Chapter 6 – The Silence of the Lambs

There is a lesson I have been learning on the road to Zion. It is often a difficult lesson
to walk out, but one in which I desire to prevail and succeed. It is to remain silent
when others accuse falsely, and to respond with peace when I am reviled. Yahshua
demonstrated in His own life that it is futile to try to defend oneself in the face of
godless enemies. There is a time and place to give a defense of the gospel that we
preach, but there is likewise a time to be silent before those who do not understand
the experiences that we are enduring.

Isaiah 53:7
He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth;
Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before
its shearers, so He did not open His mouth.

Matthew 27:12-14
And while He was being accused by the chief priests and elders, He did
not answer. Then Pilate said to Him, “Do You not hear how many things
they testify against You?” And He did not answer him with regard to
even a single charge, so the governor was quite amazed.

Yes, Pilate was amazed at the restraint that Yahshua demonstrated in the face of His
accusers. It is equally amazing to me that those who observed the suffering of Christ
considered Him to be enduring the wrath of God due to His own sin.

Isaiah 53:4
Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; yet we
ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

Certainly, we think, God must have been interested in justifying His Son in the eyes
of sinful men and women. Certainly God would intervene and pronounce from
heaven, “This is My beloved Son. With Him I am well pleased.” Yet during the
moment of Yahshua’s trial, scourging, and crucifixion there were no voices from
heaven to announce Yahweh’s displeasure with the Chief Priest, the Sanhedrin, the
Pharisees, and the leaders of the Jews. Remarkably, Yahshua Himself remained
silent.

I can understand the remarkable nature of this, for when I began enduring a
firestorm of criticism for the path I was walking, there was much within me that
wanted to shout out that I was merely following the leading of the Spirit. I wanted
dull eared Christians to perceive what paths Yahweh will lead His faithful ones down.
I wanted others to see that I was not smitten and stricken of God, but that the Father
was pleased with my obedience to walk the path He had directed me down. I wanted
to give the evidences of Yahweh’s leading and prove conclusively to others that this
path I was walking was laid on me as obedience.

There were some instances where I tried to bring others to understand why I had
been removed from my place of ministry and why I was being commanded to walk
a walk of faith in regard to my family’s provision. When my family: parents, a brother
and sister, expressed disapproval of my walk I wanted to convince them of the reality
of Yahweh’s direction in my life. When fellow saints did not understand, I wanted
them to see. But without exception, I was never able to bring anyone to a place of
understanding. Those who did not see, still did not see after I spoke to them. Instead,
I felt like I had just participated in a futile exercise of self-justification.

After a few times of sharing with others who condemned my walk, I saw the futility
of trying to convince them otherwise. I felt the conviction of the Spirit that I was to
not defend myself or my reputation. I was to leave my defense TOTALLY in the
hands of the Father. He will vindicate all of His servants in His time.

Part of the Father’s will in this is that His Overcomers should die to their own
reputations. It is the Father’s will that His elect should die to all that is of self and
that has its roots in pride. The soul of man wants others to think well of itself. Our
soul does not want others to think lowly and unworthy things about us. Self wants
to be respected, but the scriptures reveal that the way to exaltation is the path of
humility and suffering.

Luke 6:22, 26
“Blessed are you when men hate you, and ostracize you, and insult you,
and scorn your name as evil, for the sake of the Son of Man… Woe to
you when all men speak well of you, for their fathers used to treat the
false prophets in the same way.”

It was the religious people of the day that rejected Yahshua. It was those who
considered themselves guardians of the Law and of the holy writings of the prophets
and patriarchs who condemned One who was totally righteous. Yahshua has given
fair warning that all of His disciples will endure the same.

John 15:20-21
“Remember the word that I said to you, “A servant is not greater than
his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they
kept My word, they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do
to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know the One who sent
Me.”

I know there are many who will read these words who are walking down difficult
roads due to choosing to be obedient to the voice of the Spirit. These ones will be
misjudged by family and friends and other Christians who do not understand the
ways of God. It is a bitter thing to have others look at your greatest trials, your
greatest acts of obedience and faithfulness to God, and to esteem you as a sinner, or
to consider you to be deluded. The temptation will arise to justify yourself before the
eyes of others. You will want others to say “Well done!”, and to encourage you on
your path, but instead you will receive misunderstanding and discouragement.

Listen to the voice of the Spirit when these times come. You will hear Him speaking
to you and encouraging you to rest and remain silent. He will exhort you to leave
your reputation completely in the hands of the Father and to seek only His approval.

If you are concerned that others do not recognize your obedience, and you are
insistent that they should acknowledge your faithfulness, you will only become angry
and embittered when they don’t. Know this with confidence, Yahweh will in His time
reveal those who are faithful and those who are not.

Consider David. He had the anointing oil poured over his head by the most revered
man of God in his day. It was prophesied that he was a man after God’s heart and
that Yahweh would establish him as king. Did anyone acknowledge this? Did anyone
honor those qualities in David that God was so pleased with? No! David’s father
thought so little of him that he did not even invite him to meet the prophet Samuel
when Samuel told Jesse to bring all of his sons. After Samuel anointed David, Jesse
sent David back out to tend sheep.

When David was sent by his father to check on the welfare of his brothers who were
serving in King Saul’s army, David’s oldest brother Eliab despised David, and he was
offended that David did not understand why no one had answered the challenge of
Goliath.

I Samuel 17:28
Now Eliab his oldest brother heard when he spoke to the men; and
Eliab’s anger burned against David and he said, “Why have you come
down? And with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness?
I know your insolence and the wickedness of your heart; for you have
come down in order to see the battle.”

