God’s timing

When Moses was called by God to lead the people of Israel, he had already experienced many adventures. ‘I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.’ Exodus 3:10. Moving to Exodus 7:7 we have further evidence that Moses was 80 years old and his brother three years older.

But then it was another forty years that the Israelites had to spend wandering in the wilderness, a journey that should have taken eleven days. Then at the age of 120 God told Moses ‘Look at the land with your own eyes, since you are not going to cross this Jordan.’ Deuteronomy 3:27.

Moses never did set foot in the Promised Land. He spent many years looking forward to entering the land that the Israelites had been promised, but because of disobedience it was denied to him and his whole generation.

There are times in our own lives when we can feel like Moses. We spend many years in Christian work and never see its completion. Or we invest much time into the sharing of the gospel with a particular person, but we never see them coming to faith.

We need to remember that God works in His own particular time, which is not ours. He will be the One who works out the completion of our work and witness. Our only task is to be faithful.

Wait ‘in’ the Lord, not wait ‘for’ the Lord. If we wait for the lord, we are waiting impatiently for Him to act, by waiting ‘in’ Him we are resting and abiding in peace. We have the example of Abraham and Sarah as a classic case of waiting. We know the end of the story but during their time of waiting they only had the word of God and in one period they had to wait thirteen years for God’s next utterance. During that time Abraham had to continue managing his estates well so that when the promised son came, his affairs would be in a good condition to eventually hand over. Sarah had to continue running the household, the child would need a loving, well managed home in which to thrive.

I think of childless couple, with their longing being like a physical pain. So many conversations with friends would be about successful off-spring. Each word would be like a knife entering the soul. These children always sound very successful! The ‘waiters’ can only remain silent.

As the years went by for Abraham he would have learned so much about God and himself. The time would have equipped him further to be the man God wanted him to be and the father himself that God was training him to be.

In a world where the ‘same day’ ethos has become the buzz word, may we learn to wait in God and to walk at His pace, not to lag behind and not to walk ahead. God’s speed is the perfect one.