Divine Isolation

Let him sit alone and be silent since He has laid it on him.  Lamentations 3:28

Alone – If God believes that it is not good to be alone, then why does God Himself bring about an emptiness in our hearts?  Why are there times in life when we just can’t seem to connect, even with the Almighty, when every relationship is as fragile as a snowflake and just as easily melted?  Under a leaden sky, we cry out, “Lord, Lord, where are you now?”  And there is no answer.

Jeremiah knew this kind of spiritual destitution.  For forty years he preached the word of the Lord.  He met only opposition, rejection and injury.  He sits alone (badhadh yashabhti) because God’s hand is heavy upon him.  But he does not relinquish his faith in the God of righteousness and justice.  The solution Jeremiah offers is difficult but necessary.  When the weight of the soul presses our faces to the dust, there is only one thing to do – be silent.  Isolation and solitude are spiritual chemotherapy.  This is salvation that feels like death, but God will not abandon His own.  The emptiness makes room for whispers.

The life of faith is sometimes discovered in a desert of desperate emptiness.  Jeremiah remembers the faithfulness of God.  He recalls that the Lord’s compassions are new every morning.  He knows that it is good to wait for God.  But right now, his soul is filled with holes.  We might seek counsel.  We might consider a vacation.  We might turn up the volume.  The desert of desperation is not a friendly place.  It feels like death because it is so close to death.  But God lives in the graveyards of our expectations.  If you want to meet the risen Savior, you will have to go to the tomb.

Sitting alone in silence is the last thing a human being wants to do.  God made us social creatures and we will do all we can to maintain that feeling of connectedness.  Too often, our human relationships act as buffers for the God of the graveyard.  We need to sit among the gravestones where the voices of human interaction are mute before we will hear the God of the empty earth.  By avoiding waste places, we rob ourselves of the deafening silence of the Creator.  To be in His presence is to feel, not hear, the sound of holiness.

Note:  In the next several days, we will look at both Greek and Hebrew words for prayer.  Everyone says prayer is absolutely vital to a relationship with God, but few of us seem to experience the deep and enriching prayer like Jesus had.  It’s time to investigate what makes prayer in the Bible so different.