A heavenly conversation: A study in Jeremiah chapter 15

 Truth and Consequences: 

A study in the prophecy of Jeremiah

Lesson Fifteen (of 52):   A heavenly conversation

 

INTRODUCTION

And thank you, friends, for joining us today here in the Zoom room, as we unpack this 2^nd sermon of this section labelled Jeremiah 15. Let’s dig into it and find out what God has to say to us as 21^st Century people wherever you live and for those on YouTube, from wherever and whenever you are watching. 

Most of you will remember Tevye, the milkman, not from Shalom Aleichem’s tales in Yiddish, nor the 1939 Yiddish black and white movie (https://youtu.be/IMNP72gs1nM), but rather from Fiddler on the Roof. First on Broadway in 1964 with Zero Mostel and then for the last almost six decades in revivals worldwide. 

One of my favourite scenes is Friday afternoon, and Tevye and his horse are arriving back home, just before he has a few more deliveries in the village. Golda, his wife of 25 years, reminds him to hurry as the Sabbath is approaching. Tevye has a conversation with the Lord, in which he complains about his horse having turned up lame just before Shabbat. He tells God, “Was that necessary? That wasn’t nice. You blessed me with five daughters, a life of poverty…that’s all right. But what have you got against my horse? Sometimes I think, when things are too quiet up there…you say, “let’s see what kind of mischief I can play on my friend, Tevye.” As the next song ends, the pre-Shabbat work ends with “Would it spoil some vast, eternal plan if I were a wealthy man?”

There is no one in our pop culture world who characterised the freedom to converse with the Almighty more than Tevye. Our chapter today divides into two sections. And Tevye would be very comfortable with how this lays out. First God’s answer from the pleas of chapter 14 and then the end, which is Jeremiah’s continuing complaint about the situation.

1.     God responds to the prayers of Jeremiah (.1-9)

 It’s a wrap. It’s in the can. The conclusion is written, God says, and there’s nothing you can do about it. Even if you were to retrieve some ancients who knew how to get me go along with their plans, I won’t budge. You could bring in the heavy hitters like Moses or Samuel. They were keen intercessors in their days, but I won’t be dissuaded from my announcements. 

Why Moses and Samuel? Think back to Exodus 32-34 and the sin of the Golden Calf. Moses was so upset at his older brother for allowing the people to practice idolatry, and he was upset at the people for their sins, but in chapter 32.30, he cries out to the Lord to erase his own name from the Book of Life so that the people will live. That’s intercession. Aaron and he do something similar in Numbers chapter 16 when they grab the censor of incense and make their way through the camp of Israel, praying and saving them from the plans of the judgment of God. Moses is clearly one who prays.

Samuel was known as a prophet and yet in 1 Samuel (1 Sam 7.8ff, 12.19-23) we see him as an intercessor for the people. The people come to him and beg him to pray for them in the matter of the Philistines. And he does so!

God says, even if you had those guys come to the crease, I’d be able to bowl them out for a duck. I’m not going to be influenced. No amount of intercession for the Jewish people AT THAT POINT is going to make God change his mind. The exile is fixed. Sin will be punished and you are all going into captivity. Done. Dusted.

Those of you familiar with the scene in the Gospel might be keen for a segue. Recorded in Matthew 17, we read of the Transfiguration.

“Six days later Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John his brother, and led them up on a high mountain by themselves. And He was transfigured before them; and His face shone like the sun, and His garments became as white as light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him. Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You wish, I will make three tabernacles here, one for You, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” While he was still speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold, a voice out of the cloud said, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!” When the disciples heard this, they fell face down to the ground and were terrified. And Jesus came to them and touched them and said, “Get up, and do not be afraid.” And lifting up their eyes, they saw no one except Jesus Himself alone.” (Matthew 17. 1-8)

Some points to note. Moses and Elijah represent the Law and the Prophets. Since both the Law and the Prophets speak of Yeshua as Messiah, so do these two; they testify of Yeshua. Peter’s voluntary spirit is not wrong, nor is his desire to build sukkot. He saw the Lord transfigured (Greek: metamorphed) before them and concluded, “If the Lord is here, in all his glory, and he’s the King of the Kingdom, then the Kingdom must be here and that is ushered in during the festival of Sukkot, so let’s build the appropriate edifices to announce this.” God says, “Shema, Peter…listen up.” God personally testifies of Yeshua and the three pillars: Peter, James and John, are all terrified. Yeshua touches them and encourages them not to be afraid. I love that encounter on many levels. 

