The Year I Read the Bible with Laurie Larsen

Episode 14: Four Hundred Years of Silence

• Laurie

Share episode

Send us a text

This is Laurie's final essay covering the Old Testament, before venturing into the New Testament next week.  She explores the prophet Malachi's final warnings from God. It only takes a second to turn the page from the end of the Old Testament to the beginning of the New, but for the people of Malachi's time, it seemed like endless silence.  Was God there?  Was he listening?  Did he even care anymore?

Laurie's repeat guest today is Jody Stallings -- teacher, writer, columnist and church youth worker.  He returns after chatting with Laurie on episode 12, and he is amazingly entertaining, knowledgeable, insightful and full of wisdom.  Have you ever heard a comparison of Jesus to Willie Wonka?  How about The Great Gatsby?  Tune in and hear it for yourself!

Check out Jody's work on his website. 

Check out Laurie's work on her website. 

If you have interest in American Christian Fiction Writers, check it out here. 



Hi, I'm your host Lori Larson, and this is the year I read the Bible. Welcome a Lifelong Christian. I thought I was familiar with the Bible, but in 2023 I accepted the challenge of reading the whole thing, cover to cover. Whenever I encountered something I didn't understand or wanted to learn more. I jotted it down, but I kept reading to stay on schedule. Then I reached the end Imagine Confetti rating down on me, and a huge sigh of relief. I had 40 topics to research in 2024. I started diving into all those topics. I did research, I wrote blogs and I shared them with whoever might wanna learn too. And in 2025, the project continues. I published a book containing all my essays, and now a podcast. Is there something you can learn from that dusty book that sits on all of our shelves? Yes. Yes, there is. Let's dive into The year I read the Bible. I am so happy today to, present to you this essay called 400 Years of Silence as I made my way through my Bible in a year journey. The day arrived when I reached the end of the Old Testament. I let out a cheer and a sigh of relief done with the long books of history of God's people, Israel. Done with the many way too many battle descriptions where God led his people into bloody war with other nations to fulfill his promises. Done with the countless rules and laws, God called for his people to follow. Done with the multitudes of prophets, telling God's people what was to come along with pleas to be ready. It seemed to me that if you pulled way back from the Old Testament and looked at it from the 40,000 foot level, here's what it's about. Number one, God loves his people and provides them with everything they need. Number two, his people eventually take his love for granted sin against God and his expectations. Number three. God becomes angry and doles out discipline on his people just as a loving parent would. Number four, the people mourn and repent and ask for forgiveness. And number five, God provides forgiveness. Repeat steps one through five, then repeat steps one through five, then repeat steps. Well, you get the idea. And side note, we are his people. Yes, it was the ancient Jews who made the mistakes documented in the Old Testament, but I could just as easily write we instead of they. Throughout the Bible, when people act in a certain way, you can rest assured that modern people in today's age still make all those same mistakes to speak with his people. God appointed prophets to share his messages. Primarily, God warned that a time was coming when he will make all things right and restore humanity back to how they were originally intended. Before sin invaded the Garden of Eden and the people needed to be alert and ready for that time. Malachi is considered by most, to be the very last Old Testament prophet that God sent. Although not all my, my chronological Bible reports that some historians believe Joel was the last one. Regardless. The very last verses of the entire Old Testament are Malachi four, one through six. Let me share them here. In the new Living Testament translation, the Lord of Heaven's armies says The day of judgment is coming burning like a furnace On that day, the arrogant and the wicked will be burned up like straw. They will be consumed, roots, branches and all. But for you who fear my name, the son of righteousness will rise with healing in his wings and you will go free leaping with joy like calves left out to pasture. On the day when I act, you will tread upon the wicked as if they were dust under your feet, says the Lord of heaven's Armies. Remember to obey the law of Moses, my servant, all the decrees and regulations that I gave him on Mount Sinai for all Israel. Look, I am sending you the prophet Elijah before the great and dreadful day of the Lord arrives. His preaching will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers. Otherwise I will come and strike the land with a curse and cut. That's it. That's the end. Essentially a big, the end appears after that