While We’re Waiting

2020 has been a year filled with many things, especially…waiting.

We are constantly being told to wait.

Wait fifteen days to slow the spread…

Wait another six weeks to flatten the curve…

Wait until things open back up…

Wait until summer, the heat will kill the virus…

Wait until we reach herd immunity…

Wait until Fall when the kids go back to school…

Wait until the election…

Wait until that first debate…

Wait until the election results are in…

Wait for the vaccine to be approved

Wait for everyone to get the vaccine…

Wait, wait, wait.

How Can We Handle the Waiting?

The last two chapters in the Old Testament, Malachi three and four, give us some insight.

“Look! I am sending my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. Then the Lord you are seeking will suddenly come to his Temple. The messenger of the covenant, whom you look for so eagerly, is surely coming,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.”
Malachi 3:1 (NLT)

“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.”
Malachi 4:5-6 (NLT)

God through the prophet Malachi ends the Old Testament by saying, “I’m sending a messenger, and I’m sending a savior. It’s going to happen, just wait.”

If you turn the page in your Bible, the next thing you see is Matthew chapter 1.  But between Malachi and Matthew there is a period of 400 years.  God’s people were waiting for 400 years!

How Can We Handle the Waiting? 

Let’s look at three expectations and three secrets for what to do while we wait:

1.  EXPECT TO WAIT SOME MORE.

Adam and Eve sinned.  God said Eve’s offspring would bruise the head of the serpent’s offspring.  The waiting began.

Noah waited for the rain, he waited 120 years as he built the ark.  Then he waited forty days and forty nights for it to stop raining.  Then he waited a year for the water to subside.  Talk about a quarantine.

Abraham waited seventy-five years for God to promise him a son, then he waited another twenty-five years for Sarah to give birth to Isaac.

Then the Lord took Abram outside and said to him, “Look up into the sky and count the stars if you can. That’s how many descendants you will have!”
Genesis 15:5 (NLT)

Then the Lord said to Abram, “You can be sure that your descendants will be strangers in a foreign land, where they will be oppressed as slaves for 400 years.”
Genesis 15:14 (NLT)

Moses waited forty years in the desert.   Then he waited through ten plagues.  Then the Israelites waited for forty years wandering in the wilderness before they entered the promised land.

David was anointed king.   Then he waited seventeen years before he took the throne.

Jeremiah prophesied that the Jews would wait seventy years in captivity.

Jesus waited thirty years to start his public ministry.

When Jesus ascended into heaven after his resurrection, his instructions to the Apostles was, 

“Wait…”
Acts 1:4 (NIV)

Waiting is a part of life.

“What were you doing when the police arrived? The judge asked the defendant.  

“Waiting, sir.”

“For what?”

“For money.”

“Who was supposed to give you the money?”

“The man I was waiting for.”

“Why was he going to give you money?”

“For waiting.”

“Enough of this,” exclaimed the judge.  “What do you do for a living?”

“I’m a waiter.”

We’re all waiters, aren’t we?  When we’re waiting for the waiter, aren’t we the waiter?

What makes waiting even worse is when we don’t expect to wait.  If we decide to drive through In-N-Out Burger these days, we know we will have to wait.  So, we bring a friend, update our podcasts, download a book or two on Audible.  The line is part of the experience.  But if we have to wait any longer than twelve seconds at the McDonalds drive-thru we’re honking the horn and yelling, “What’s going on around here?”

Expect to wait!

Secret:  Waiting is good for us.

There are some character traits—perseverance, persistence, perspective—that can only come through waiting.

That’s why we tell our kids, “Wait until you’ve finished your dinner before you eat dessert…”  “Wait until you finish your homework to go out to play…”  “Wait until Christmas to open those presents…”

2.  EXPECT GOD TO BE WORKING WHILE WE’RE WAITING

The Apostle Paul put it this way, “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son…”
Galatians 4:4 (ESV)

God may have been silent during that 400-year gap, but he was also certainly busy.  In 400 years the world saw a universal language, a dominant culture, an Eastern curiosity and a tremendously expectant spirituality.  Would the good news about Jesus have been able to spread so wildly, so quickly and “turn the world upside down” (Acts 17:6 NKJV) if Jesus had been born centuries earlier?  It sure looks like God was arranging circumstances every day, even if he wasn’t being especially chatty.

God has been working in 2020.  He is arranging things that we have no idea about.

Secret:  God’s timing is much different than ours.

Peter told us this:

“But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.  The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”
2 Peter 3:8-9 (NIV)

For God a thousand years is like a day, so 400 years is what?  A ten-hour shift?  And a day is like a thousand years.

Some as, why did God wait so long until he sent a Savior?

Do you know what percentage of people who have ever lived, we’re on earth before Jesus came?  Wait for it…between 1 and 2 percent.  

God waited just long enough, then he sent Jesus. 

3.  EXPECT TO WORK WHILE WE’RE WAITING

King Solomon warned, “If you wait for perfect conditions, you will never get anything done.”--Ecclesiastes 11:4 (Living Bible)

At the beginning of Malachi 3 and at the end of Malachi 4 God says he is sending a messenger.  In between he gives us some assignments:

A.    Return 

Now return to me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.
Malachi 3:7 (NLT)

Waiting makes us realize we are not in control.  God lets us wait, so we can remember how much we need him.

B.     Give

Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple. If you do,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, “I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won’t have enough room to take it in! Try it! Put me to the test! 11 Your crops will be abundant.
Malachi 3:10-11 (NLT)

Waiting give us an opportunity to realize what blessing we actually do possess, and to release some of those possessions to God and others.

C.    Serve 

“You have said terrible things about me,” says the Lord.

“But you say, ‘What do you mean? What have we said against you?’

“You have said, ‘What’s the use of serving God?”

Malachi 3:13-14 (NLT)

Waiting can open our eyes to the needs of others.  Instead of pushing our own agenda, we might be forced to step back and see the needs of others.

D.    Obey

“Remember to obey the Law of Moses, my servant—all the decrees and regulations that I gave him on Mount Sinai for all Israel.”
Malachi 4:4 (NLT)

Secret:  Waiting doesn’t mean complacency. 

We can all use the strangeness of this our outer-circumstances and the temptations during waiting periods to do little or nothing. 

But there is plenty for us to do while we’re waiting.  I suspect if we thought about it for a moment, we’d know our next steps.

Mandy Hale concluded, “What we are waiting for is not as important as what happens to us while we are waiting.”

Happy Holidays!  And happy waiting…