sermon on the mount – Page 10 – The Core of the Bible

God’s reward for compassionate giving

Giving to get something in return is a false compassion.

Matthew 6:1 – “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. Otherwise, you have no reward with your Father in heaven.”

Yeshua is very clear that acts of charity and support for the poor should be kept as private as possible. This is a principle based on the humility of the believer and on protecting the pride of the receiver; few people in need truly want to be identified as a “charity case.”

But in this passage, Yeshua mentions a reward that the Father provides. While many have speculated on what this would be, the complete passage provides the answer within itself.

Matthew 6:2-4 – “So whenever you give to the poor, don’t sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be applauded by people. Truly I tell you, they have their reward. But when you give to the poor, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”

We can see what the reward of the Father is by looking at its opposite: the reward that is received by the “hypocrites.” Their reward is to be applauded and admired by other people. But Yeshua stresses that private acts of charity result in a reward of the Father. If the hypocrite is to be rewarded with applause and admiration of people, then the reward of the Father can be shown to be admired and honored by him. It does not necessarily mean some sort of bounty will be poured out on you; although he could do that if he so desired.

Luke 6:38 – “Give, and it will be given to you; a good measure – pressed down, shaken together, and running over – will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.”

This passage in the gospel of Luke only points to the abundance of God’s measure compared to even the smallest act of generosity on our part. God has many ways to pour out an abundant measure into our lives, whether well-being, peace with neighbors, bountiful crops, etc. Even our smallest act of compassion towards others holds great significance in his eyes.

But the emphasis Yeshua puts forth our passage in Matthew is that to be admired by the Father is in itself the highest reward. We should never give just so we can get something in return. Our giving is encouraged to be to those who have nothing to give in return for that very reason. Simply providing assistance to others and having the admiration of God should be more than enough for us.

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God desires a completely surrendered life

The sincere actions of believers include all of themselves.

Matthew 5:23-24 – “So if you are offering your gift on the altar, and there you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled with your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift.”

This is an interesting statement by Yeshua that can be easily missed in a casual reading of the passage. In stating that the believer should be reconciled before offering the sacrifice, Yeshua is placing reconciliation above the sacrifice. In effect, the sacrifice will be of no effect because the offerer’s heart is not right before God.

This is yet another instance in which Yeshua is emphasizing how important the heart is to a faithful worship of God. The law or instruction of God, even if followed perfectly, means nothing if the believer’s heart is not sincere. Notice, he did not say “go and be reconciled and forget about the sacrifice, because reconciliation is more important.” No, he said to go and be reconciled and “then come and offer your gift.” In this manner, Yeshua is upholding the law of God but also highlighting its intent, as well. A heart that is not right, harboring bitterness toward a brother, will only hypocritically be offering a sacrifice to God, and he won’t accept it. This is a heart that has not been fully surrendered to God.

The nation as a whole had been guilty of this very thing, and at one point had been called out by God through the prophet Amos:

Amos 5:21-22 – “I hate, I despise, your feasts! I can’t stand the stench of your solemn assemblies. Even if you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; I will have no regard for your fellowship offerings of fattened cattle.”

And why was this that God was rejecting their sacrifices and offerings? Because the leaders and the people were guilty of abusing the rights of those who they instead should have been protecting and helping.

Amos 5:10-12 – “They hate the one who convicts the guilty at the city gate, and they despise the one who speaks with integrity. … you trample on the poor and exact a grain tax from him … For I know your crimes are many and your sins innumerable. They oppress the righteous, take a bribe, and deprive the poor of justice at the city gates.”

They were maintaining an outward appearance of conformity to the instruction of God and yet with every other breath they were taking advantage of those whom they should have been helping, according to the very law of God they had forsaken. This is the type of hypocrisy that God hates.

Reconciliation and forgiveness can be difficult because it means letting go of wrongs and hurts that may have been inflicted on us by others. But to maintain our own righteous anger towards those individuals is an injustice that rises above our attempts at pleasing God through our outward religious actions.

Consider who in your life you may need to be reconciled with before continuing a shallow and meaningless communal experience with God. He desires all of your heart, soul and strength, a combination of your complete self that can’t be divided by expending the energy of maintaining grudges or unforgiveness.

