Can You Hear Me Now?

"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.