The last words of Malachi foretell the second manifestation of Elijah, in the person of John the Baptist. He is born the same year as the Messiah, and comes to prepare the way, ending the silence that reigned for 400 years. No prophetic voice sounded over the nation. Contrast the fear in the people of Bethlehem when Samuel approached, asking if he was coming peaceably. To the times of Elijah who announces the shutting down of the economy. From Malachi 400 years marked by upheavals but also marked via the silence from heaven.
We must understand the 400 years of silence. It does not mean that the Lord did not speak to individuals, it just means that the figure of the prophet, bold and able to approach rulers and governments with the Word of the Lord, did not happen throughout those years. What God decided to do was to visit and prepare those outside of the privileged classes of the nation. He decided to hide the select few who would be content to wait upon His direction and share in His Secrets. It is then a given that those who share in the secrets of the Lord must also dwell in His Secret Place. Exodus 33 gives us this illustration in the life of Moses, where he is hidden by God as His Glory passes by. However, this time the glory in the shape of the Word being made flesh, needed a people content to be hidden and unknown, because in that place God could bring to an end the silence that had reigned.
To those so sensitive to the Voice of the Lord, 400 years without His Voice must have been like torture, yet for Levites, with their sacrifices, liturgies, maybe did not detect this gap in the Lord’s dealings with His people. Remember this silence reigned over God’s people. I sometimes wonder if we are entering this phase again when all we want to hear are blessing words, when warnings and signs abound. The shakings, the cups, trumpets and bowls must sound and be felt in God’s own house first, that is the gathering of the saints. Yet what is desired, what is lived in, is a deluded “all is well, and business as usual” reigns. If anything since 2020 I think this has ended with a great trumpet blast. The prayers, the blood of the saints will be the triggers of the judgments on the Church, through the Church. Who stands the fire, can call down fire.
We have misrepresented two things; ourselves and God. We paint a new gospel that God “knows our hearts” and that “we are inherently good” great lies of the devil, because we all are hopelessly fallen short, and we all are not righteous, not one outside of the Mission of the Lord, Christ, and King. The human heart, a diamond made of flesh, hardest to tame and hardest to transform. And in misrepresenting ourselves we diminish the power and the graphic nature of the vecarious sacrifice of Jesus. The need for our redemption, and His Greatness, and His Holiness also. And this misrepresentation can be a symptom of this general silence.
When we see in Ezekiel 10 the Glory begin to depart, the first dislocation, was from the Holy Place to the Outer Court. It is here that the Glory is seen, felt and moved in by those who lived in “the outer court”, and when God uses those outside ecclesiastical positions, we must not see this as being encouraging, because when He needs to use the ignorant to confound the wise we know His Presence is departing. When God ceases to be present in the most holy places of spiritual truth and activity we must understand that He is grieved beyond measure. This grief is reflected then in the drastic measures that then take place. The Holy Place is no longer the resting place for God but the resisting place. Places where spiritual life must flow now is like a dry desert. No structure can be taken for granted, and we must return to our ultimate words and promises we heard and see where we veered off.
The ministry, the clergy has been for many years been the source of great scandal, and one wonders that if there had been an addiction in the flesh, is indicative of a great inner and spiritual emptiness. The word “holiness” has become obsolete and it is no coincidence that the fruit is great sin and iniquity. So if “Ichabod” has come and we like Samson “wist not that the Spirit had departed” is a great tragedy of our times. When the drums, keyboards, guitars, great voices, and tunes, hide a raw and empty holy place.
When we face the torn curtain, knowing that God has exposed our emptiness, behind the pomp and circumstance we have a choice, we either fall on our faces, or we try to sow up the curtain and simply carry on as before. Just that this historical event was a foreshadowing what would come down 40 years later. They sowed up the curtain, but Titus demolished the sanctuary. And when we are exposed and attempt to sow our torn curtain we seal the eventual demolishing of our efforts. It also reveals the root motivation of what we built. Herod made a majestic Temple, but yet in the very area where heavenly beauty it was empty, because Herod did not build with God’s plan, nor with God’s glory in mind, it was to bring his own reign into focus. How many ministries, Churches, are this way? And what Herod did was build in a time when God, the Most High was silent. Many today are doing the same. They are building when even David Wilkerson wrote in the book “The Vision” about God not being able to afford the opulent buildings, because as men build up the Presence diminishes.
And he who recognises that God entered into silence does not project but pray, does not stand but prostrates himself , does not carry on as usual but comes into a deep place of prayer, to find out why God is silent.
And it is in the silent years that many false christs came, and many stones were fashioned. There were those however, recognised that the silence was not just a judgment but was a preparation for new and greater things. And for this reason I would venture to say we are in the “Silent Years of the Lord” because He is not speaking to a King or Government, but He is hidden in houses, and families, forsaking the usual holy places for this specific times. He is preparing a time we have not seen in Biblical times. We are about to pass to seeing in the spiritual realms divine realities, to seeing them with our physical eyes. However the spirit of Elijah will come to prepare the Church for His Coming, and His Coming is not as Redeemer, but Glorified King.
Maranatha!
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