The Waiting Game. Again.

I almost couldn't take it anymore.  I was reading through Hosea and Isaiah today in the Bible, and I was feeling so beat down by it.  Over and over God warns His people, and they refused to listen.  So God promised to send other nations in to destroy the country and get the people's attention.  The warnings were dark, ominous, and seemed to go on, verse after verse, chapter after chapter, without end.  It was discouraging.  


In Isaiah 30:17, God says
"A thousand will flee 

at the threat of one;
at the threat of five
you will all flee away,
till you are left
like a flagstaff on a mountaintop,
like a banner on a hill.” 

He's saying that the nation will be completely routed and destroyed.  No one will be left.  

I read these things and I think about my own sin, my own places I wrestle with God, where I don't want to listen to Him.  It breaks me, scares me, and worries me.  I want to follow God, I want to serve Him, but there are still so many issues in my own life that I am working on and have so far to go yet.  

Then, after verse 17, I read verse 18:

"18 Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you;
therefore he will rise up to show you compassion.
For the Lord is a God of justice.
Blessed are all who wait for him! 19 People of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. How gracious he will be when you cry for help! As soon as he hears, he will answer you.20 Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them.21 Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”

And I have hope again.  God is a God of justice.  He will do what it takes to get our attention and get us back on the path.  He is also a God of grace and compassion.  It just gives me hope that as long as I keep trying to follow Him, even when hard times come, or consequences for my sins fall, He will stand with me in them and never leave me.  Blessed are those who wait on Him.  Again with the waiting.  It's finally starting to get through my skull.  Be faithful, stand, and wait on the Lord.

That's not quite the normal plan for business in our culture.  That's for sure.  "What is your five year plan look like Jason?"  "Oh, you know, I'm waiting on God."  (awkward pause......)

But really, what else is there?  What else can I do?  I can try to run everything myself, work myself into a worried mess, stress over a ton of details, some I can influence and some I can't.  Or I can trust that God is a God of compassion and grace, and I can wait.

That's enough.  It's more than enough.

The Ah-Ha Moment

As chapter 16 in John finishes out, I love how Jesus speaks to His disciples. They don't get what He is saying, so He lovingly clears it up for them. And then they have the Ah-Ha! moment where they get it (vs. 31). Notice that Jesus tells them ahead of time that they will run from Him, but that He isn't alone even then. He comforts them before they are heartbroken.

But what of the point on the cross where God turns His back on Jesus? Did Jesus not know that part was coming? Honestly, I don't know. On the one hand, He could have been protecting the disciples by not telling them everything that was to come. He doesn't tell them every detail beforehand, so that could be the case here.

But the Bible is also clear that Jesus learned as He went, that somehow God gave Him knowledge as He got older. So maybe Jesus didn't yet know that God would separate from Him and turn His back on Him on the cross.

The whole thing is confusing to me, I have to admit. What did He know, and when? I would love to hear what everyone else understands about this idea.

Either way though, we see in Jesus this desire to care for those around Him, even as they are getting ready to dessert Him in His worst hours. What love He has for them, for me, for us! I bail on Jesus all of the time, yet He continues to love me. That is an example worth trying to follow.

I would love any feedback you may have.