THE INCOMPERABLE RESPONSIBILITY AND HONOR OF WAITING ON GOD.

‘I have set the LORD always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.’ Psalm 16:8

You and I are living in the most tumultuous times most of us have ever seen - It’s been psychological blow after blow after blow leaving many to wonder..-

Where is God? …

Why isn’t He doing anything about this.. or that?

Am I foolish to keep believing?

Are our prayers having any effect?

To answer these questions we turn to The Word of God, and the patriarchs..

¹³ These all died in faith,

not having received the promises,

but having seen them afar off,

and were persuaded of them,

and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

¹⁴ For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country.¹⁵ And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned.

¹⁶ But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly:

wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city. ‘ Hebrews 11:13 - 16

Noah. Abraham. Sarah. Joseph. Jacob. Moses. Daniel. Job. David. Paul. Joshua. and Jesus.

The Book of Hebrews in the Bible is one of the most remarkable ‘books’ on Earth. Written by the most capable authority on Hebrew law in his day - Paul of Tarsus, the doctor of Jewish law trained at the feet of his era’s inimitable law scholar- Gamaliel (Acts 22:3), Paul codified the Hebrew faith and its legal intricacies to demonstrate its inexorable destination as the cross - and the person of Jesus Christ.

God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;

Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins,

sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.’ Hebrews 1:1-3

Yet, of all of the stunning revelations in the Book of Hebrews, there remains one chapter that rises above all - in its distillation of the overarching message of the entire Bible - the truth that upended the life of rebel monk- Martin Luther - launching a revolution that has yet to see its denouement - with just 6 scintillating words

‘The Just shall live by faith.’

Hebrews Chapter Eleven, has been called ‘The Hall of Fame of believers’. Indeed -it summarizes, in some cases in just one sentence, the ‘crowning achievements of believing’ of the holy spirit’s choice of the most faithful men and women of all times.

Hebrews 11 is a treatese on what it means to believe God.

What should startle even the most taciturn among us, is how short the chapter is; and how few people are highlighted in it.

Here, for your enlightenment, are 12 names - from Chapter 11 and other records - all of which have one gleaming commonality -

FAITH that led to these saints’ ability to ‘WAIT ON GOD’.

Here are the stories that will strengthen our resolve today:

Noah.

God told Noah to build an Ark for the saving of mankind. Most scholarly estimates give the building process- that is- from the command to build, to the ‘closing of the ark door’ - as about 75 years. Up to that point, the earth had not seen rain; (the ground was ‘misted’ from below) No one had ever build a boat before, and we are safe to assume - seeing as none of Noah’s neighbors ‘came on board’, that an atmosphere of mockery was the rule of the day. Taken all together, Noah’s wait to see what God had said 75 years before, had to be an interminable daily challenge. But wait he did, winning himself an eternal name, and place in the kingdom.

Abraham.

Abe waited. The gestation period between the promise to Abraham of an heir and Isaac’s arrival was 25 years. And Abraham’s waiting on God was not limited to Issac. He was called out, and ‘went’, not knowing where he was going.. He sojourned with his family in tent cities his WHOLE LIFE - WAITING for the city whose builder and maker is GOD. It was this ‘believing God’ that was counted unto Abraham as righteousness’.

Sarah.

Sarah waited on all of God’s promises right alongside her husband.

Joseph.

Friend, have you ever noticed that of the 12 sons of Israel, only ONE of them appears in Hebrews 11? What set Joseph apart?

2 things - #1 WAITING ON GOD.

When he was sold out by his own brethren, landing in a foreign kingdom, then landing in jail for no valid reason - Joseph waited and waited and waited to be released from prison - never doubting God or questioning His will for him. He maintained his faith with no way of knowing if and when he’d ever get out of prison..

#2 Joseph BELIEVED GOD.

Verse 22 of Hebrews 11 is one of the most remarkable verses in the Bible.

Of ALL the AMAZING things that might have been said about Josephs remarkable life as 2nd in command in Egypt.. the holy spirit picked just one- With his dying breath, Joseph confessed what God had told his grandfather and his father, generations ago, about an event that was yet FOUR HUNDRED YEARS OUT - and commanded his children saying -”You’re going to leave here. When you do, take my bones with you”.

How many of us peter out after a month, a week, a day of no answer to a prayer..

Jacob.

When asked his age by Pharaoh, Jacob somberly answered, ‘The days of the years of my pilgrimage are one hundred and thirty years. Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life’..

Hearing this, one gets the feeling that Jacob had been counting the days of his life one by one, ever since his beloved son Joseph was ‘torn apart by lions’ (Or so he was led to believe) - to where his son Benjamin was taken from him (Genesis 43:14)

Jacob inevitably knew what God promised his father, Isaac, (Genesis 26) that a great nation that would spring from him; Yet Jacob suffered the interminable waiting of unfulfilled expectation. All he knew was grief, and longing, and now a famine..

Blow after blow after blow.. Where were the promises?

Finally, (Genesis 46) God spoke to Jacob himself; telling him to go to Egypt -that God would make of him a great nation there.. and take him out of there.. Yet Jacob died in Egypt..

Daniel.

Daniel waited his whole life on God. He was taken as a prisoner of war to a foreign country, where he served from his youth, to his old age - never once being recorded as doubting God, disobeying Him; or 'blaming others’ for Israel’s misery in Babylon. Therefore the angel told Daniel that he was well LOVED. And it was to this lifelong patient and faithful man of God, that the most astonishing revelations of the end of the age, were entrusted.

Job.

Everyone has heard of the ‘patience of Job’. Where- in the height of his own pain, his own wife encouraged him to ‘Curse God and die’. Yet Job waited on God in what was the most protracted and exquisite episode of suffering outside of the cross of Christ.

For his faithfulness, God not only restored more than what he’d lost, Job won for himself an eternal name and place in the Kingdom, (where he’ll be reunited with his whole family).

Of these Old Testament saints the Scripture says - These all ‘died in faith’- not having received the promises, but being ‘assured of them’..

We come to..

Paul.

When Jesus appeared to Paul, the man had achieved the highest Resume and accolades of any man in synagogue leadership..

^‘Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.^’

Having met the Lord sufficed Paul to where he was able to say -

‘But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.’ Philippians 3

Paul went on to suffer great loss; nearly including his life many times. That he was given the greatest revelations to the Church of all men ever, tells us that Paul - in the face of great suffering, and interminable waiting - was reckoned faithful - on earth, having earned still to be realized eternal rewards in the Kingdom.

We know Jesus encouraged him leading him to scribe these words:

‘Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward.’ Hebrews 10:35

Jesus.

Jesus learned obedience by the things which he suffered.

If any man was put to wait, it was Jesus Christ; who came to earth KNOWING what things he’d have to suffer;

Have you ever been to an audition - and as you wait in the wings for your term on stage, you tremble with painful anticipation? Now - imagine counting the days - as Jacob did - for 3 years.. teaching, feeding, healing, all the while watching the clock ticking to the Garden encounter you know will mean your arrest and crucifixion and 40 hours of torture so extreme, he wouldn’t be recognizeable as a man (Isaiah 53).. Talk about waiting..

⁸ And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself,

and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.⁹

Wherefore God hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name

That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,

of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;

When WE think God is putting us to wait - when we wonder if he is hearing us.. when we wonder why things ‘continue as they do’ - our prayers and tears notwithstanding - let us remember the 12 faithful saints of whom it is written -

‘….wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God.’

and…

‘Finally, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him..’

‘..endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.’

From where he is soon to return for his faithful Church, that is both waiting and watching for him, and obeying his Word.