Scripture
Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God beside you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him. Isaiah 64:4
Observation
Our Creator God works on behalf of His creation.
Application
First of all, we know that God is the only true God and there are no other gods. And no god but our God would actually work on behalf of His creation. The thought is just incredible really.
God works on behalf of all creation - by providing the sun and the rain, by giving us our next breath, etc. But this verse talks specifically of God acting on behalf of those who wait for him. So what does it mean to wait for him?
We first wait for Him by praying before we act - by being open and submissive to God's counsel. When we receive His counsel, our response again involves waiting.
Either God will explicitly tell us to wait and do nothing while He works completely on His own on our behalf (such as when He put to death the 185,000 Assyrian soldiers in a recent passage).
Or God will tell us to act, but again to act while also waiting and relying on His help, realizing that apart from Him we can do nothing (such as when He instructed kings to go into battle and He would deliver them into their hands. They still had to fight, but they were to rely on God for the victory, not their horses or chariots).
Human labour is not guaranteed. But God's labour cannot fail. In his sermon on this verse, John Piper says....
God is not lacking in any of the things that cause human workmen to let us down in the service we need. They may lack a sufficient concern for the reputation and honor of their firm. They may lack sufficient understanding of how to do the job. They may lack sufficient strength or endurance to finish it. In other words, their motivation, their knowledge, and their power may be inadequate for what needs to be done, and so they sometimes let us down.
But with God things are utterly different. His motivation to preserve his honor and avoid the reputation of a bumbler is infinite. His knowledge of how everything works and how to meet every need is infinite. And his strength and endurance are infinite. God cannot fail.
So, we need to wait for our God and He will work on our behalf. What an incredible promise!
Tomorrow's passage: 2 Kings 21:1-9, 2 Chronicles 33:1-9, 2 Kings 21:10-17, 2 Chronicles 33:10-19, 2 Kings 21:18, 2 Chronicles 33:20, 2 Kings 21:19-26, 2 Chronicles 33:21-25, 2 Kings 22:1-2, 2 Chronicles 34:1-7, Jeremiah 1-2:22
Way less flipping: 2 Kings 21-22:2, 2 Chronicles 33-34:7, Jeremiah 1-2:22
2 comments:
Such an important lesson and yet so difficult to learn!
It is so hard to wait!! Even if I know that God has a plan...it is so hard to submit to his timing. It if often only in hindsight that we can value the importance of waiting.
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