When God is Silent

and the book. Welcome! Our host is a lifelong student of the Middle East and respected author, Dr. Charlie Dyer. I'm John Geiger, and you know, Charlie, we've said it before, but many of us wonder what the future holds for Israel. While some things are very much uncertain, the Bible gives us an outline of what will happen in the last days. That's right.

host Michael Rudnick and me. These encouraging and informative videos will help you better understand God's future plans and how we can be actively waiting to access this video series. Visit Life in Messiah org and click on the Moody Radio button there to sign up. That's life in Messiah org.

They've said their goal is to eliminate Hamas leadership, to eliminate Hamas's ability to fire rockets, to eliminate the terror infrastructure, including the tunnels, and to remove Hamas's ability to govern Gaza. So what progress is being made? And then listen for information regarding negotiations for those being held captive. Now, in this case, some of the private meetings, like Israel's former head of Mossad traveling to Egypt, might actually be more

significant than the public meetings taking place. And then next watch to see what's happening in the US and Europe. A public relations battle is being waged on the streets and in the corridors of power right here. Don't ignore this battle because it could ultimately determine the level of support offered to Israel by our government and others. Now, here's the big picture. As I see it right now,

Israel has split the Gaza Strip in two. Their goal is to remove as many civilians from the northern half of the strip as possible, before going into the densely packed cities to root out Hamas. They hope to capture or kill Hamas's leadership there, and they also hope to rescue the hostages. They believe a main headquarters for Hamas, under the largest hospital in that area, and going after the commanders and forces hidden in those bunkers, that's going

to be a major goal. They're also trying to shore up support for the war among news media and politicians. They're resisting pressure by the US and the West to either have a cease fire or at least a pause. Once that happens, they believe Hamas would likely be able to survive. Few realize that this is actually the eighth major conflict between Israel and Hamas since Hamas took control of Gaza back in 2007. In the previous seven, outside pressure pushed for a cease fire, but this time Hamas

slaughtered 1400 people women and children, young and old. And Israel is convinced the only way to stop this cycle of violence is to eliminate Hamas. That's why they don't want to stop, and why they're not giving in to that pressure to have a cease fire.

failures and successes. Hamas has consistently provided distorted one sided coverage. Many of the so-called reporters in Gaza are paid by Hamas, and the reports are sensationalized and they're downright false. Often, you know, they reported Israel was using white phosphorus. Well, it wasn't true. They reported Israel attacked that hospital, killing 500 to 1000 people. It turned out to. B, a misfired Islamic Jihad rocket that landed in the parking lot.

They reported Israel attacked a convoy of civilians trying to flee south. But all the evidence points to Hamas ambushing those civilians. They reported an ambulance was hit by an Israeli missile, but they didn't report that the ambulance was being used by Hamas to transport fighters and weapons, not injured civilians. I keep going back. It was Winston Churchill who said, a lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.

And that leads to the next step in how to avoid getting fooled. Don't jump to conclusions before hearing the rest of the story. Even the mainstream media has been guilty of reporting statements without first checking the facts. Finally, and this is really important, avoid video reports from social media, especially those from TikTok. TikTok is a Chinese owned media

platform featuring a great deal of inaccurate, biased information. In a survey, 51% of young adults justified Hamas's massacre of Israeli civilians, largely because of TikTok videos, which are designed to reach millions of 18 to 24 year olds. Since it's the only content source for many in that generation, they're being brainwashed by a flood of anti-Semitic propaganda. The key takeaway here, John, don't get sucked in. Do your research, use credible resources, and check out opposing viewpoints.

sources and watch original video footage. There you'll get the true facts of what's happening.

