“For thus saith the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength: and ye would not… And therefore will the Lord wait, that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you: for the Lord is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for him.” – Isaiah 30:15, 18
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!” – Matthew 23:37
“As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.” – Revelation 3:19-20
We are in the midst of two graduations at my house – we have both a senior and a kindergartner preparing for the next phase in their young lives. And although they are 13 years apart, my crazy but kind-hearted boys are so much alike – eager, fearless, “wise in their own eyes”, and incredibly stubborn. And so this mama prays. Because, especially with the senior, there is way too much that is beyond my control. And when I can see the potential danger, but not the outcome – my utter helplessness humbles me. And so I pray.
You see, even though I’m on the dark side of 45, I remember being where he is right now. I remember the choices I made, the prices I paid, and the lessons learned the hard way. I remember saying that I was “impatient with life” and living like it was entirely up to me to carve out my own destiny. And in the carving, I dug holes that only God could get me out of.
In Isaiah 30, the prophet is trying to warn the kingdom of Judah about the price of impatience. Isaiah prophesied during the reign of King Hezekiah in Jerusalem (II Kings 16-20). At that point in Judah’s history, Assyria, led by the ruthless King Sennacherib, was their greatest threat. A few generations earlier, Assyria had captured the Northern Kingdom of Israel, devastating their land and exiling their people. Now the Assyrians threatened the Southern Kingdom of Judah, and Judah prepared to enlist the help of an old enemy, rather than wait on the deliverance of God.
Conveniently forgetting the bondage of their forefathers and the clear commands of God, Jewish envoys traveled to Egypt to negotiate an alliance with the very country that kept them as slaves in the days of Moses. And God’s Word is clear – this treaty will be worthless (Verses 2-3, 7). Egypt will not be able to save Judah. In Verse 6, God’s people are going to great lengths to buy the world’s protection, sending a caravan of donkeys and camels loaded down with the riches that God Himself had given them. How ironic that they take the blessings of God and use them to try to strike a better deal with the world. And how often do we take God’s gracious gifts and gamble them in the world, trading the eternal for the immediate?
Verse 15 sums up the simplicity of God’s requirements – return and rest. That was all they had to do to find deliverance. God wanted repentance – returning to Him – and trust – resting in His promises and waiting on His fulfillment of them (Psalm 18:30, 20:7, 37:3, 5, 40, II Chronicles 7:14, Jeremiah 39:18, ). Sadly, the verse ends with the verdict of their free will – “ye would not”.
But don’t miss the precious, promised longsuffering of our “Abba” Father (Romans 8:14, Galatians 4:6). In Verse 18, God commits to do the waiting that His people would not. He will wait for them to come to the end of themselves (Luke 15:17-18). He will wait for them to learn their lesson the hard way, and He will wait for them to accept His mercy. God’s grace will overcome, but it could have been so much better, so much easier, if they had chosen to wait, instead of leaving the waiting to God (Psalm 31:19, Isaiah 63:7, John 10:10, Romans 2:4).
There have been times in my life when God was waiting on me – waiting to bless me, to use me, to grow me. And in my arrogance, I kept Him waiting – always to my own detriment. God has been gracious, and I am blessed, but I forfeited years of His goodness by refusing to wait and trust.
If someone needs to wait – let it be you and me. Wait on God’s best. Prove the plans that seem good to you through patient prayer, and rest in the God Who never makes a promise that He will not keep. God longs to be gracious to you. He longs to work in you and through you. The question is: How long will He have to wait on you?
YOUR PRESCRIPTION
Is God waiting on you? Are you so busy controlling your situation that there’s no room for God to work in it? Ask Him to show you the things that He wants to accomplish in your situation and in YOU. Surrender to His will and His work in your life.
Leave a Reply