Hello, dear people.
It sure looks like another day is in the making. Before I get going on my work objectives, I’ll do my little old man jog down the road. Tazzy is patiently waiting.
May your day be blessed as you seek to please Him. After all, that’s why we’re here
Love, Ray.
My current line of inspiration wants to pause on those words—“…he remained silent.”
The next verse goes this way: “So Pilate questioned him again. ‘Have you nothing to say? Don’t you hear these many allegations they’re making against you?’ But Jesus offered no defense…” (15:3-5, TPT).
Just previous to this while being tried and falsely accused in the big assembly of Jewish leaders we’re given this description: “Finally, the chief priest stood up in the middle of them and said to Jesus, ‘Have you nothing to say about these allegations? Is what they’re saying about you true?’ But Jesus remained silent before them and did not answer” (14:60-61, TPT).
So, what is there to glean from this? I think there’s a principle here relative to the way God chooses to behave—one that I think is rooted in the words of Jesus when He affirms, “He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters” (Matthew 12:30, NIV). On that basis, our world is still full of opponents to God and the revelation of Himself in the Person of Jesus Christ. It’s also quite full of accusations and allegations that little puny humans make against The Most High. “If God is a God of love and care, how could He allow such evil and suffering in the world He has made—the atrocities of slavery, the holocaust, that big tsunami, 9/11—and permit my great-great uncle to be murdered and scalped by the Apaches in 1837?” Why in the world do these little earthlings think that the Sovereign of the universe is under obligation to answer their arrogant, ignorant, self-centered, narrow-minded complaints, criticisms, and allegations to their satisfaction? In response to that kind of noise, He still chooses to REMAIN SILENT. After all, if God always gave nice clear explanations to everyone as they wanted, He could be violating His own Word by answering “a fool according to his folly” (Proverbs 26:4)—or he may be led to “be wise in his own eyes” (Proverbs 26:5).
Ah, but on the other hand, He really is responsive to those who choose to humble themselves before Him and seek to know and live to please Him. Let me add Biblical support here by quoting from Isaiah in the KJV—the version from which I memorized it years ago: “Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:6-9, KJV). In response to such an approach (a HEART AFTER GOD), I can assure you, He will not “remain silent.” Thank God for that!