They provided money to help with utilities and rent and other needs for families whose spouses were called up to serve. 40 members of their congregation were called back into the reserves, including two of his adult children, so they drove to the border to take winter clothes for the entire unit, along with snacks for the group. While there, they also

took time to pray with the soldiers. At the opposite end of the spectrum, I received an email from a friend who shared what's happening in the life of a muslim background believer in Gaza. That believer sent a goodbye text expressing his love for Israel and his disdain for Hamas. He expects his life to end and he is in physical danger, but he remains bold in sharing his faith. Finally, I saw a Facebook post from the wife of a believing Jewish guide. She described the impact of October 7th

on Israelis. She had a number of friends and acquaintances who lost loved ones, but she ended by teaching a Hebrew word that means resilience. Though shocked by the tragedy and and by those condemning Israel and criticizing Israel for fighting to protect their citizens, she responded by writing, so we have no other choice than to show resilience, so

we don't collapse under the weight of it all. Those are all good reminders for us to remember that God is at work in the lives of people on both sides of the battle lines, and we ought to be praying for the Jewish and Arab believers and asking God to protect them and to give them opportunities to share their faith.

the charred rubble. Using techniques developed while excavating destruction layers at ancient sites, the archaeologists are going through the charred remains of houses and cars combing. And sifting through the ash to find bone fragments or other material remains that can be used to identify those individuals. In the first month, they were able to identify the remains of ten men,

women and children previously thought missing. They're treating these houses and cars like archaeological digs, but with one major difference in a typical dig, they have little emotional attachment to any remains that are discovered because the person died several thousand years ago. In these digs, they're uncovering the remains of those who are alive just over a month ago. It's a heart rending job, but they also know that what they're doing is helping families find closure.

So how should we respond when God seems silent? These are essential questions and we're about to explore them in depth. Next. Hey, welcome to segment two of The Land. In the book, I'm John Geiger, inviting you to pause with me right now for a quick, refreshing idea on sharing the love of Christ with a Jewish friend. Obviously, any conversation about Jesus is a spiritual conversation. And if it's a spiritual conversation for Jesus, you have to wonder, isn't there opposition,

particularly when you're sharing your faith with Jewish people? Opposition to that very conversation. Wes Tabor is an ambassador for life in Messiah. What do you think is their opposition?

believe as long as they don't believe the truth. And third, Satan doesn't want us to share the gospel or Jewish people to believe it.

just enormous respect for Dr. Kessler. Thank you for being part of our program today, John.

that I did. And I thought, you know what? Maybe that's what we really need is a book about prayer written for amateurs by an amateur. So I began to reflect on it and put my thoughts together. And that's why I did it, because I think, as you said, most of the books that I came across that had to deal with prayer really make, I think, the wrong assumptions about the readers. You know, they assume that we either don't want to pray or that we don't know

how to pray. And I think the problem is elsewhere.

sided conversation with God that's almost universal. I know that there are some people who, when they talk about their prayer life, they will make it sound like, you know, oh, I talked to God. And then he talks back to me, and then I talk to him and he talks back to me. That has never really been my experience. And it is not the experience of most of the Christians that I know. And I'm not saying that it never happens or that it couldn't happen, but I don't think it's normative.

in its essence, it's just talking to God. But when I look at all of the other conversations I have with people, there are elements involved there that are not present when I talk to God. For example, even when I'm not talking to you face to face, you know, there are cues that I'm listening to, the tone of your voice, the pitch. There's a there's an interaction going on. I say something, you say something, I say something. So there's a cooperation in the conversation. That's really not the

case when it comes to prayer. When I pray, it's not that God has not spoken, it's that everything that he has said is recorded in Scripture. And there's a sense where I have to bring that with me into prayer, that it becomes sort of the backdrop that frames the expectation I have of how God will respond to what

I have to say. It's not immediate, so that if I'm thinking that's going to be like the typical conversation I'm having, I will be missing all of the cues that I generally use to shape the way that I interact with someone, because I can't see facial expression, I can't hear tone of voice. And even I think often when we're praying about things, we are praying with a specificity about details that I will not find in Scripture. Like, for example, you know, maybe I'm praying about a particular. Job.

I want this job or that job, you know. Well, maybe in general I can glean from Scripture I should not take a job as a hitman for the Mafia, but it's probably not going to be so specific that it's going to tell me, oh, yeah, I should work for General Motors or, you know, I should work for Chrysler or whoever. You know, I remember when I was young, great concern. Who should I marry? You know. Well, there are some general guidelines, but the Bible doesn't have the name.