I guess the natural segue for me is that in Jeremiah’s prophecy, God will not listen to the likes of Moses and Samuel, but in the Newer Testament, they are allowed to speak, for the sake of the testimony of Yeshua. (Revelation 19.10). 

Verse two: the people are desperate. Where can we turn? Don’t bother… there is no safe haven, no safe house, the end IS near. There are two lists of four shown. The first is the options for possible judgments. 1) disease leading to death, 2) war, 3) starvation or 4) exile and captivity in Babylon. 

Verse three: God says I will make this a disaster from four “kinds” of doom. But the word for ‘kinds’ is actually mishpochas, families of doom. It actually highlights to me the pain amplified. It’s not an outside issue; the reasons for our penalty is that we have taken sin in a familiar way. We’ve grown comfortable and invited the sin into our own homes. The Doom Family has four agents: sword (of war), dogs (Gentiles to drag us off to Babylon), birds of sky and beasts of the earth to devour and destroy. 

Verse four: This is all caused by long-reigning king Menasheh. He ruled for 55 years until 642 BCE, that is, just before any recent folly. His father was good (Hezekiah) and his grandson (Josiah) was equally good,  but Menasheh brought ruin on Judah and the people loved him and followed his evil behaviour. We were not judged due to Menasheh, but because the people took his lifestyle and his sins on board. And God was gracious to wait, to give us time to repent, but we did not. 56 years after Menasheh died, God sent the Babylonians to take us captive. That’s what I call long-suffering.

Verse five: God laments in the middle of this announcement. Or maybe this is Jeremiah, and his three-fold questioning is clear. Who will have pity? Who will mourn? Who will keep asking about you? 

Verses six and following, God’s answer is clear. You are wrong, and getting worse, you will be sifted like chaff from wheat. 

A word on the final phrase in verse six. 

I am tired of relenting!

Yes, God is long-suffering. Peter says it this way, “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and ¹its works will be burned up.“( 2 Peter 3.9-10)

Suffering long means patient. But not without care. God cares for us and we turned our back again and again, and he finds us exhausting! (Isaiah 1.14, 7.13, 43.24, Malachi 2.17)

There is a cost to God for his forbearance. And that point is made by Terence Fretheim cited in Christopher Wright’s commentary on Jeremiah. “Holding back the judgment they deserve (Isa. 42.14, 48.9, 57.11, Ezek 20.21-22, Psalm 78.38, Romans 2.4, 3.25) by carrying their sins on the divine shoulders, God chooses to suffer their infidelity in patience. Such continued divine restraint in the face of continual rejection must have meant for an intensification of suffering for God. Weariness entails a self-giving for the sake of the continuing relationship.” (page 174)

2.     Jeremiah responds to the Lord (.10-21)

If you have ever had dreams of people coming to faith, or you had considerable influence in a ministry setting, and that ministry changes to the dark side, or worse, fails completely, you would have had the feelings that Jeremiah felt in the 2^nd half of our chapter today. 

He turns to his own mother, no doubt, long gone, and says, “Why did you bear me? I’m not a creditor or a borrower, but everyone hates me.” Family matters. And the Jewish people are Jeremiah’s people and his family, but they have turned on him. 

Verse 10: Regret.

Verse 17, I didn’t sit with the merrymakers. I skipped the pub crawl and walked with you instead. I sat alone.

Verse 18: I stayed pure and followed the right path and look where it got me. 

Do you hear Tevye the milkman in his complaints? Do you feel comfortable talking with the Lord like this? I urge you… speak honestly to him. Do not hold back. He longs to be honest with you and for you to be honest with him. 

You might say, “But how can I pray like that? I’m not very good at public speech.” OK< where did Yeshua tell us to pray? On the street corners? In the public arena? No, in our closets. Alone. Between him and you alone. That’s where the rubber meets the road. That’s where honest living takes place. 

God would say, ‘Don’t linger in self-pity. Turn to me. Verse 19: if you turn to me, I will restore you.” Turn to me? You ask. Yes, his self-pity was useless. Humility is turning to the Lord and being honest with him. 

