Before the plagues that shook Egypt, before the cry of a child in a manger, before hope and salvation broke through the darkness —399 years of suffering and of silence had passed.
What do you do in the suffering when there is no answer? Is God still good even when salvation is 399 years away?
The Israelites endured 430 years in Egypt before crossing the Red Sea into deliverance. There was 400 years of silence and distance from God before an angel declared that a Savior was born.
Generations cried out. Generations saw no answer.
Those who lived to see Moses lead the Israelites to freedom or who saw Jesus heal the blind rejoiced, because they finally saw the salvation that they had longed for their entire lives. They were witnesses to the fulfillment of prayers whispered through centuries.
But what about those who lived during those 399 years before a Savior came? What about those who never saw the Red Sea part and never heard the Messiah’s cry echoed in Bethlehem?
What of those who waited in the silence and the suffering?
They believed.
How great was the faith of those saints without names who during the years of suffering and silence kept praying and hoping and watching for a Savior.
A Savior they would never see—yet trusted would come.
Perhaps their salvation was not in the parting of the sea or the birth of a child, but in the unseen moments of steadfast faith in the God of promises.
They believed God was still good. Even in the silence.
Because how else did the enslaved Israelites of Exodus 1 and 2 know to cry out to a God they had never seen? How could they believe in the God of their fathers if their fathers had not passed down this faith?
Or what about those who waited for the Messiah to come? Simeon and Anna waited eagerly for their Savior and were overjoyed when they saw Him. But where did they learn such faith? Who had taught them about the One who was to come?
Was it a divine gift, or did the steadfast hope of generations before them impart a faith only to be fulfilled in their lifetime?
You don’t have to wait in the silence for 399 years. Perhaps for a season, yes. But all you have to do is look back on the Ebenezer’s of your life and see how God has been faithful.
That is what you cling to— God’s steadfast love and faithfulness evident in scripture and evident in your own life.
Cry out to Him. And whether in a moment, a week, ten years—or even 399 years later, He will answer.
And what about those who never saw His salvation? Did He hear them? Did He see their tears? Was He good even then?
The Bible doesn’t say directly.
But you see the results of their faith impacting their children and children’s children.
Is that not an answer?
They may not have been witnesses to the powerful plagues or the feeding of the 5,000, but those who prayed and waited in the darkness saw a different reply.
They saw God’s goodness and mercy evidenced as their faith was passed down to their children and took root. They watched their children, in the midst of suffering, grow in their love for the Lord. And they witnessed the power of God growing that faith into a strong foundation to withstand trials and flame hope for years and years to come.
Because He who promised is faithful.
