Page 59 - The Road from Babylon to Zion

Chapter 6 - The Silence of the Lambs

There is a lesson I have been learning on the road to Zion. It is often a difficult lesson
to walk out, but one in which I desire to prevail and succeed. It is to remain silent
when others accuse falsely, and to respond with peace when I am reviled. Yahshua
demonstrated in His own life that it is futile to try to defend oneself in the face of
godless enemies. There is a time and place to give a defense of the gospel that we
preach, but there is likewise a time to be silent before those who do not understand
the experiences that we are enduring.

Isaiah 53:7
He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth;
Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before
its shearers, so He did not open His mouth.

Matthew 27:12-14
And while He was being accused by the chief priests and elders, He did
not answer. Then Pilate said to Him, "Do You not hear how many things
they testify against You?" And He did not answer him with regard to
even a single charge, so the governor was quite amazed.

Yes, Pilate was amazed at the restraint that Yahshua demonstrated in the face of His
accusers. It is equally amazing to me that those who observed the suffering of Christ
considered Him to be enduring the wrath of God due to His own sin.

Isaiah 53:4
Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; yet we
ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

Certainly, we think, God must have been interested in justifying His Son in the eyes
of sinful men and women. Certainly God would intervene and pronounce from
heaven, “This is My beloved Son. With Him I am well pleased.” Yet during the
moment of Yahshua’s trial, scourging, and crucifixion there were no voices from
heaven to announce Yahweh’s displeasure with the Chief Priest, the Sanhedrin, the
Pharisees, and the leaders of the Jews. Remarkably, Yahshua Himself remained
silent.

I can understand the remarkable nature of this, for when I began enduring a
firestorm of criticism for the path I was walking, there was much within me that
wanted to shout out that I was merely following the leading of the Spirit. I wanted
dull eared Christians to perceive what paths Yahweh will lead His faithful ones down.
I wanted others to see that I was not smitten and stricken of God, but that the Father
was pleased with my obedience to walk the path He had directed me down. I wanted