Wait ... and Hurry Up!

 

Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.

—Psalm 27:14

 

You’ve heard the expression: “Hurry up and wait.” I think of this expression when I’ve hurried around all morning to make a doctor’s appointment. Then, when I get there, I sit in the waiting room or exam room for another hour before the doctor can see me.

Then, there are the commercials that say: “Hurry! Call now … but wait.” And then, they offer to give you more of a deal than you can possibly pass up.

In Scripture, it seems that God sometimes makes us wait … and wait … and wait. Then, when God begins to act, things happen at the speed of light.

Two stories in the Old Testament offer pertinent illustrations:

• One is the story of Joseph from Genesis 39. Potiphar threw Joseph into prison under false accusations. Joseph languished in prison for two years waiting for release. The one person on the outside who said he would stick up for Joseph, forgot him.
  
  But one day, the man remembered. Pharaoh met with Joseph and Joseph was “quickly” brought out. He was elevated to serve Pharaoh as governor of the entire land of Egypt.
  
  
• The other is a story of the Old Testament that gets told year after year by the Jews on Passover. It is the story of the Jews as slaves in Egypt. In Exodus 2:23 we read:
  
  

  … The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God.

  For forty years they had waited for relief. Even after Moses came to rescue them as God had instructed, they had to wait while God dealt with the rebellious Egyptians with punishing plagues.
  
  But, on the night that the Angel of the Lord came to strike Egypt’s firstborn, Pharaoh instructed Moses and Aaron, as recorded in Exodus 12:31-39:
  
  

  “Up! Leave my people, you and the Israelites! Go, worship the Lord as you have requested … The Egyptians urged the people to hurry and leave the country … So, the people took their dough before the yeast was added, and carried it on their shoulders in kneading troughs wrapped in clothing … The dough was without yeast because they had been driven out of Egypt and did not have time to prepare food for themselves.

  Amazing! There are other places in Scripture where you can read the word “quickly.” Usually God is working in such a situation.
  
  

When we think we have been forgotten, and have waited longer than any human should ever have to wait, God shows up and says: “Hurry!” May we be encouraged while we wait that there will come a day when circumstances begin to move at lightning speed.

Glory to God!