You know, I'm not going to be able to look it up in the concordance. So there are differences in this. When I use the ordinary tools of conversation my voice, my heart, my mind. But the experience is radically different than most conversations I have.

in second place. It'd be a significant piece, but prayer would get a really small slice in most cases. Are we conveying to people with that allotment a message about the importance of prayer? Sometimes I'm just not comfortable. I don't I'm not sure that we have arrived at a truly biblical model. Your thoughts?

a whole separate service devoted to it. You know, we have the prayer meeting, which even in the prayer meeting, you know, most of the time is spent reviewing a list, you know. Right. It's like it's like, you know, if it's 50 minutes, you know, 40 minutes is probably taken up with talking about our health problems and then then a few minutes in prayer. Some of that, I think, is probably because we haven't thought about how to structure prayer for the congregation. Again, I think this is probably

not true of all traditions. I think there are there are some traditions that have a far more robust theology of corporate prayer and more disciplined practice of it, and that also comes with some of its own issues there over familiarity and, you know, the problems that come with rote praying sometimes. But yes, I guess that's a long that's a long way to say yes. You're right.

not there at all, or he's kind of detached. And so a lot of what we're doing in our praying is we're trying to sort of get his attention, you know, which like raise the voice, wave our arms about whatever, whatever, you know, whatever we have to do. But if you look at the conversations that are the most meaningful to you in the people that you really feel are good people to talk to, they're good listeners. And what they

do is they don't interrupt. They I can remember teaching a Bible study with somebody who one person who was more experienced at it than me, and I remember being struck by how attentive they were in their listening. You know, they concentrated on what I was saying. They looked at me. And then when they did respond, I could tell that while they were listening, they weren't formulating what they really wanted to say. Instead, you know, they were really concentrating

on what I had to say. So my starting point would be. To say what seems to be silence to you is total attention. God hears you. And of course, what John tells us in his letters is that if we know that God hears us, we know that God will respond to our prayer.

the psalmist frequently does. When you read through the Psalms, you can see the psalmist's, those who wrote the Psalms struggling with the same issue, because they often express sort of frustration about their prayer experience or the way God's responding to their prayers. And the thing that the psalmist does. The psalmist talks to himself, and it doesn't in a number of ways. Sometimes when the psalmist is talking to himself,

he's sort of a self coach. He tells himself not to lose heart, not to lose faith that God will act on his behalf. Sometimes the psalmist will sort of take the position of God and sort of speak what he expects God to do or to say to him. Paul sometimes does this in his. When you see Paul's prayers in the New Testament where he prays for the person, he's very specific when he prays, and he also voices what he expects God to do as a result of

that prayer. And then I think, you know, really to be brutally honest, you know, just to be frank, to disclose your heart when you pray, open your heart to God as it truly is, rather than coming to God and basically trying to tell God what you think he wants to hear from you because the only one you're fooling there is yourself. He can see right through you.

These encouraging and informative videos will help you better understand God's future plans, and how we can be actively waiting to get access to this video series. Visit Life in Messiah org and click on the Moody Radio button to sign up. That's Life in messiah.org. All right.

were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. So as the church in Jerusalem grew smaller and weaker, those forced to scatter began sharing the gospel wherever they went. And acts begins to focus on the ministry of the Apostle Paul. Wherever he went, he preached to the Jews first, but also to the Greeks to the Gentiles. And the Gentile church began growing. Now there were still believers and churches in Israel during this time, but they were small and poor

and persecuted. We're told in acts 11 there was a famine in the larger region which must have added to their struggles. In fact, a collection was taken among the churches in Antioch to provide for the brothers living in Judea. It says. So apparently the church in Jerusalem and in that region just kept growing smaller and struggling, while the

churches in the other areas grew and and prospered. By the time the Book of Revelation was written around 1895, the churches throughout the Roman Empire well, they were largely composed of Gentiles with some Jews, and Jesus chose the seven churches in Asia minor to represent seven different types of churches found in any given age. These seven, and not the struggling church in Judea, best mirrored the state of the church throughout history.

that one I just mentioned in acts 22. He was imprisoned in Caesarea then, where he was taken for two years x 23 and then his first imprisonment, which was a house arrest in Rome. That's how the book of acts ends. And then his final imprisonment in Rome, which is not mentioned in the book of acts, but I think is referenced in Second Timothy chapter four. And that's where Paul was finally put to death.

for his father until he died. Would this have been wrong for this man to want to care for his father? Or was he just making an excuse for not wanting to follow Jesus? Yeah, and I.