speech, but that's not a satisfying ending is it? That's a cliffhanger if I've ever seen one. If that were at the end of a bestselling suspense novel or a Hollywood blockbuster movie, if the credits came on or you turned the page only to find the about the author page, you'd be furious, wouldn't you? You'd flip pages and say, what? Where's the rest of it? What happens next? I heard an incredible sermon that included these six verses of Malachi from one of our church's pastors, Eric Spatz. He asked us to place ourselves as one of the Jews who lived in the era of Malachi, about 430 to 400 bc. Malachi had just delivered this fiery. Impactful prophecy. You were fired up. This message was welcome. After all the fighting and difficulties of life on Earth, you were determined to do everything the Lord had said. Malachi had sold you on the sense of urgency, and you certainly wanted to be on the side of the Lord. Then what happened? Nothing. That's what. Life went on and assuming Malachi died off, it was time for God to appoint another prophet to keep his people informed, but there wasn't one. Instead, there was silence from God. Eric asked us to imagine what we'd be praying to God after a year of silence. Five years, 10 years, 20 God. Are you there? Why are you silent? The world is black and you're not responding. Lord, have we sinned so badly that you simply can't forgive us? What's going on? The current generation fell away and a new one grew up, and another one. Now, no one alive had actually heard the prophecies of Malachi or any of the other prophets. God's messages were now just ancient history, written on scrolls, read by rabbis and priests in the synagogue every week. Did God forget about them? Did he even care anymore to go from the end of the book of Malki in the Bible to the beginning of the New Testament? It takes a second to flip one page. But for those people at the time who were waiting, it was 400 years of silence. As Christians, we all know what happens when we flip that one page. Jesus is born. But before we go there, let me take you somewhere else. Eric's passionate sermon made me start wondering before this 400 year weight between prophets. What was the normal length of waiting for new prophets to appear? How different was 400 years to what the ancient Jews were accustomed to? So I did the research. Here is a list of the prophets of the Old Testament with their approximate years of activity. Prophesying for God, Elijah, eight 70 to 8 48 before Christ. Which I'll refer to as BC For the rest of the list, Alicia, 8 48 to 7 97 BC, Amos and Jonah 760 BC Hosea 7 55 to 7 22 BC BC Isaiah seven 40 to 700 BC. Hum. 6 64 to six 12 bc. Jeremiah 6 27 to 580 BC Zephaniah 612 bc Habakkuk 605 bc Daniel 605 to 5 36 BC obadiah 5 86 bc. Ezekiel 5 93 to 5 71 bc, Haggai and Zacharia. 520 BC Joel, 400 ish bc and then Malachi 433 to 430 bc. Was 400 years between prophets a big deal for the Israelites in Malachi's timeframe? Yes, it was, according to this table, the most they'd ever gone without a prophet sharing God's word with them was about 40 years. Often, several prophets were all sharing messages simultaneously for believers at the time, it was a dark, scary, silent time. And then we have our choice of four gospels that tell the story of Jesus. But let's look at one Mark. Mark starts his gospel with the words in the new living translation version. This is the good news about Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of God. Mark one, one. Wow. If there was any doubt that God had arisen from his long silence, mark tells us that this is the event everyone had been waiting for. He goes on to quote a prophecy from Isaiah. Look, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, and he will prepare your way. He is a voice shouting in the wilderness. Prepare the way for the Lord's coming. Clear the road for him, John the Baptist. His message is clear. Mark one seven through eight. John announced someone is coming soon who is greater than. I am so much greater that I'm not even worthy to stoop down like a slave and untie the straps of his sandals. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. And we're often and running into the beloved story of Jesus, sometimes described as the greatest story ever told. The pace will pick up incredibly culminating In only about three years of Jesus' earthly ministry before his crucifixion and resurrection, the days of waiting in darkness. We're over. Thank God that he ended the silence in such a fabulous way. A brilliant light has replaced the darkness and all the hope in heaven and earth has replaced the sadness. Let's end this part with a prayer. God, thank you for the way you introduce the coming of your son in such a positive and exciting way. After the final prophecy of Malachi, thank you for loving us and continuing to forgive us for our sins when we stray, and for pulling us back into the fold when we repent. Thank you for being a good, good father. Amen. And now stay tuned for my conversation about this episode with Jody Stallings.

