The Question We're All Asking
We've learned that God is hidden, but not absent. We've learned that silence is refinement, not punishment. We've learned that God knows us intimately, even in the darkness.
But now we come to the hardest question of all.
If God is really present. If God is really refining us. If God really knows every step we take. Then why won't God tell us what's happening? Why the mystery? Why the silence? Why does God insist on keeping us in the dark?
This question has driven believers crazy for thousands of years. And honestly? It still drives me crazy sometimes.
We live in an age where we have answers to almost everything. Google anything. Get an answer in seconds. Ask your smart speaker. Ask your therapist. Ask your friends. The world is flooded with information.
And then God refuses to explain.
When life falls apart, we demand clarification. When prayers go unanswered, we demand justification. When circumstances don't make sense, we demand an explanation. When God stays silent, we feel cheated. We feel abandoned. We feel like God is playing games with us.
But what if I told you something radical? God's refusal to explain isn't cruelty. It's love. And understanding why will change everything.
THE PATTERN OF SCRIPTURE
What Job and Isaiah Teach Us Together
To understand why God withholds explanation, we need to look at two very different people wrestling with very different problems.
Job is in personal agony. Job has lost everything. Job's body is covered with sores. Job's children are dead. Job's wealth is gone. And Job is angry. Job is demanding. Job is saying to God, "Explain yourself. Tell me why. Justify your actions."
But then we have Isaiah. Isaiah is speaking to an entire community exiles waiting for deliverance. They've been in captivity for so long. The promises God made seem to be failing. The timeline God promised seems to be broken. And they're beginning to wonder if maybe God isn't who they thought. Maybe God's power has diminished. Maybe God has forgotten them.
These are different problems. One is personal suffering. One is corporate waiting. But God's answer to both is the same.
And this is crucial. God doesn't give Job an explanation. God doesn't give the exiles a timeline. Instead, God reorients their entire understanding of who God is.
God says, in effect: "You think you need information. What you actually need is transformation. You think you need clarity. What you actually need is to see Me differently. Your problem isn't that you don't understand what I'm doing. Your problem is that you don't understand who I am."
And that changes everything.
THE VASTNESS AND "OTHERNESS" OF GOD
Why Your Brain Can't Contain the Answer
Listen to what Isaiah says:
"For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts."
Here's the key. God is not saying, "I have better thoughts than you." God is saying, "I think differently than you. Fundamentally. Categorically. Radically."
Let me translate the Hebrew for you. The word "thoughts" is machashavot. These are the deep, hidden, comprehensive plans God is executing. The word "ways" is derakhim the paths, the modes of operation. And what God is saying is this: My thoughts operate on a completely different level than yours. My ways follow a different logic entirely.
In other words, there's not a small gap between God's thinking and your thinking. There's not a gap you could eventually bridge if you just asked the right questions or studied the right theology. The gap is cosmic.
Here's a picture that helps me. Imagine an ant. That ant is incredibly intelligent. For an ant. That ant can solve any problems. That ant can navigate ant obstacles. But there's no amount of explanation that will help that ant understand why I'm walking across the sidewalk. The ant can't comprehend my size, my timeline, my purposes. The gap isn't a matter of the ant needing more information. The gap is structural. The ant and I operate in different dimensions.
We're not quite ants compared to God. But we're closer to ants than we are to God.
So when we scream at God, "Explain yourself!" we're essentially asking God to compress eternity into a moment, to make infinity fit into our finite minds, to take thoughts that operate at a divine level and translate them into thoughts that operate at a human level.
God could try. God could explain everything. But you wouldn't understand. Not because you're stupid. But because your mind is built to process human-scale problems in human-scale time. And God's purposes stretch across eternity.
Think about it this way. If I tried to explain calculus to my five-year-old, I could use the fanciest language. I could show her the most beautiful diagrams. I could spend hours trying. But at the end of the day, she doesn't have the mental architecture yet to understand. She's not broken. She's just five.
In the same way, you're not broken. You're just human. And some of God's purposes are on a scale that human minds simply can't process yet.
This isn't God being mean. This is God being honest.
WHAT YOU ACTUALLY NEED
Formation Over Information
Now here's where this gets personal.
God withholds explanation because God is prioritizing something far more important than giving you information.
God is prioritizing who you're becoming.
Think about a parent. A good parent doesn't explain every decision. A good parent doesn't say, "Here's the salary I make. Here's our mortgage payment. Here's why we can or can't afford what you're asking for." A good parent sometimes just says no. And the child has to trust the parent's wisdom even when the child doesn't understand.