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Following Yeshua for the right reasons

The signs of God working in the life of a repentant believer reveal the true power of God.

Matthew 7:21-23 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many deeds of power in your name?’ Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; go away from me, you evildoers.’

We have looked before at what it means to do something in the name of God, or in this case, in the name of Messiah. It means to conduct oneself with the character and reputation of the one whom one is claiming to be associated with. To take the name of God was to associate with everything that God represents as one of his people. To do something in the name of Messiah was to associate with everything Messiah taught and did as one of his disciples.

In this passage, Yeshua is warning against hypocrisy. There would be many who would claim him as their Lord and Master, only to falsely represent him with their actions. They would claim to be associated intimately with him by doing their works in his name.

To many believers today, prophesying, casting out of demons, and doing works of power are all things to be sought after. People continue looking for miraculous happenings as some sort of evidential truth that they are involved with the true work of God. And yet Yeshua condemns these types of individuals as being workers of iniquity who don’t really know him at all. If they are just seeking the miraculous events, they are no better than the thousands who followed Yeshua just because he miraculously had fed them all; they weren’t true followers, just miracle-chasers.

This is similar to the man Simon whom the disciples encountered in Samaria. He was known for amazing people with sorcery and magic, things that are forbidden by the word of God. The text says he became a believer when he heard the disciples’ message of the kingdom.

Acts 8:13 Even Simon himself believed. After being baptized, he stayed constantly with Philip and was amazed when he saw the signs and great miracles that took place.

Yet, there was hypocrisy in his heart. As it turns out, he was fascinated not with the repentant life of believer, but with the real power of God working through the disciples. This would suggest his own “magic” was more of a deceptive show than than the real thing.

Acts 8:18-21 Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money, saying, “Give me also this power so that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.” But Peter said to him, “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain God’s gift with money! You have no part or share in this, for your heart is not right before God.

Simon was focused on the ability to perform miraculous signs, not the repentant heart that allowed the sign to occur. Because of this hypocrisy, Peter rebukes him. Simon wanted to do the miraculous, but Yeshua was not truly his Lord, as evidenced by his actions.

This should stand as a witness to all who would seek only to be associated with miraculous happenings rather than simply and sincerely submitting their lives wholly to the life and teaching of Messiah as their Lord. The true repentant heart will seek to be faithful to God’s word and to serve others, yet remain vigilant in avoiding association with those who are only miracle-chasers.

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The compassionate commandments

Yeshua taught the true intent of the ten commandments.

As we view the ten commandments delivered on Sinai at the revelation of God to his people, we find that within the ministry of Yeshua he emphasized the expanded intent behind the commandments that had gotten lost within the oral Torah of the Jews.

For example, some of the Jewish leaders had done the bare minimum in taking care of their parents, claiming that the support that they would have provided to their parents was instead a service that was rendered to God in other ways.

Matthew 15:3-7 – “…And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? For God said, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must surely die.’ But you say that whoever tells father or mother, ‘Whatever support you might have had from me is given to God,’ then that person need not honor the father. So, for the sake of your tradition, you make void the word of God. You hypocrites!…”

This hypocritical practice negated the command of honoring parents, which is the whole point of the fifth commandment: to support them and take care of them when they can no longer care for themselves. Yeshua emphasized that by trying to get by on a technicality with the commandment, they were essentially making the word of God void of any meaning. Instead, they should have been respecting the God-given authority of their fathers and mothers, being helpful to them, that they would all live long and productive lives.

The eighth commandment is a prohibition against stealing. Clearly, the command states that we should never secretly take anything that does not belong to us. Here, too, Yeshua expands on the idea that not only should believers not steal, but we should be willing always to do the opposite: to give generously of all our resources.

Luke 6:38 – “…give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.”

The tenth commandment is an admonition to avoid coveting. Some rabbinical minds over the years have come to the conclusion that the prohibition against coveting is a kind of summary of all of the other commandments on the two tablets, a proposal not without merit.

For example, if we are not covetous, we are less likely to kill, commit adultery, steal, or lie. All of these actions related in the second table can be traced back to covetousness.

