There’s something about silence from a smaller person that emboldens the bully. Gives him a sense of victory. Makes him think his sticks, fists and false cases are powerful.
With growing disbelief I’ve seen nuns—yes, those gentle, sari-clad sisters who’d sooner cradle a child than carry a protest sign—being bundled into police vans on the outrageous charge of human trafficking. What were they doing? Smuggling weapons? Hiding fugitives? No. They were escorting students to a learning centre. That’s their crime.
I’ve seen pastors their clothes torn, dragged out of prayer meetings, as if faith had suddenly become a felony. Congregations scattered, churches locked, and Bibles… burned. Yes, burned. As though pages of peace and love were weapons of mass destruction.
And through all this, one question seems to hover in the smoke: Why don’t they fight back?
Why don’t these people retaliate? Organise a mob, shout some slogans, throw a few punches?
Because they are not weak.
But have you ever wondered why? Yes, you who do this.
Because, their strength lies elsewhere.
Somewhere in Isaiah 42:14, where God himself thunders:
“For a long time I have kept silent, I have been quiet and held myself back.
But now, like a woman in childbirth, I cry out, I gasp and pant: I will destroy and devour at once”
You see, when a people believe in a God who holds back—not out of helplessness but restraint—they don’t panic. When they’re beaten or jailed or mocked, they don’t rise with sticks and stones, but with whispered prayers.
Because they know. The silence is not forever.
There is a growing roar behind that hush.
The powers that be—the ones who slap trumped-up charges, who torch scripture as if it were straw—have mistaken patience for passivity. That’s where they’ve made their biggest mistake.
They think the meek won’t inherit the earth.
They think the Jesus who forgave from a cross will watch His followers perish.
And so, like schoolyard bullies who find no resistance, they grow bolder. And bolder.
But wait till that verse, Isaiah 42:14, is no longer just ink on a page but thunder in the sky.
I’ve seen horrible things unfold in the lives of those who’ve acted with cruelty—their children taken away in the prime of youth, fortunes that vanished like mist. I’ve watched those who schemed and lied walking with heads covered in shame and defeat—and have even cried to God saying, ‘Enough Lord, don’t do this to them!’
But I know, and surely know from all this that there is a higher Judge watching, and sometimes, He doesn’t just balance the scales; He breaks them to rebuild justice.
I believe we are all children of one God, so the next time you march into a convent or a chapel with false charges and fiery hate, pick up that Bible you are going to burn, open it to Isaiah 42:14 and read it out aloud.
Because the God who was silent…
Is waiting…!