“Silence returns us to what is real…you might feel out of control, because when silence circulates it makes you that much more aware that you’re not in control…so it puts people against a wall and says this is you & your human & your existing right now & this is your reality. Do you like it? And often people say ‘no.’ So they don’t want to know that their moment is uncomfortable.” – Dr. Helen Lees

“…where is God?…When you are happy, so happy that you have no sense of needing Him, so happy that you are tempted to feel His claims upon you as an interruption, if you remember yourself and turn to Him with gratitude and praise, you will be—or so it feels—welcomed with open arms. But go to Him when your need is desperate, when all other help is vain, and what do you find? A door slammed in your face, and a sound of bolting and double bolting on the inside. After that, silence. You may as well turn away. The longer you wait, the more emphatic the silence will become. There are no lights in the windows. It might be an empty house. Was it ever inhabited? It seemed so once. And that seeming was as strong as this. What can this mean? Why is He so present a commander in our time of prosperity and so very absent a help in time of trouble?…(God) reminded me that the same thing seems to have happened to Christ: ‘Why hast though forsaken me?’ I know. Does that make it easier to understand?” — CS Lewis

TEXT: Matthew 1:11-16

And so how did God speak to his people in the silence? HE chose to speak through…(1. Significant Loss 2. Steadfast Hope 3. Simple People)

1. Significant Loss (v. 12)

“And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Shealtiel, and Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel…” — Matthew 1:12 

“O Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction, blessed is he who repays you as you have done to us. 9 Blessed is he who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks.…” – Psalm 137:8-9

2. Steadfast Hope (v. 13)

“…and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor…” — Matthew 1:13

“After the return of Israel from the Exile, the Davidic line continues through Jeconiah. Apparently Jeconiah died in Babylon during the Exile (cf. Jer. 52: 34). He was a wicked king (2 Kings 24: 8–9; 2 Chron. 36: 9), and his evil was so great that Jeremiah’s blistering prophecy declared that “none of his offspring will prosper, none will sit on the throne of David or rule anymore in Judah” (Jer. 23: 30)…Jeconiah fathered Shealtiel (1 Chron. 3: 17), who in turn fathered Zerub-babel, the leader of the first group allowed to return to Israel from the Exile. Zerubbabel was the governor of Judah under the Persian king Darius I (Ezra 3: 2; 5: 2) and is held in high esteem as a man of renown in Jewish tradition (Sir. 49: 11).” — Michael Wilkins

3. Simple People (v. 16)

“…and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.” — Matthew 1:16

• TAKEAWAYS: What can we learn in the silence?

* God’s silence does not equal absence

“Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord! O Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy!” -Psalm 130:1-2

“…I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope; 6 my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning. 7 O Israel, hope in the Lord!” -Psalm 130:5-7

* God’s silence has a greater good

“But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.” — Micah 5:2