Also if we are not covetous, we are not likely to seek out other gods for help, serve images, associate with God’s people in vain, work through the sabbath to try to get ahead, or deny assistance to our parents; all of the commandments from the first tablet.

Instead of coveting, Yeshua encourages the very opposite: to provide generously of all that God has given you.

Matthew 6:19-21 – “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Yeshua encourages his followers to fill their minds with gratefulness and take pleasure in all that God has graciously given them. They are to share the blessings they have received freely with others.

By emphasizing the positive compassionate actions behind these commandments, Yeshua sums up everything in the Golden Rule:

Matthew 7:12 – “In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets.”

This is why Yeshua could state that breaking the commandments was an offense that was still active within the kingdom of God. By negating or trying to get around the commandments on technicalities, those individuals would be missing the intent of the commands in the first place and removing themselves from the work that God intends to accomplish through his people.

Matthew 5:19-20 – “Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Seeking out and performing the compassionate positive actions behind the commandments should be the common practice of all believers. By taking the “thou shalt nots” and re-stating the opposite of each as a positive command, we can find that Yeshua was teaching the true compassion contained within each of the commandments revealed at Sinai.

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Honoring God while enduring injustice

Our spiritual perspective in crisis guides our actions and reactions.

Yeshua taught that believers should be following the example of the Father by loving their enemies; that they should speak well of them, help them, and pray for their needs. They should never retaliate, but instead, offer to go above and beyond for those who would be oppressing them (Matthew 5:38-48).

One of the clearest examples of this type of godly perspective is exhibited in the life of Joseph. Sold into slavery by his own family, he could have resisted every aspect of his captivity as being unjust and fought tooth and nail to escape at any opportunity he had. And yet, we find quite the opposite taking place. He instead chose to go above and beyond for his captors, and Yahweh blessed his efforts every time.

Genesis 39:2-4 – “The Lord was with Joseph, and he became a successful man; he was in the house of his Egyptian master. His master saw that the Lord was with him, and that the Lord caused all that he did to prosper in his hands. So Joseph found favor in his sight and attended him; he made him overseer of his house and put him in charge of all that he had.”

Even though the wife of his master Potiphar created a controversy that threw Joseph into further distress, it appears the Joseph took even that additional oppression in stride as he sought to continually go above and beyond for his new captor in the Egyptian prison.

Genesis 39:21-23 – “And Joseph’s master took him and put him into the prison, the place where the king’s prisoners were confined; he remained there in prison. But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love; he gave him favor in the sight of the chief jailer. The chief jailer committed to Joseph’s care all the prisoners who were in the prison, and whatever was done there, he was the one who did it. The chief jailer paid no heed to anything that was in Joseph’s care, because the Lord was with him; and whatever he did, the Lord made it prosper.”

At every step of the way, Joseph could have struggled and fought against his captors, but we find that was not the case. It appears that throughout his experience he understood a deeper spiritual principle of serving God to the best of one’s ability no matter the circumstance. He appears to have had a forgiving attitude toward his captors, recognizing that they were just doing what they did because that was who they were. Yet, he was somehow able to remain in a mindset that honored Yahweh at all times.

We get a glimpse into his spiritual perspective that helped him through those dark times when, in his rise to power at the right hand of the Pharaoh, he confronts his estranged brothers with his true identity, and offers the ultimate form of forgiveness to them.

Genesis 45:4-8 “…He said, “I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. And now do not be distressed, or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life. For the famine has been in the land these two years; and there are five more years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. So it was not you who sent me here, but God…”

As believers, having and maintaining a perspective that God is ultimately in control of the main events of our lives as we submit to him provides a depth of release that should allow us to act in his best interest and to honor him in all we do. In those situations where we may feel oppressed, we can bring glory to his name by going above and beyond for our oppressors. It not only can soften the yoke we bear, but can be an opportunity for them to see the power of God working through us in situations where others would typically rebel or respond harshly.

Having a Joseph mindset can produce the fruit of the Spirit that include kindness, goodness and self-control in the midst of circumstances that may seem out of control. Recognizing that it is all under the control of the Almighty God can keep us centered and focused on honoring him by honorably serving others, even when (and especially when) our circumstances may appear unjust. It may just be that God is working a greater work that requires us to be placed in a position that may be uncomfortable for the moment but will ultimately result in his mercy and kindness being exhibited to others through our acceptance and honorable service through it.