Laurie:

And here we are with my guest for today, Jody Stallings. Jody, you were here with us about two weeks ago and I know the listeners were excited to meet you and thank you so much for coming back again.

Jody Stallings:

Thank you. It's great to be here again.

Laurie:

Just as a quick reminder, if you haven't listened to Jodi's episode from two weeks ago, I highly encourage you to do that because, you get a more full description of how we know each other and what Jodi's like his teaching, his writing but just as a, brief reminder, Jody and I met because we both joined the. Low country chapter of the American Christian fiction writers. So he writes fiction, he writes nonfiction. He's a very versatile author. And, he's also, as you'll know if you listened to his last podcast, he's very entertaining and knowledgeable as well. We are here today to talk about the episode, 400 Years of Silence. For me, just on a personal level, this was the last book of the Old Testament that I read in the year I read the Bible before I moved onto the New Testament. Have you ever read the Bible straight through Jodi and. If so, what were your feelings about reaching the end of the Old Testament?

Jody Stallings:

Yeah. Several years ago, you know, they used to have these one year bibles and you could just, and you didn't have to go looking up. And so I was like, Nope, I'm not doing that. I don't read fast enough. So I found a two year Bible and

Laurie:

Ah.

Jody Stallings:

that was much more in my lane, because I like to kind of think about and absorb the things I'm reading. So it took me two years, but I went through all the Bible over two years. I don't know that I, it, I don't think it carried me straight through. I think you did a little bit of Old Testament, a little bit of New Testament, but I remember getting to the end of the Old Testament thinking, I'm kind of glad that's over I forget who said it, maybe Luther, but, the expression is all of the Bible is equally inspired. It is not equally inspiring. There's, lots of parts where you're just like, what, who are these tribe? What are these people like? And what is the point of this? Well, that's not very inspiring to me. It was inspired, it was important to God, I kind of picture like when you go through an old family album or you're looking at a family video, you look for yourself first. You're looking for the pictures of yourself. How do I look? And I think it's just

Laurie:

yeah.

Jody Stallings:

the Bible. Where am I? Well, I don't really show up until the New Testament. You know, I don't really

Laurie:

Yeah.

Jody Stallings:

heritage. I I can't trace my ancestry back, so I don't show up until they start getting into the, Gentiles. That's when I, really start to clue in as far as reading it. But I also feel like, when you're going through those old family albums, if you really love your family. After you see all the pictures of yourself. Now I want to go back and find it Now. Who is this person again and who is this person and how are they related to us? that's how I view the Old Testament. It took me a while

Laurie:

Yeah.

Jody Stallings:

had such a strong relationship with God that it mattered to me that it, I cared about Nehemiah and Malachi and those things that were going on. Still can I say there as inspiring as John? No, I cannot. But I love God and I love his family and I love that we have this sort of family album of things that have happened in the past, and that's why it's important to me.