Why? Because constant explanation would rob the child of the opportunity to develop trust. The child would only obey when the logic made sense. The child would only follow when the benefit was visible. The child would become a little accountant, constantly calculating costs and benefits.
But a parent wants something deeper. A parent wants a child who trusts even when the answer isn't clear. A parent wants a child who knows, "My parent loves me and has my best interest at heart, even when I don't understand the decision."
This is what God wants with you.
If God explained everything "Here's why this happened, here's how long it will last, here's exactly how I'll fix it" what would happen?
First, your faith would collapse. If you knew exactly what God was going to do, you wouldn't need faith. You'd just be waiting for the inevitable. Faith would become obsolete.
Second, your relationship with God would become transactional. You'd obey when you could see the benefit. You'd follow when the logic made sense. But you'd hesitate, doubt, negotiate when God asked you to do something you didn't understand. You'd become a bargainer, not a believer.
Third, you'd lose the opportunity to become who God is trying to make you. The deepest transformation happens in the darkness, in the not-knowing, in the mystery. When you're forced to trust without understanding, when you're forced to obey without explanation, when you're forced to follow without knowing where the path leads—that's when you grow. That's when faith is born. That's when you discover a trust that can survive anything.
I learned this in my own life. There was a season when God asked me to do something that made no sense. Every logical bone in my body said no. But I sensed God saying, "Trust me anyway." And I did. It was one of the most difficult decisions I've ever made.
But here's what happened. In obeying without understanding, I discovered something about myself. I discovered that I could trust God even when God didn't make sense. I discovered that my faith wasn't dependent on my comprehension. I discovered a depth of trust I didn't know I possessed.
That transformation? It never would have happened if God had explained. If God had given me all the logic, all the proof, all the certainty I demanded, I would have obeyed, sure. But I wouldn't have been transformed.
This is what God is after. Not information exchange. Formation. The deep work of making you into who you're meant to be.
HOW GOD TEACHES IN SILENCE
The Way God Chooses to Teach Us
Throughout Scripture, we see this pattern again and again.
Job demands explanation. God doesn't give it. Instead, God encounters Job. God reveals Himself to Job. And Job's response? "I had heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You." (Job 42:5)
Job didn't get answers. Job got transformation.
Habakkuk is furious. "How long will I cry for help and You don't listen?" Habakkuk demands that God explain Himself, justify Himself, defend Himself.
And God does respond. But not with explanation. God responds with a vision of the end. God shows Habakkuk that justice will ultimately prevail. And Habakkuk responds: "Though the fig tree does not bud... yet I will rejoice in the Lord." (Habakkuk 3:17-18)
Habakkuk didn't get explanation. Habakkuk got assurance.
The disciples walked with Jesus for three years. Jesus explained everything to them. Jesus told them He would die. Jesus told them He would rise on the third day. Jesus explained it all. And they still didn't get it.
Why? Because some things can't be understood intellectually until they're experienced. Some truths require not just head knowledge, but heart knowledge. The knowledge that comes from having walked through darkness and found God there. The knowledge that comes from having lost everything and discovered God is enough.
This is how God teaches. Not primarily through explanation. Through encounter. Through experience. Through the deep learning that happens when you're forced to trust without understanding.
THE BRIDGE: THE TRAPS WE FALL INTO
But when we demand that God explain, we can fall into some dangerous patterns.
We've all met "The Theological Fixer." This is the person who tries to put a Bible-verse band-aid on a gaping wound. They see your pain and they panic. Because mystery makes them terrified. So, they rush in with explanations. "God is sovereign." "All things work for good." "It's part of God's plan." And while these things might be true, what they're really doing is using theology to avoid the mystery. They're trying to fix you so they don't have to sit with you in the uncertainty.
Then there's "The Code-Breaker." This person treats God like a puzzle to solve. They read theology books. They study Scripture obsessively. They look for patterns. They're convinced that if they ask the right questions or study hard enough, they'll finally understand God's logic. But they've turned relationship into research. They're so focused on decoding God that they've forgotten to simply be with God.
And finally, "The Resentful One." This is the person who decides that a good God would explain Himself. A loving God would clarify His purposes. A just God would justify His ways. And when God doesn't, they become angry. They feel betrayed. They conclude that God is not good, not loving, not just. They've decided that God should operate according to their expectations of what a good God should do.
All three of these people the Fixer, the Code-Breaker, the Resentful One share something in common. They're all trying to control God. To make God fit into their framework. To force God to make sense on their terms.