No, David’s own family did not see in him the things that so captivated the heart of
Yahweh. David was little esteemed in the eyes of his family. After David slew Goliath
Saul brought David to be with him in his household and to be a servant to the king.
Yet Saul was jealous of David because he saw that God was with him. Saul did not
acknowledge that David was pleasing to God, nor did he give him honor. Instead,
Saul sought to kill David without a cause. We are told that David had to flee, and his
family had to flee as well. David had to take his parents to a foreign land to stay.

I Samuel 22:3-4
And David went from there to Mizpah of Moab; and he said to the king
of Moab, “Please let my father and my mother come and stay with you
until I know what God will do for me.” Then he left them with the king
of Moab; and they stayed with him all the time that David was in the
stronghold.”

Do you think that even then David’s parents acknowledged that he was God’s
anointed and that he was righteous in his actions? I think not. I suspect that they
blamed David for having to flee from the land of their inheritance. We have these
words of David in Psalm 27:

Psalms 27:9-10
Do not hide Your face from me, do not turn Your servant away in anger;
You have been my help; do not abandon me nor forsake me, O God of
my salvation! For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but
Yahweh will take me up.

What bitterness it must have been to David for his family to forsake him and to not
understand that he was suffering unjustly. I suspect David came to a point where he
no longer tried to convince them of his faithfulness to God. I believe he came to a
point of accepting that his obedience would only be known to Yahweh.

For many years David walked in wilderness places where he was humiliated time and
again. At his lowest point, the very men who attached themselves to him spoke of
stoning him. On another occasion when David and his men had faithfully guarded
a wealthy man’s flocks and kept all of his shepherds from harm, this man acted
despitefully toward David and spoke false and insulting words about David’s
character and motives.

I Samuel 25:10-11
But Nabal answered David’s servants and said, “Who is David? And
who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants today who are each
breaking away from his master. Shall I then take my bread and my
water and my meat that I have slaughtered for my shearers, and give it
to men whose origin I do not know?”

Nabal accused David of being an unfaithful servant to King Saul when David had
been the most faithful of servants. Nabal accused David of having rebelliously broken
off from Saul when the truth was that Saul was seeking to kill David without a
reason. In great anger and exasperation, David responded from his soul and he and
his men went forth with the intent to kill every member of Nabal’s household. Yet
God sent an intercessor in the form of Nabal’s wife Abigail to keep David from taking
vengeance into his own hand. David listened to the voice of Abigail and he was
genuinely grateful that he did not carry out the rash action that his soul was leading
him to perform.

I Samuel 25:32-33
Then David said to Abigail, “Blessed be Yahweh God of Israel, who sent
you this day to meet me, and blessed be your discernment, and blessed
be you, who have kept me this day from bloodshed and from avenging
myself by my own hand.

The saints who journey to Zion will encounter many events similar to this one.
People will deliberately interpret events in a manner that is inconsistent with the
judgment of Yahweh. They will speak evil of your good works and they will reproach
you for your obedience. The tendency of the flesh and soul of man is to respond in
defense of one’s reputation, even as David set out to do. Yet, Yahweh will send an
intercessor in the form of His Spirit to counsel us to not go down this path, nor to
take up the sword in defense of ourselves.

Abigail healed David’s wounded spirit by telling him that he would surely see the
fulfillment of all the things God had promised him. In the same way, the Spirit binds
up our hurts and reminds us of the calling set before us and the surety of our
inheritance if we will continue to walk faithfully before God.

The Spirit would entreat us to not use the sword in our own defense. What is the
sword that we are tempted to take up? It is the tongue.

Proverbs 12:18
There is one who speaks rashly like the thrusts of a sword, but the
tongue of the wise brings healing.

Do not allow your anguish and pain to lead you to speak rash words in defense of
yourself. Do not give in to the temptation to slash and cut others in retaliation for
their condemnation and misjudgment of your faithful walk. Follow the example of
our faithful Savior and restrain your lips from speaking in your own defense. Give
place to God to vindicate you in His own way and time. We are to count it a joy and
a blessing when others speak evil of us for our obedience. We will in no way lose our
reward.

I Peter 4:14
If you are reproached for the name of Christ, happy are you; for the
spirit of glory and of God rests upon you: on their part He is evil spoken
of, but on your part He is glorified.

Yes, it brings glory to God when we restrain our lips. When we are reviled we are to
speak a blessing in return. When men and women do not understand, when family
and friends condemn our walk, we are to entrust our reputation to the hands of the
Father and in due time He will manifest His righteous servants.

Those who would be citizens of Zion must rule over their tongues.

Psalms 141:3
Set a guard, O Yahweh, over my mouth; Keep watch over the door of my
lips.

Do not seek to justify yourself, but allow room for the Father to do so.

Proverbs 27:2
Let another praise you, and not your own mouth; someone else, and not
your own lips.

The road to Zion is a pathway of humility. If you can be evil spoken of and not speak
a word of rebuttal or retaliation then you have chosen righteously and are being
conformed to the image of Christ. If you can earnestly pray that those who have
misjudged you should be forgiven and their trespasses not held against them, then
you are making progress toward Zion’s gates.

It takes faith to remain silent when being falsely condemned. The saint must believe
that although man judges many things falsely, Yahweh will judge with righteousness
and fairness. The saint must believe his or her vindication will come, that their
obedience will have its reward in the hour appointed. Only by having this faith can
the saint be at peace. Only then can the lambs of God remain silent.

May you know this peace, for surely the promises of God will come. They will hasten
forward and not delay.