Laurie:

Oh, I love that imagery. It's our family album. Yeah, sometimes if you don't know your relatives, it's kind of a slog through the family album. But, as Christians, we're so familiar with and comfortable with the New Testament, that's when all the fun begins. Right? Jesus is born and John the Baptist makes his appearance and then Jesus picks his followers. It's really familiar and we know it, it's like a big hug, you know? But that Old Testament is where it all starts. You really can't, understand the importance of Jesus and what he brings. If you don't at least have some exposure to what went on, what the Jews went through in the Old Testament. But this essay is about the last book of the Old Testament. You mentioned it, Malachi, and Malachi was the last prophet that God sent to communicate to his people before Jesus was born. The Old Testament is filled with lots and lots of prophets. I listed them in the essay but between the end of the Old Testament, the end of Malachi's prophecies to the beginning of the book of Matthew, which is the first book of the New Testament, there were 400 years of silence What are your thoughts about that long list of prophets that God sent to man before the birth of his son?

Jody Stallings:

I grew up with comic books and, I still love comic books. I like the group called the Justice League of America. And, this Batman and Superman and Wonder Woman, we all know them. But as you start reading, you realize, oh, there's a much longer history here. It goes back to the Justice Society of America, and then you start learning about little minor superheroes like Starman and Mr. Terrific and Dr. Midnight. And those are just fascinating to me. And I kind of feel like that's the way the prophets are. You know, we all know the Isaiahs and the Davids, but. You go back to the, who was the Micah again, you know, who was this? And then there's all these what we call minor profits. But they contributed without them. I mean, they're minor, but they're, indispensable parts, so

Laurie:

Mm-hmm.

Jody Stallings:

of intriguing to me. I also find it, intriguing that when you go back and you read some of these prophets, like they had an very. Interesting. Nick, I think we can take something away from today, which is. were able to speak to the things that were going on in their generation, but they also spoke in broader values, so that even though they were

Laurie:

Mm-hmm.

Jody Stallings:

talking about things that were going on at the time, they talked about them in such a way that we can read them today and find information in there that helps in our walk today, and that's important to me when I'm teaching. Kids or when I'm talking to someone about the scripture that yeah, we can talk about like, okay, how does social media influence the belief today and how are our interactions today? But we have to always keep them in the larger context. We always

Laurie:

Mm-hmm.

Jody Stallings:

to take the big picture about the small picture, so to speak, and that's the thing that the prophets did.

Laurie:

Yeah, in the essay I list out, oh gosh, at least a dozen or more prophets. It's kinda like God acting as a HR manager of, okay, this one's gone. Now, who's the next one that I choose? And, I just love that idea of God hand selecting. People of the time and era, as you said, to communicate to his people so that they get a consistent message and they learn, more as he's determined that, they need to know it. At the end of Malachi chronologically, there's 400 years of silence from no prophets whatsoever. No new prophets, no word from God. Can you imagine the distress from God's faithful followers? What do you think life was like at that time?

Jody Stallings:

Maybe it's like today, there might have been some distress. There might have been a lot of complacency, right? I mean, for us, it's been 2000 years since Jesus said, be right back. Are we distressed? Maybe sometimes, but we also seem to be doing pretty good at occupying ourselves with other things. Even Christians that I know don't go to sleep at night thinking like, is this the day? Why is he waiting so long? Just kind of, you know, go along and we get along. But, I think maybe there ought to be more distress. The Bible tells us to redeem the time. Here we have this commodity time. What are we actually doing with it? I write a column about, teachers and parents and, one of the things I notice about parents today is how eager they are to fill in the intermediary times with smartphones and tablets. You go to an amusement park standing in line, you see entire families, everybody's on their phone. You go to a restaurant waiting for the meal. They're all on their phone. In the

Laurie:

Mm-hmm.

Jody Stallings:

from one game to the next game. They're all on the phone and I wanna just scream at them. Listen, this is where the living is, man. This is where families are made. The times when you're not doing anything, when nobody has anything going on, when you're talking and interacting, this is the important part. And so whatever that was going on through that 400 years, God's silence was not an indication that it was unimportant. silence. Might it have been an indication of. I have spoken. And now what are you gonna do about it? you

Laurie:

Mm-hmm.