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The righteousness that originates in the heart

Living by faith in Messiah produces the obedience that God desires.

In writing to the Roman congregation, the apostle Paul conveys his frustration over the refusal of the majority of his own people, the Jews, to believe in Yeshua as the promised Messiah. They were instead clinging desperately to rules and regulations, not to the law of God exclusively, but to a law they invented around the the law of God. The rules and regulations they came up with had to be followed exactingly or the individual was not considered to be righteous.

Romans 10:2-3 – I can testify about them that they have zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. Since they are ignorant of the righteousness of God and attempted to establish their own righteousness, they have not submitted to God’s righteousness.

Paul brings his argument to its pinnacle by stating the centrality of faith in Yeshua is the ultimate goal of the true law of God, and if they were truly attempting to be obedient to God, they would have accepted the life and example of the Messiah.

Romans 10:4 – For Messiah is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.

The Helps word study of the Discovery Bible clarifies the meaning of this Greek word translated as “end” in this verse.

“télos (a neuter noun) – properly, consummation (the end-goal, purpose), such as closure with all its results. [This root (tel-) means “reaching the end (aim).” It is well-illustrated with the old pirate’s telescope, unfolding (extending out) one stage at a time to function at full-strength (capacity effectiveness).]”

The perspective that Paul appears to be arguing for is that Messiah is not the end (or abolishing) of the law, for then he would be contradicting Yeshua directly.

Matthew 5:17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.”

No, Paul seems to be conveying that Messiah is the end-goal or consummating purpose of the law; Yeshua’s life, his teaching, and his self-sacrificial example are showing us what the fulfillment of the law is all about.

Romans 10:10 For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved.

And when we believe the message of the Messiah with our hearts, we then are also living in fulfillment of the law and attain righteousness that God desires: a righteousness that is by faith because it is truly in our hearts and not just a list of rote commands that we follow because that is what we think we are supposed to do.

The law of God, summarized in the Ten Commandments, doesn’t need endless lists of human commands around them to help us keep them. No, when the heart desires to truly keep God’s commands, it causes us to be obedient regardless if we are told to by humans or not.

The Jewish practice of creating hundreds of laws around the law of God, while intended to create more obedience, actually only served to obfuscate the righteous commands of God, and ended up creating a greater burden for the people and they could never get out from underneath it, even to this day.

The clarity that Yeshua brought is that the true place of faith resides in the heart obedience to the truth of God’s revelation, not the outward show of following the endless rules of men. Paul built on this by saying that believing in the life, teaching, and sacrificial example of Messiah as Lord (the guiding principle in our lives) should lead us also to a life of heart-obedience to the plain law of God. This is where righteousness, the concept of acceptable conduct before God, originates: in the heart, not in showy actions that one is only following because they think they are supposed to. When Yeshua is Lord of our lives, we can truly live according to God’s Word from the heart. This is the end-goal and the consummation of the law of God.

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You become like what you worship

This principle applies to people of all nations.

Within the revelation provided to the apostle John, we get a glimpse of a scene in heaven with the saints extolling the majesty and holiness of the one true God.

Revelation 15:2-4 – And I saw what appeared to be a sea of glass mixed with fire, and those who had conquered the beast and its image and the number of its name, standing beside the sea of glass with harps of God in their hands. And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb: “Great and amazing are your deeds, Lord God the Almighty! Just and true are your ways, King of the nations! Lord, who will not fear and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship before you, for your judgments have been revealed.”

In this scene, those who had been brought through the trials of the tribulation predicted by Messiah now stand before the throne of God, worshiping him. They describe him as the one who alone is holy because of his “amazing deeds” and “judgments” which had been revealed.

The outworking of these judgments within the Revelation are a demonstration of God’s holiness, his set-apartness from all other gods. He alone could rightfully carry out the actions that are represented there because it had all come to pass due to the failure of his people to honor him.

There is a principle revealed throughout the Bible that ties the holiness of believers to their worship of the one true God. Just like the saying that relates “you are what you eat,” the biblical principle is “you become like the one you worship.”

