Out of Silence

Joseph and the good times in Egypt were distant memories.
A story told to children at bedtime.
Life had been reduced to repetitive, back breaking slave labour.
Making endless bricks from morning until night, day after day under the burning hot sun.
Life had lost its joy and its meaning.
Even their God had turned His face away from them.
Their cries were met with silence.
Futility had settled into their souls.
Generation after generation nothing changed.
400 years has passed since their God has last spoken
400 years of silence.

Then suddenly, the heavens opened! God responded to their cries and raised up Moses, their deliverer !!
God’s voice was once again heard ! He took them out of Egypt, out of bondage, drowned their enemy in the sea !!
He set them free !! Free ! They had forgotten what it felt like.
Oh the rejoicing, the celebrating that now filled their days.
Then wonder adding to wonder Moses told them that they were going to build a tabernacle – a dwelling place for God.
The God who had been silent for 400 years was now going to dwell among them ??
How eagerly they gathered together what they would need to build the tabernacle. Everything Moses called for the people brought, joyfully and willingly until they had to be told to stop – there was more than enough to build God’s house.

But time went on and people forgot ! How short is man’s memory.
Once again , man chose bondage over freedom , sin over righteousness and their own gods over the One who dwelt among them.

And once again God turned His face away and stopped speaking to them.
For another 400 years.

Then God raised up John the Baptist who called the people back to repentance….and He raised up His own Son to set His people free.
To take them out of bondage, out of the grasp of the Enemy and into His sweet Presence.
Again God said, “I will dwell among you !”
John 1:14 “And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld His glory and the glory as of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth.”

And again, God wanted a tabernacle built for Him to live in. This time , not of physical materials but out of flesh – His believers, His own children – the called-out ones out of Egypt.
“In whom you also are builded together for a habitation of God through the Spirit.” (Eph. 2:22)

Though we are builded together, as many members, into the ‘body’ of Christ we are also individually a temple of God’s Spirit. (Rom.12:5, I Cor. 6:15)

You and I are clay vessels into whom God has poured His Spirit.
“But we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us.” (II Cor. 4:7)

Are you aware of the treasure you carry within you ?
Do you share it with those around you?
Do you honour God in how you keep His taberncle? Is it a place worthy to be the dwelling place of the Most High?
Are you still celebrating with joy the fact that God broke His silence to speak through His Son?
Do you hear His voice? Are you eagerly listening for it ? With a heart soft toward obedience?