the man to follow him. Jesus was on his way by the way, to Jerusalem for ultimately to be put to death. But he's calling on this man to follow him. The man asked to be excused so he can go bury his father, but if his father had already died, he would already be taking care of those arrangements, since burial took place the same day you died. So as we look at that passage, what he's really saying is my dad is still around. If I can just stay with him until he dies, which may be next week,

next month, next year, who knows? He doesn't give an impression. We don't know if his father was even sick, but Jesus stresses the cost of true discipleship. He said if anyone would come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow me. So the encounter with this man happens as Jesus is heading to Jerusalem, and the man is really looking for an excuse and a rather flimsy excuse why he should be excused from following Jesus.

the children of Israel, not Jews. Plus, I can't find anywhere in the King James where it's the God of the Jews or the God of the Christians, but everywhere it's the God of Israel, or the God of the children of Israel, the people of Israel, his people Israel. So if we believe in Christ Jesus as God on earth, aren't we all Israel, which means a Prince of God? Well, okay.

same thing elsewhere. He says he was giving the gospel to the Jew first and also to the Greek. So yeah, I was using it wrong. And they are 144,000 from the 12 tribes of Israel. But I do disagree with your second part of the statement which says all believers today are Israel. The key passage in this regard is Romans 11, which is the one place where Paul specifically

talks about the relationship between Israel and the church. And in verses 25 to 26, he says, don't, don't be ignorant of the mystery that Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of Gentiles come in, and then all Israel will be saved. So in that passage, Israel refers to the ethnic national Israel, and Paul makes that distinction between them and the church. He doesn't equate the church as being Israel.

this tribe had separated. And I say that because Saul takes care of the Amalekites south of Israel, and then David also has a campaign against them later. But the ones who are on the eastern side of the Jordan River and east of the Dead Sea, well, they're mentioned in the book of Judges and Judges, chapter six. They're the ones who came into Israel in the time of Gideon, and they were part of the Amalekites, the Midianites and the sons of the East, it says, who attacked Israel.

So we're never told what happened to the remnant of all these Amalekites? My best guess they were probably absorbed through intermarriage into some of the other large nomadic tribes that also remain south and east of Israel. Apparently they still remember their ethnic background, because later in Esther chapter three, we were told about Haman, the son of Hamida, the aggregate Agag being the king of the Amalekites in the time of Saul, so he could trace his lineage back

to Agag. But likely they were simply swallowed up into these other Bedouin groups and lost their distinction as a unique tribe.

Jesus walked. They would say there was never a temple there. There are other, better ways to share our faith with Muslims there in the land.

you land on that? It's a conversation we'll brush up against in Charlie Dyer's devotional coming up, Biblical Counseling 101 Where we go on today, Charlie.

And I would suggest that anyone that could by any means get over there and go through that, it would change your life forever.

class session, two events happened that dispelled my anxiety. The first was a humorous but true comment made by one of the professors who said, most counselors go into counseling to try to solve their own problems. It was a reminder that counseling psychology and psychiatry are all soft sciences, populated by imperfect people who do struggle with their own issues. The second event was when we went through the course syllabus.

One requirement was memorizing scripture, and the first scripture we were to memorize was Jeremiah 17, verses nine and ten, which the one professor called the foundation for all biblical counseling. So what is this foundational passage? The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick. Who can understand it? I, the Lord, searched the heart. I test the mind even to give each man according to his ways,

according to the results of his deeds. The first of these two verses speaks to the reality of human depravity. Because of humanity's fall in the Garden of Eden, sin permeates the core of our being. It's not that we're as wicked as we could be, but the reality is that sin permeates us. And one result is that we've developed ways to justify our sinful actions by deceiving and deluding even ourselves. In Hebrew, the heart represents the totality

of our inner or immaterial nature. It includes our consciousness of who we are and why we do what we do. Like a master counselor, God points out the key problem our heart, our innermost consciousness of our own selves, is more deceitful than all else. God's diagnosis is that we're all deceitful tricksters at heart. But Jeremiah then asks a disturbing question who can understand it? That is, who can truly know what's happening within his or her own depraved

heart and mind? And the word Jeremiah uses for know or understand. It's the same word that's used in Genesis to euphemistically describe sexual relations. And Adam knew his wife and she conceived him, bore him a son. The implication is that our hearts are so deceitful that we can fool even ourselves regarding our thoughts and motives. But even if we might not fully understand our thoughts and motives, they're not hidden from God. The very next verse says, I,

the Lord searched the heart. I test the mind. We might be able to rationalize our actions and even at times fool ourselves. But God not only sees what we do, he also sees why we're doing it. And now you can see the wisdom of these professors in class. Having us begin by focusing on the Word of God and what it has to say about human nature and our own thought process. Well, so far this sounds like a rather unusual devotional because we've not visited any location in Israel.