1 Kings 11:2 – “Of the nations concerning which the Lord said unto the children of Israel, You shall not go in to them, neither shall they come in unto you: for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods…”

The apostle John admonishes his audience to reject the false gods of this world.

1 John 2:16 – For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

If we worship the false gods of this world, the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life, we will become consumed with them in our daily lives. This is why the Bible in so many different ways condemns these things, from the Ten Commandments through the Sermon on the Mount. This is why this song in Revelation can be titled “the song of Moses and the song of the Lamb.”

However, if we worship the one true God, since he is holy and set apart, we become holy and set apart. This is not only the result of our worship, but is a commandment which becomes a statement of fact of the reality of our lives:

Leviticus 20:26 – And you shall be holy unto me: for I, Yahweh, am holy, and have severed you from other people, that ye should be mine.

Romans 11:16 – For if the first-fruit is holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root is holy, so are the branches.

Our holiness is a derived holiness from God, it is not something we manufacture or invent within ourselves as if it were some sort of way that we could make up to try to please him. Our holiness becomes evident only when we produce fruit in keeping with his commandments because we are single-mindedly focused on pleasing him. Our devotion to him drives the holiness in our lives.

And the holiness in our lives drives the nations to worship him, also. As they see the separateness of our lives that are devoted to him, they learn of his deeds that he has performed on behalf of his people. We can then say with the saints in heaven, “Just and true are your ways, King of the nations! Lord, who will not fear and glorify your name?”

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The surpassing righteousness of love

The truly righteous actions can’t be legislated.

Matthew 5:20 – “For I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never get into the kingdom of heaven.”

Many of the scribes and the Pharisees were famous for abiding by the letter of the law in scrutinizing detail, yet they were guilty of disobeying the spirit of it.

Matthew 23:23 – “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You pay a tenth of mint, dill, and cumin, and yet you have neglected the more important matters of the law – justice, mercy, and faithfulness. These things should have been done without neglecting the others.”

They had become examples of legalistic rule-following; outwardly appearing to obey the law when in their hearts they were just as wicked as the vilest law-breakers whom they would condemn. Yeshua continually called them out for their hypocrisy, and this is what enraged them against him.

For Yeshua, outward actions should stem from the sincerity of the heart; it is not possible to make the heart right just by conducting some outward ritual. This is why it is impossible to legislate morality; it must be something that springs from a place of inward purity, not just outward conformity.

Not every Pharisee or scribe was wicked, and many ultimately came to faith in Messiah among the early believers, albeit struggling to understand how the law would apply to believers in Messiah, as is demonstrated in Acts 15. However, for Yeshua, of primary concern was regenerative work of God’s Spirit on the heart.

John 3:6-8 – “Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh, and whatever is born of the Spirit is spirit. “Do not be amazed that I told you that you must be born again. “The wind blows where it pleases, and you hear its sound, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

When the heart is right, the actions will be right. The righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees can only be surpassed when the actions that conform to the Word of God are sincere with no agenda or motivation for self-aggrandizement.

1 John 3:14, 16 – We know that we have passed from death to life because we love our brothers and sisters. The one who does not love remains in death. … This is how we have come to know love: He laid down his life for us. We should also lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.

If our true motivation is love for others, not just rule following to make ourselves look good, then we can be confident that we are doing the right thing for the right reasons. When the Spirit of God is present in our lives, we can’t help but do things that benefit others, because God is love. And only when we act in truly loving ways towards others is when our righteousness surpasses that of the hypocrisy of the scribes and Pharisees. We can then see the kingdom, and others can see the kingdom in us. It is then that the kingdom of God is manifest in our lives.

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The centrality of compassion

Yeshua was consistent in his emphasis of mercy towards others.

In the content of the Sermon on the Mount, we have a glimpse of the essence of Yeshua’s teaching during his public ministry. It is likely that these sayings and principles were valued because of their central themes that had become repeated in various locations throughout his travels in Israel. This can be shown from the parallel rendering of this teaching in the gospel of Luke where the same general information is presented in a similar way, but there it is only about a fourth as long as the discourse in Matthew 5-7.

