In my last blog post, we talked about Abraham and Sarah’s blunder in their decision to bring Hagar (Sarah’s maid) into the plan for their desperate need to have a child. They’ve managed all those years to live without a child, but now that Abraham is in his 80’s and finally God assured them that they’re going to have a child, Sarah gave up waiting. She firmly believed she was never going to have a child after all. Nope. She was sure this time that it wasn’t going to be through her. After all, God didn’t tell them specifically that it was going to be through Sarah until after Hagar’s son Ishmael was born. He just said that Abraham was going to have a child and was going to be a father of many nations. So since she didn’t have the child by her mid-seventies, and as she confessed herself she was past bearing age, surely it must be through someone else. Thus the blunder they made in getting ahead of God, instead of waiting for Him. They had sorrows dealing with Hagar, because Hagar got to feeling high and mighty over Sarah because she could bear Abraham a child and Sarah could not. Then later on, Hagar’s son teased Sarah’s own child, Isaac, and this was very upsetting for her. That was what broke the camel’s back. She made the decision to kick Hagar and her son Ishmael, who was Abraham’s son, out of their home. This was not an easy thing to deal with. From the time they got Hagar involved until the time they forced her to leave, it must have been a continual sorrow to Sarah.
They didn’t have to wonder about it really, whether it was through Sarah or not that God had promised to bring a child. All they needed to do was ask Him. They knew how. When a generation later Isaac, their promised child was desiring to have a child, he asked the Lord to open his wife’s womb because she was barren. This is what the Bible says about it:
And Isaac intreated the LORD for his wife, because she was barren: and the LORD was intreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived. {Genesis 25:21}
Then when his wife Rebekah was wondering about what was going on in her belly, because she felt a struggle going on inside of her, she asked the Lord what was happening to her and the Lord actually responded to her and told her:
And the LORD said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger. {Genesis 25:23}
So asking the Lord to reveal His thoughts and His desires wasn’t an enigma to people back then. They knew how to talk to God. So there was no excuse for Sarah, or even Abraham for that matter, to remain ignorant about how God was going to bring the child to them. All they needed to do was ask the Lord.
Another sad scenario that comes to my mind when it comes to waiting on God and getting impatient with Him in the process is King Saul, the first king in Israel. God had chosen him to be the very first king of Israel because of his humbleness and desire to do what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord. But just within two years of being chosen king, the favor of God left Him. His first blunder cost him his kingdom. Prophet Samuel had told him to wait for him for seven days to offer burnt offerings and peace offerings with him and to receive instruction from him on how to rule the kingdom. But on the seventh day when Saul didn’t see Samuel he decided to make the burnt offerings and the peace offerings himself. That was a big mistake. Not only did he not wait for Samuel to come before God and make the offerings with him, Samuel was supposed to make the offerings not Saul. This was the priests’ job not for kings. But I can understand where Saul was coming from. The Philistines, their enemies, showed up and before Saul knew what was happening, some of his men were leaving him. People everywhere were scampering away for their lives. He thought for sure he had no other choice but to make the burnt offering himself since it looked like the Philistines were closing in, and as he told Samuel, he had not made his prayer to the Lord yet. How would he even have a chance to win in the battle if he did not make an offering to God? Of course as soon as he was finished making the offerings, in comes Prophet Samuel, who saw what he had done and was very displeased with him. Samuel told Saul,
Thou hast done foolishly: thou hast not kept the commandment of the LORD thy God, which he commanded thee: for now would the LORD have established thy kingdom upon Israel for ever. But now thy kingdom shall not continue: the LORD hath sought him a man after his own heart, and the LORD hath commanded him to be captain over his people, because thou hast not kept that which the LORD commanded thee. {1 Samuel 13:13-14}
Just two years into his reign and Saul lost his monarchy. If he had waited his kingdom would have lasted and his children would have inherited it. Now, his kingdom has been given to another man, who we know later on as King David.
Waiting can sometimes be excruciatingly painful, especially when you want to get going already. You have plans, places to go and people to see. Waiting is not easy. But sometimes when you truly want what God has for you, you have no other choice but to wait. Getting ahead of God when He has told us to wait can become detrimental to our future. It could mean all kinds of sorrow for us. King Saul and his son Jonathan, who would have been the next king, were both killed in battle. The ending of Saul was not a happy one.
On the other hand, if we wait on the Lord and practice patience with Him, it could mean a life set with many blessings for us, especially the favor of God.
Think about Job, the patient servant of God, who lost and suffered so much in his life because God had allowed Satan to afflict him. He did not desert the Lord, he continued to believe in God and not give up on Him. He tells us,
And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: {Job 19:26}
And again in another chapter, Job tells us regarding his faith in God to come through for him:
But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold. {Job 23:10}
Job believed God and waited on Him. It is worth to wait on the Lord and not get ahead of Him. We see the beautiful ending of Job’s patience, how the Lord showed up in the end and blessed him more than he even had before he was afflicted. God blessed him with abundance and set his life for good. Job lived up to 140 years more after his affliction. That’s a long time of blessing! He saw his grandchildren and great-great grandchildren even up to the fourth generation. He was patient and God blessed him. This reminds me of what apostle Peter had penned in his epistle:
That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: {1 Peter 1:7}
Prayer
Lord Jesus, thank You Father for Your wonderful grace and mercy upon us today. I thank You Father that there is nothing too hard with You. When we wait on You we know it’s not that You’ve forgotten us but that You are working everything out for our good. You know what is best for us, You see what’s ahead, and You know what needs to be done. That’s why it is important for us to wait on You. Please Savior, help us today to wait on You, on whatever You have promised to give to us and whatever answers to our prayers we are looking for from You. Help us to wait for You Jesus, and not come up with our own plans. Let us wait continually for You, especially in prayer everyday, so that we may come to know You more and love You more. I pray this Father, in Your most wonderful and precious name, Jesus. Thank You, Father. Amen.
