That Faint Whisper

And these are but the outer fringe of his works; how faint the whisper we hear of him! Who then can understand the thunder of his power. Job 26:14 (NIV)

Saturday came and went leaving His followers in deep despair and without promise. Hope was there but they did not recognize nor hear His whisper above their own grieving sobs. We often become focused on our own broken hearts that we can’t see the hope that lies ahead of us. Erin Keeley Marshall (Mornings with Jesus) shares her hopeful thoughts of Saturday.

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On the Saturday after Crucifixion, heaven’s whisper may have been lost on those who’d followed Jesus. After darkness fell, the earth rumbled, and the curtain closed on the previous day. I imagine the landscape echoed the deafening silence of hope lost.

Considering the atrocities done against Jesus, it’s hard to fathom His followers’ trauma and heartache that Saturday. Although no trauma and heartache in my life can compare to what Jesus’s followers must have experienced, I, too, have lost hope at times.

Many generations earlier, Job wrote of how we can miss the ways God whispers (26:7-10, NIV): “He spreads out the northern skies over empty space; he suspends the earth over nothing. He wraps up the waters in His clouds, yet the clouds do not burst under their weight. He covers the face of the full moon, spreading his clouds over it. He marks out the horizon on the face of the waters for a boundary between light and darkness.”

God’s actions have always whispered hope to creation. While Jesus was in the grave, hope’s life-changing promise whispered across the landscape that all was not lost.

When my heart hurts from loss or an unmet longing or the sorrows of someone I love, the waiting time between the Crucifixion and Resurrection reminds me all still is not lost. I’m learning to trust more deeply that Jesus is quietly doing more than I can see. I can imagine Him saying, “I am working. Learn to hope with Me in the quiet.”

FAITH STEP: Read Job 26 and hear beyond the whispers from heaven. Let them boost your hope.

Silent Saturday Devotional and Song

Loving Lord, thank You for opening our minds and hearts to experience eternal hope. Please teach us to praise You in the easy and rough times. Let us have ears to hear Your faint whisper.  AMEN.