Some believe Luke is simply providing a condensed representation of the same event. Others depict the two passages as being separate occasions by highlighting the differences in location, as Luke says Yeshua “stood on a level place” like a plain, while Matthew reports, “he went up on the mountain” and “sat down” to deliver this information to his disciples.
I would agree that it is not necessary to beat the information into the same mold to try to reconcile the passages as occurring in the same place and the same time. It is just as likely that these central teachings of Yeshua were repeated as he traveled around.

The Jamieson-Fausset-Brown commentary states that Luke’s representation could be a different instance, “as we know that our Lord delivered some of His weightiest sayings more than once, there is no difficulty in supposing this to be one of His more extended repetitions; nor could anything be more worthy of it.”

The Cambridge Bible commentary relates, “There is no need to assume two discourses—one esoteric and one exoteric, &c. At the same time there is of course no difficulty in supposing that our Lord may have uttered the same discourse, or parts of the same discourse, more than once, varying it as occasion required.”

Regardless of how one views the particulars of these events, in both passages there is an emphasis on mercy and compassion.

Matthew 5:7 – “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.”

Here it appears that Yeshua was conveying that those who extend kindness or goodwill towards those less fortunate than themselves will have kindness and goodwill extended towards them by others. From this perspective, it is almost a re-statement of the Golden Rule which occurs later on in the discourse:

Matthew 7:12 – “Therefore, whatever you want others to do for you, do also the same for them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.”

These themes are repeated in the Luke version, as well.

Luke 6:31, 36 – And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them. … Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.

I think that from this repetition we can conclude that compassion towards others, even adversaries, is a central theme of Yeshua’s teachings. If this was the same message he continued to present in all of the various places he traveled to within Israel, then it had a unique prominence of emphasis. Because of this importance, it is incumbent upon us, if we claim to be his followers, that we also demonstrate this compassion as a central expression of who we are in him.

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Trusting that God knows

God reveals he is close to those who are close to him.

One of the many psychological dangers believers face is to get to a point where, whatever we may be going through, we begin to think we are the only one who is experiencing this challenge. Or, we may begin to think that God no longer hears us. We may lash out wondering why he has not responded to our supplication.

However, Yeshua offers a different perspective, one that reveals how God understands our trials and needs.

Matthew 6:7-8 – “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as those among the nations do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

Matthew 6:31-32 – Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For those of the nations seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.

David, famous for continually pouring out his heart before God, corroborated this idea a millennium prior to Messiah:

Psalm 38:9 – O Lord, all my longing is before you; my sighing is not hidden from you.

For those who are trusting him and seeking to follow his ways, the Bible teaches us that God is present and involved in our lives as we seek to accomplish his will.

However, when God appears to be silent, the Word reveals it is not without good reason. When Israel struggled to hear from him, it was because they had strayed so far from him that he had to pour out his judgment upon them.

Jeremiah 14:10-12 – Thus says Yahweh concerning this people: “They have loved to wander thus; they have not restrained their feet; therefore Yahweh does not accept them; now he will remember their iniquity and punish their sins.” Yahweh said to me: “Do not pray for the welfare of this people. Though they fast, I will not hear their cry, and though they offer burnt offering and grain offering, I will not accept them. But I will consume them by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence.”

Ezekiel also provides the reasoning that God would no longer hear them.

Ezekiel 8:17-18 – Then he said to me, “Have you seen this, O son of man? Is it too light a thing for the house of Judah to commit the abominations that they commit here, that they should fill the land with violence and provoke me still further to anger? Behold, they put the branch to their nose. Therefore I will act in wrath. My eye will not spare, nor will I have pity. And though they cry in my ears with a loud voice, I will not hear them.”

The blatant and shameless idolatry of Israel and Judah resulted in God pronouncing judgment upon them by having them overthrown by their adversaries: first the Assyrians and then the Babylonians. They were removed from their place of privilege and he refused to listen to them because of their persistent rejection of him by pursuing the gods of the other nations.

From these examples, in those seasons when God appears to be silent, we should do a self-check to ensure we have not strayed from his calling on our lives, from standing firm on what has been revealed to us up to this point in our walk with him. God has promised to be present among his people when we learn to continually trust in him for all things.

Ezekiel 37:27 – My dwelling place shall be with them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

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