Jody Stallings:

somebody once told me, I read this somewhere that, the teacher doesn't talk during the test. So maybe that's a test. How are you gonna take what these profits have said? Are you gonna be able, let me give you some time to implement these things. Can you do it? So here we're waiting for the second return. What are we doing to redeem the time, between God's first coming and his second coming?

Laurie:

Oh, that's really a great concept. And going back to, texting all the time, have you ever sat in the car with someone or sat in the room with someone and texted to each other instead of verbally speaking to them?

Jody Stallings:

Right. I prefer it that way, honestly, but you know, it's not the best policy.

Laurie:

Yeah, that's right. But in a way, this long wait,'cause we looked at, in the essay of this is by far, this is 10 times longer of a weight between profits than any of the previous ones. Maybe it's building. The suspense and the waiting for the ultimate. Prophet, if you wanna think of Jesus as a prophet as far as God's son, he's coming, he's going to, save us all. The longer you wait, the bigger the impact it is when he comes.

Jody Stallings:

And also, is it that long? I mean 400 years. The Bible tells us that to God, a thousand years is like a day. So a thousand years is like a day, 400 years maybe. My math is off a little bit. What's it been like 10 hours? You know, like, you know, maybe three o'clock in the morning and he left. And now so to him, this is not that long. It feels a long time for us. But, for him it's probably not like 2000 years. What are you doing? Come on. But to him,

Laurie:

Yeah, he said, I'm coming back soon. It's been 2000 years.

Jody Stallings:

Okay. Just calm down. I'll get there.

Laurie:

Then Jesus comes, in Matthew, in the gospels, what a relief for those people, how welcome it was. Give us your interpretation of the importance and the excitement of the New Testament events to the people of the time, knowing that those people didn't hear the prophets firsthand, but they read about it. What do you think the people were thinking at the time?

Jody Stallings:

It strikes me in my, you know, English teacher. So, it kind of reminds me of the great gadsby. In reverse.

Laurie:

I.

Jody Stallings:

in the Great Gatsby, you have Jay Gatsby, who falls in love with Daisy Buchanan. And then she goes away and he goes away. And then he comes back and he makes himself into this very rich person because he wants to get her back and he wants to oppress her. And so this is all he wants is Daisy Buchanan. And he throws these parties night after night after night hoping she'll come back, hoping he'll see her again, and he can repark this relationship. And then one day a guy walks in and says, oh, I know Daisy Buchanan. That's my cousin. And you can just see the excitement in Jay Gatsby is palpable. Like he's so close now. It's actually happening. And then he finally meets her. Now I don't wanna give away too much in the book, but in the book, she is not at all worth. Of everything that he has done to try to get her back. She is a very superficial, very unworthy person, and that's why I say this is the opposite of that because all of this anticipation and all of this waiting, and it's really the same for us today, waiting for Jesus' return when he comes back. He is totally worthy. He is worthy of every. Redeemed moment. Every act of obedience, every single prayer, every act of worship that we give, he is gonna be totally worthy. So he's the very opposite of Daisy Buchanan. But that same sort of anticipation, that kind of eagerness, I feel like that's the kind of feeling that we should all have in anticipation. And it's interesting. Throughout the history of man, there has always been this anticipation. Ever since Adam and Eve were expelled, they were already looking forward to the time when they could get back into God's graces. And he has always left, a time in the future where there would be a redemption, where there would be a return. and like you said at the beginning, at the end of Malachi, it was anticipating the Messiah, the Savior. Here he is gonna come and here for us, it's his return. It also, kind of reminds me a little bit too of one of my favorite movies growing up, Willie Wonka, the Chocolate Factory with Gene Weiler and Charlie Bucket, and they go through this chocolate factory and at the end, Charlie and his grandfather like, what about the lifetime supply of chocolate? They thought the prize was a lifetime supply of chocolate. And Willy Wonka says, no, no, no, no. No, that's not the prize. The prize is you get the whole factory and you get to share it with me, and that's what we're awaiting. Whatever sort of little menial thing is in our mind that we're anticipating and whatever the Jews we're anticipating at the end of 400 years. Whatever they thought they were gonna get, they got something so much more than they could ever have anticipated. Jesus Christ came back and he said, no, no, no. I'm not just here to make things good for you. I'm here to redeem the human race. Everything now is different. Love and peace are going to reign. Reign in the hearts of men, and that's so much more than they could ever have anticipated.