So follow me out of the classroom and into the Judean wilderness to the wadi killed between Jerusalem and Jericho. As we explore the practicality of Jeremiah's words earlier in chapter 17, Jeremiah took the words of Psalm one and turned them on their head, describing the person who's blessed and the person who's cursed in reverse order. Jeremiah started by writing, cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength, and whose heart

turns away from the Lord. Such a person, he says, will be like a bush in the wastelands who will not see prosperity when it comes. He uses the word tov, or good for prosperity, picturing the good reign God promised to send from the sky. Those who choose to trust in what they can see, touch, grasp rather than the Lord. They're truly self deluded. They don't realize they're now outside the place where God can bless the good rain. An image of blessing falls in the hill country, not out

here in the wilderness. In contrast, the one who is truly blessed is the one who trust in the Lord and whose trust is the Lord. The word for trust expresses the idea of well-being and security that comes from having something in which we're able to place our confidence. It's looking out the window of your house at a blizzard, while seated on your couch in front of a roaring fire, holding a cup of hot chocolate. You know you're safe in spite of what's happening outside. That's the kind of

confident trust Jeremiah says characterizes the person who's blessed. Jeremiah compares such individuals to a tree planted by one of the flowing streams that can be found out here in the wilderness. Because such a tree has roots that extend to the water, it will not fear we. When the heat comes. Nor will it be anxious in a year of drought, nor cease to yield fruit. While the external situation might change, the source of nourishment and sustenance never does.

And it's that dependable supply that removes fear and anxiety. So what do these two plants in the wilderness have to do with Jeremiah's description of the human heart? The two thoughts are placed side by side in Jeremiah 17. But why? What's the connection? The two types of plants represent two types of people. One group tries to handle life's problems by trusting in their own wisdom or in

promises made by others. The other group faces life's problems by reaching out to the Lord for his wisdom and strength, and trusting in his promises of help and protection. In both instances, the two plants face difficulties represented by a time of drought in the wilderness. But there's one key difference the cursed plant never experiences the refreshing rain, the tov or good because it's located outside the place of blessing.

In contrast, the blessed plant is always connected to a stream of living or running water, the source of blessing. It will experience times of trouble, the heat and the drought. Experiences of life will come, but the nourishment it receives from the living water sustains it in those times of difficulty. And that's when Jeremiah applies this reality to the truth of verses nine and ten. The human heart is deceitful and sick, and it will try to trick us into

believing we can handle whatever comes our way. I'll just look within myself to find the strength I need, or if necessary, I'll turn to others for help. Such an individual struggles through life, never understanding why he or she can't seem to stay ahead, to reach the place of comfort and peace and rest that's always so elusive. Meanwhile, the blessed individual finds peace and satisfaction by turning his or her problems over to the Lord and allowing him

to handle them. They don't fully understand all that's happening around them, but they've discovered God is present and that he can be trusted. And when the difficult times do come, those times of struggle that are common to everyone, the blessed individual is the one who has already extended his or her roots to the ever present, ever flowing source of nourishment and comfort. So what kind of plant are you? Take some time today to read Jeremiah 17, verses 5

to 10. Focus on the two kinds of individuals and then focus on God's insight into human nature. You might not be able to even trust your own heart, but you can trust the God who understands the human heart and who can give you the strength and wisdom to thrive in spite of all life's heat waves and droughts.

email address is the land and the book@moody.edu. Time goes by too quickly, but Lord willing, we'll get together again next week at the same time. And we'll encourage you to be praying for Israel as we wait for them. I'm John Geiger on behalf of our host, Dr. Charlie Dyer, our producer, Dan Anderson. The land in the book is a production of Moody Radio, a ministry of Moody Bible Institute.