand in our lives and the lives of those we love.  

We take it for granted.

Now imagine a world without all these forms of communication.  Imagine that there are only a few scrolls with God's word.  The "preachers" (or the priests and prophets) who in years past would tell us what God had said and how He was working, had nothing.  No words.  No communication from God.  No place to gather as a group of people who worship the same God.  Not even any rebuke from God.  

Nothing. 

Just silence.

For four hundred years.  

After four hundred years, don't you think there was very little hope left in God's promises?

After four hundred years, do you think there might have been a lack of hope bordering on despair?

Stop a minute and listen to the silence.  

Feel the darkness.

And far away in the distance, listen to the one or two voices that dare to sing despite the waning hope:

O come, O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here,
Until the Son of God appear.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan's tyranny;
From depths of hell Thy people save,
And give them victory o'er the grave.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Dayspring, from on high,
And cheer us by Thy drawing nigh;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And death's dark shadows put to flight.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Key of David, come
And open wide our heav'nly home;
Make safe the way that leads on high,
And close the path to misery.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Adonai, Lord of might,
Who to Thy tribes, on Sinai's height,
In ancient times didst give the law
In cloud and majesty and awe.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

As you listen, dare to hope.

He came.

He will return.