God's Silence
Part 2
Exodus 1-2
In 1988 Christopher Ochoa was a 22-year old manager at a Pizza Hut in Austin, Texas. In the summer of '88 this high school honor student and editor of his high school literary magazine faced a life full of hope and possibility. Little did he know that by the end of that summer, the LIFE he was forced to face would be one of condemnation.
One morning, as Chris Ochoa slept in, Nancy DePriest was raped and murdered in the wake of an early morning robbery at a neighboring Pizza Hut. Because there was no forced entry police assumed the assailant had to have a master key and warned employees to be on high alert for anyone acting suspicious.
Christopher Ochoa and Richard Danziger were roommates at the time. They were observed by a Pizza Hut waitress eating and drinking beer in what she surmised to be a toast to the victim. The two quickly became the main suspects in the murder.
Chris was picked up for questioning.
"Although there was no evidence linking him to the crime, police told him they knew he was guilty. They said his best friend, Richard Danzinger, was ready to implicate him. They said he would be put into a cell where he would be “fresh meat” for other inmates. They yelled, pounded the table, and threw a chair at him. They told him he would receive the death penalty unless he confessed. They showed him photographs of death row. They tapped him on the arm to show him where the needle would be inserted." (Rob Warden, Center of Wrongful Convictions)
After 24-hours of interrogation Ochoa felt he was doomed in any event. He had a choice, DEATH or LIFE. And although it seemed hopeless, he chose the later.
To avoid the death penalty he signed a confession contrived by the police and agreed to testify against his best friend Richard Danzinger, who clung to his assertion of innocence. Both men were convicted and sentenced to LIFE in prison.
""They placed me in a cell by myself and the doors clanged," Ochoa said. "I was so, so alone in the world … sometimes I still have nightmares about that night."
That was his first night in prison, in 1988." (ABC News)
Silence
Is there any sound more deafening than silence? If you don't think so ask the mother whose baby didn't cry in the moments after birth. Ask the wife whose husband has gone missing in action. We equate noise with life. As long as we're speaking and listening then life is normal. It is in those moments of unexplained silence that our heart drops into our feet and we feel something is dreadfully wrong.
When we open the book of Exodus there is a lot of noise.
We hear the sounds of the sons of Israel filling the land.
We hear the sounds of the trumpet blasts as a new king takes the throne.
We hear the sounds of whips and chains. Hammers and plows.
We hear midwives pleading with Pharaoh.
We hear mothers shrieking, fathers weeping, soldiers screaming, babies crying and the waters of the Nile splashing. . .
And then the worst sound of all. . .Silence.
At the end of Exodus chapter one it would seem that Pharaoh has spoken and God is silent.
What a contrast.
In Genesis 1 we see the power of God's word. In Exodus 1 we see the power of God's silence.
In Genesis 1 we see God speak into the darkness and create light. In Exodus 1 we see God remain silent and darkness reigns.
In Genesis 1 we see God speak into the waters and they "teem with life." In Exodus 1 we see God remain silent and the waters of the nile reek with death.
When the noise stops, when the prison door slams, the coffin is shut, the machine is turned off, the job is over, and all you are left with is silence - it appears God has turned His attention elsewhere and left you to muddle through life on your own.
But don't miss the supernatural in the stillness.
Chris Ochoa had served eight years on his life sentence when a convict named Achim Josef Marino sent letters to Texas officials stating that two innocent men were in prison for the DePriest murder, which Marino proclaimed he alone had committed. Letters were sent to police, the District Attorney, and then Governor, George W. Bush. The letters described details about the crime scene that had not been in the public report. The case was reopened and forensics experts were able to obtain and test the same DNA sample from the original trial. The DNA results proved the innocence of Ochoa and his roommate and identified the correct perpetrator. They were both exonerated in 2002.
As Chris Ochoa sat in the silence of his prison cell for 11 1/2 years he could not have known that letters were being written. As he endured the beatings and humiliation of his incarceration he could not have known that the eyes of law enforcement were upon him. As he sat in captivity he could not have known that a governor's pen was being used to open a new investigation. As the walls of hopelessness were closing in around him he did not know that the technology of DNA would soon set him free.
It is the same in the first chapters of Exodus, while God may be silent, He is not still.
He is moving.
In their captivity it is possible that no one noticed a baby boy being born. As they endured the beatings and hardship of their labor they did not notice his mother picking up reeds and weaving together a basket. As the walls of hopelessness were closing in around them they did not see a new mother setting her three month old baby boy afloat in the Nile River (interestingly enough following the decree of Pharaoh to throw her baby boy in the Nile.) And no one proclaimed victory when the enemy's daughter drew that baby out of the Nile and had compassion on him.
These are not the amazing miracles that would solidify the Exodus from Egypt. They were simply ordinary, nameless people, moved by an extraordinary God to set in motion the gears that would liberate an entire country.
Sometimes God's mouth is shut, but His eyes never are.
Exodus 2:25 (ESV) "God saw the people of Israel--and God knew."
"His eyes are now fixed upon Israel, to show himself in their behalf. God is ever thus, a very present help in trouble. Take courage then, ye who, conscious of guilt and thraldom, are looking to Him for deliverance. God in Christ Jesus is also looking upon you." Matthew Henry's Commentary
Has God trusted you with His silence? Are you sitting in a prison cell, staring at the walls, doing time for a crime that you didn't commit? Or maybe one that you did? You are waiting for that shaking of the Earth that will cause the prison walls to fall down. Maybe, just maybe, God is working behind the scenes to deliver you. Sometimes he works through a persistent mother, a watchful sister, or your enemy's daughter.
". . .regardless of how bleak the present/future might be, God is able to pull a reversal and bring salvation out of despair, life out of a tomb. Yet it began, not with great deeds and awesome wonders, but with ordinary people." (The Voice, Steve Rodeheaver.)
I'm reminded of a song by Babbie Mason that was popular when I was younger:
God is too wise to be mistaken
God is too good to be unkind
So when you don't understand
When you don't see His plan
When you can't trace His hand
Trust His heart
Trust His heart. He is already working on your behalf. Trust His heart.
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