<p>4:38- see on Mt. 8:25; 20:32; Jn. 10:13.</p><p><i>And he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they awoke him, and said to him- </i>The waves from the earthquake &quot;covered&quot; or 'hid' s.w. the ship (Mt.). Given the intensity of the situation it seems unlikely the Lord was really &quot;asleep&quot;. Here we have a picture of the apparent silence of God. He appeared to be asleep, He remained with eyes closed, lying there as the boat was hidden beneath the waves. But He did this surely to pique the intensity of faith and urgency of appeal in their prayer to Him for salvation. And the apparent silence of the Lord in our lives is ultimately to try to achieve the same effect.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p>The Greek for 'sleep' could also stand the translation 'lying down to rest'. But how could He appear to be resting or asleep in such a situation? I suggest He did this to elicit their desire for Him. Likewise He made as if He would walk by them during another storm, and acted as if He would go on further on the walk to Emmaus. It was all in order to elicit their urgent desire for Him. And so it is with His apparent silence to us; that silence or lack of immediate response is in order to heighten our final sense of His grace and action. We see it in how He delayed going to Lazarus; it is the principle of Is. 30:18: &quot;Therefore Yahweh will wait, that He may be gracious to you; and therefore He will be exalted, that He may have mercy on you, for Yahweh is a God of justice. Blessed are all those who wait for Him&quot;.</p><p>'Awoke' is literally, to raise up. It seemed He didn't want to do anything- until they imposed upon Him with all their energy and intensity of focus upon Him and Him alone as their Saviour. And the whole situation was raised up to that end.</p><p><i>Teacher, do you not care that we perish?</i>- His whole life and death were because He <i>did</i> so care that they would not perish (Jn. 3:16). It&rsquo;s so reminiscent of a child&rsquo;s total, if temporary, misunderstanding and lack of appreciation of the parent&rsquo;s love and self-sacrifice.</p><p>Matthew records that they asked Him to save them, because &quot;We perish&quot;. The same Greek words for 'save' and 'perish' also occur together in Mt. 16:25, where the Lord teaches that if we seek to save our lives in this world then we will perish. He could thereby be making a criticism of the disciples' plea to be saved from perishing; His sense would then have been 'You should have an even greater, focused intensity upon your need to be saved spiritually and not to perish eternally'. Again the two words occur together in Mt. 18:11, where the Lord says that He came to save those who are perishing- and again, He has in view spiritual, ultimate salvation. The perishing disciples on the lake, in need of saving, are therefore being set up as a picture of the intensity of desire we should have for forgiveness and salvation. The way essential intention is understood as prayer is perhaps reflected in the way Matthew records that the disciples prayed during the storm on the lake: &quot;Lord, save us, we are perishing&quot; (Mt. 8:25). Mark records that their actual words were &quot;Teacher, do you not care if we perish?&quot; (Mk. 4:38). Perhaps this was read by Matthew's inspiration as prayer. An alternative would be that they firstly said the words recorded by Mark, and then those by Matthew- in which case we could perhaps notice the difference between &quot;Teacher&quot; and &quot;Lord&quot;, as if the higher they perceived the greatness of the Lord Jesus, the more moved they were to prayer.</p>