By Callie Mitchell, SAVED News International Correspondent, Jerusalem, Israel
Since the end of December, the word that has been stirring in my heart is “wait patiently on the Lord.”
There are a few promises, big and small, that I’ve been waiting on that haven’t been fulfilled quite yet. From a study of scripture I know the Word of the Lord can be slow to come about, and that time of waiting is an important season in the process. It’s one that Israel has had to know often throughout this nation’s ancient and modern history.
The Promise
The Lord promised Abraham that his descendants would number the stars of the sky and the sand on the seashore. Also they would inhabit the specific geographic territory that is Israel today (and then some). Most of this Abraham didn’t see fulfilled in his lifetime. The course of this prophetic word being fulfilled involved 400 years of slavery in Egypt and 40 years wandering in the desert. Then even after arriving in the covenanted land, conditions of sin led to times of captivity. After Messiah Yeshua’s death and resurrection, the people were then scattered in the nations for nearly 2000 years before they were able to return and form the modern state.
That’s all really quite a story and a great time of testing and refining. To the simple-minded, a number of these occasions may have even looked like the enemy had thwarted God’s plan, but that’s not possible. Job 42:2 tells us: “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.” If the Lord truly spoke and purposed something, it will manifest…. in His perfect time.
Our role during the wait is to walk faithfully with Him and to abide in His word.
It can be tempting to take the word of the Lord into our own hands. Abraham and Sarah did so by offering Sarah’s servant, Hagar, as a concubine to conceive a child. That didn’t go so well. Likewise, Rebecca knew the Lord had prophesied of her twins that there were two nations in her womb, and the older would serve the younger. (Genesis 25:23). Esau sold his birthright to Jacob for a pot of stew, but Rebecca helped to manipulate circumstances so that Isaac would give Jacob the blessing. Someone once told me she thought Rebecca was in the right there, because of the Lord’s promise. It didn’t sit well with me and as I studied for myself, I saw that while Esau and Jacob eventually reconciled, Rebecca never saw her son again since he fled for his life soon after. As a mother, I can say she suffered quite a consequence there.
Trust Him
When we manipulate circumstances, we are acting in rebellion. In the kingdom of God, the end does not justify the means. We are responsible to walk out the waiting in obedience and trust the Lord to be in control of the circumstances that we cannot control.
And He is at work. Even if it doesn’t look like, He is. Trust Him.
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