Laurie:

That's beautiful. I love all your, book and movie, comparisons.

Jody Stallings:

There's gotta be some value in reading all those books, right? If you.

Laurie:

That's right. Oh gosh. So as I think back over, my journey through the Old Testament or anyone's journey through the Old Testament, I just feel this sense of excitement and anticipation to now dive into the New Testament and in my journey, my year through the Bible, I ended up writing 40 essays. We are on, what is it, episode 14. That has taken us through the whole Old Testament, but I had at least another. 25 that will take us through the New Testament. In fact, I stopped writing essays after the resurrection because I just felt like number one. That's probably enough, for now. Maybe I can go back and do post resurrection, like the acts and the epistles and revelation later as part of my, second project. But also because, there's something biblically meaningful about the number 40. After 40 essays, I called this project to an end. There's all kinds of examples of 40 days and 40 nights and 40 years in the wilderness and, you know, lots of 40. But I just find it so. Illuminating that in the New Testament. I found so many things more to dig into and to learn about. In Jesus' days than I did throughout the hundreds of years before him. So I'm looking forward to, starting the New Testament with the next episode.

Jody Stallings:

How can you write 40 essays? And I have so many students who've.

Laurie:

I.

Jody Stallings:

write four. I say the word essay and they're like, ah. They pass out cold. I don't even wanna hear the word, so

Laurie:

I don't know if I could have done it in eighth grade.

Jody Stallings:

That's true. Yeah. Our brains develop just a little bit more between the age of, 13 and wherever we are now, we shall not speak the numbers.

Laurie:

That's right.

Jody Stallings:

Yeah.

Laurie:

Right.

Jody Stallings:

A little older. I'll just say.

Laurie:

Well, is there anything else that you wanted to add to about this topic of 400 years of silence? I.

Jody Stallings:

I just think it's important for us to remember again when it feels like God is not answering us. He's probably working on things, for 400 years. He wasn't just sitting around with his, you know, feet up on a footstool, like well done with all that. He was working, he was arranging.

Laurie:

Yeah. Yeah.

Jody Stallings:

And so sometimes we can get a little impatient with God and, hearing from him answering those prayers. But we need to develop that patience. We've seen it. Here's a good gap. 400 years that we saw. He wasn't just sitting around not doing anything. He was planning, what was next. And this is why it's so important. Like don't ask like where are you? Ask what's next? Because we know he's there and we know he's going to answer us.

Laurie:

And he's always the same. He's consistent from the beginning until now. So if you see anything in the Bible, like a 400 year absence of a new prophet and new messages, it's not out of the realm of possibility that it will happen again. Well, Jody, thank you so much. It's been such a pleasure chatting with you, and, I wish you the very best with your fictional series and with your continued columns in the newspaper and your teaching and your mentoring of young people. And I'll see you next time at our A CFW meeting.

Jody Stallings:

I look forward to it. Thank you very much.

Laurie:

Okay, bye-bye.

And that's it for today. Thank you very much for being here with me on The Year I Read the Bible Podcast. We'll be back with another episode next week. If you enjoy this podcast, please do all the normal things to spread the word: like it, review it, share it with your friends. If you are interested in additional The Year I Read the Bible resources such as the book, the video channel, and the blog, I will certainly include the links in the show notes. And I'd love to hear about your own journey to read the Bible cover to cover. Have you done it or are you doing it right now? Please reach out to me and let me know how it's going. Until next time, it's Laurie Larsen with The Year I Read the Bible. Bye.

People on this episode

Head Shot

Laurie Larsen

Host