"Be Quiet and Listen"

“Be Quiet and Listen”

I recently read through Leviticus during my devotional time which brought to mind a college friend who took an elective on this overlooked book. When I asked him why he chose this course he said, “It’s a book I’d never study on my own.” He was probably right—how many of us have ever looked seriously at it with all the details of the sacrificial system and other aspects of the religious life of God’s people? Interestingly, though, a pastoral colleague once told me of one of his seminary professors who thought Leviticus was the Bible’s most important book because God speaks more in it than in any other part of the Scriptures. This shows us that we must learn to see God’s Word through His eyes, not our own, and that “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the (people) of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17, emphasis added).

In my Bible reading some 25 years ago I made a note of each time prayer was mentioned or indicated. As I read through Leviticus I was amazed that I found no reference to prayer in the entire book (although it comes up often in the rest of the Pentateuch). It’s as if God were saying, “Just be quiet and pay attention to me for a while” (or, as Gen. Burkhalter said to Col. Klink on “Hogan’s Heroes”, “Shut up and listen!”). Solomon put it this way: “(There’s) a time to be silent and a time to speak.” (Ecclesiastes 3:7).

We’re reminded that the tendency to pray is always to be a part of us (“…pray continually….”—1 Thessalonians 5:17) but it’s difficult to listen while we’re talking. (Failing to recognize this principle has fueled many an argument.) There are times, then, that we must be quiet before God and listen to His voice through the Scriptures, His Spirit’s prompting within us or His people in order to have two-way communication with Him. So let’s heed the counsel of our Lord’s brother: “…Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak….” (James 1:19).

Grace and Blessings!

Jim McMillan