But God refuses. And that refusal is actually an act of love
THE CHRISTOLOGICAL ANCHOR: THE CROSS AS THE ANSWER
If you want to understand why God withholds explanation, look at the cross.
Jesus is on the cross. Jesus has no explanation for what's happening. Jesus experiences the ultimate silence. Jesus cries out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46)
And Jesus dies. Without understanding. Without clarity. Without knowing how this leads to resurrection.
But here's the thing. The cross itself is God's answer to our demand for explanation. The cross is God saying, "I don't explain myself with words. I explain myself with action. With sacrifice. With love so profound I pour out my very self."
The cross is not an explanation. The cross is a refusal to explain. It's God's refusal to manipulate or coerce or control through force or argument. It's God choosing vulnerability instead of power. Weakness instead of dominance. Death instead of self-preservation.
And from that silence. From that death. From that refusal to explain. Redemption emerged. Resurrection came. Everything changed.
If you're struggling with God's silence, remember the cross. Remember that Jesus walked through the deepest darkness without explanation. And from that darkness, salvation emerged.
God doesn't explain because God has already said everything that needs to be said. And God said it through a cross.
A CALL TO ACTION: CHOOSING TRUST OVER UNDERSTANDING
So how do we actually respond to this?
First, be honest with yourself. You want explanation. You want clarity. You want God to make sense. This isn't sinful. It's human. So name it. Don't pretend you're perfectly content with mystery when you're not. Stop lying to yourself about being okay with not knowing.
Instead, take it to God. Say something like: "Lord, I hate this. I hate not understanding. I like being in control. I like having a plan. But today, I'm laying down my demand for explanation. I'm choosing to trust you even though it doesn't make sense to me."
Second, stop trying to solve the puzzle. Stop treating God like a code to break. Instead, just be with God. Spend time in Scripture not looking for answers, but looking for God. Pray not to get information, but to strengthen relationship. Worship not to feel good, but to declare that God is worthy of trust regardless of what God gives you.
Third, build community with people who are also learning to trust without understanding. Find people who won't try to fix you with theology. Find people who will sit with you in the mystery. Find people who can say, "I don't know either. But I'm learning to trust anyway."
Fourth, remember the cross. Every time you're tempted to demand that God explain, remember that Jesus endured the ultimate mystery without explanation. Remember that from that silence, redemption came. Let the cross remind you that God's refusal to explain isn't cruelty. It's love.
CONCLUSION: THE INVITATION
Here's what I want you to know as we close.
God's refusal to explain isn't a bug in the system. It's a feature. It's intentional. It's part of how God forms you into who you're meant to be.
The heavens are higher than the earth. And God's thoughts really are higher than your thoughts. And that's not a problem. That's an invitation.
An invitation to stop trying to fit God into your logic and instead let God enlarge your logic.
An invitation to stop demanding that God make sense to you and start asking what it means that you make sense to God.
An invitation to trust not because you understand, but because you know the character of the One you're trusting.
This is the faith that transforms lives. This is the faith that builds saints. This is the faith God is inviting you into right now.
BRIDGE TO PART 5
But here's where it gets practical.
If God withholds explanation, if God removes the reassurance we crave, if God stays silent when we demand answers then how do we actually function? How do we live moment by moment without feeling God's presence? How do we make decisions without God's clear direction? How do we trust when every instinct scream that we should be terrified?
These are the questions Part 4 addresses. Part 4 is where theology becomes life.
BENEDICTION
As you we close this part of this sermon, carry this with you.
God's silence isn't punishment. God's silence is invitation. An invitation to grow beyond what you thought possible. An invitation to trust beyond what makes logical sense. An invitation to become who God created you to be.
May the God who is higher than the heavens, whose thoughts transcend your thoughts, grant you the grace to stop demanding explanation.
May He grant you the humility to admit you don't see what He sees, you don't understand what He understands, your perspective is limited and His is infinite.
May He grant you the faith to trust His character even when His purposes remain hidden. May He grant you the courage to follow Him even when the path is unclear.
And may the assurance that God is at work, that God is forming you, that God is transforming you into something more beautiful than you can imagine, sustain you until that day when all mysteries are revealed.
Go forth in faith. Trust the God who withholds explanation. Follow the God who loves you enough to let you grow in darkness, to develop faith in silence, to become who you're meant to be through mystery rather than certainty.
May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who endured the ultimate mystery on the cross without explanation, the love of God the Father, whose thoughts are higher than your thoughts, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, who sustains us in darkness when understanding fails, be with you now and forevermore.
Amen.