God’s promise to Jeremiah is God’s promise to you and to me. 

Verse 20-21: 

“For I am with you to save you and deliver you,” declares the LORD. “So I will deliver you from the hand of the wicked, And I will redeem you from the ¹grasp of the violent.”

The Lord is longing to be our soul’s lover. He wants a relationship with us, with you and with me. Don’t linger in self-pity. Don’t linger in the acts of sin which will cost not only you, but also your family. 

Turn to Him. Self-pity is a pit. God’s arms are open wide. 

 

CONCLUSION

God is calling each of us to know him and to walk with him, today and throughout our days. Have you received Yeshua as your messiah and Lord? Have you renounced your sin, your idolatry, your forsaking God and given him First Place in your life? If not, please, do so now, just now, as we pray together. Use your own words, if you want, but yield, surrender, to the Lord of life. 

PRAYER

Then please write us (admin@jewsforjesus.org.au) to tell us what you have just done, and we will send you literature and encourage you. You are part of our family; we love and appreciate you. And we want you to enjoy the presence of the Lord who calls, who knows, who blesses and builds us up. 

We hope to see you again next week as we study chapter 13. Until then, Shabbat shalom!

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Barnes, Albert, Albert Barnes’ Commentary on the Old Testament, 

Craigie, Peter; Kelley, Page; Drinkard, Joel. Word Biblical Commentary. Book of Jeremiah.  1991. 

Henry, Matthew, Commentary.

Weirsbe, Warren. Be Decisive. David Cook Publishers, Colorado Springs 1991.

Wright, Christopher, The Message of Jeremiah, The Bible Speaks Today, Intervarsity Press, Downers Grove, Illinois, 2014.

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ACTUAL TEXT

Jer. 15:1   Then the LORD said to me, “Even though Moses and Samuel were to stand before Me, My heart would not be with this people; send them away from My presence and let them go!

²           “And it shall be that when they say to you, ‘Where should we go?’ then you are to tell them, ‘Thus says the LORD: 

            “Those destined for death, to death; 

            And those destined for the sword, to the sword; 

            And those destined for famine, to famine; 

            And those destined for captivity, to captivity.”’

³ “I will appoint over them four kinds of doom,” declares the LORD: “the sword to slay, the dogs to drag off, and the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy. ⁴ “I will make them an object of horror among all the kingdoms of the earth because of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, the king of Judah, for what he did in Jerusalem.

 

Jer. 15:5            “Indeed, who will have pity on you, O Jerusalem, 

            Or who will mourn for you, 

            Or who will turn aside to ask about your welfare?

⁶           “You who have forsaken Me,” declares the LORD, 

            “You keep going backward. 

            So I will stretch out My hand against you and destroy you; 

            I am tired of relenting!

⁷           “I will winnow them with a winnowing fork 

            At the gates of the land; 

            I will bereave them of children, I will destroy My people; 

            They did not ¹repent of their ways.

⁸           “Their widows will be more numerous before Me 

            Than the sand of the seas; 

            I will bring against them, against the mother of a young man, 

            A destroyer at noonday; 

            I will suddenly bring down on her 

            Anguish and dismay.

⁹           “She who bore seven sons pines away; 

            ¹Her breathing is laboured. 

            Her sun has set while it was yet day; 

            She has been shamed and humiliated. 

            So I will give over their survivors to the sword 

            Before their enemies,” declares the LORD.

 

Jer. 15:10          Woe to me, my mother, that you have borne me 

            As a man of strife and a man of contention to all the land! 

            I have not lent, nor have men lent money to me, 

            Yet everyone curses me.

¹¹          The LORD said, “Surely I will set you free for purposes of good; 

            Surely I will cause the enemy to make supplication to you 

            In a time of disaster and a time of distress.

 

Jer. 15:12          “Can anyone smash iron, 

            Iron from the north, or bronze?

¹³          “Your wealth and your treasures 

            I will give for booty without cost, 

            Even for all your sins 

            And within all your borders.

¹⁴          “Then I will cause your enemies to bring it 

            Into a land you do not know; 

            For a fire has been kindled in My anger, 

            It will burn upon you.”

 

Jer. 15:15          You who know, O LORD, 

            Remember me, take notice of me, 

            And take vengeance for me on my persecutors. 

            Do not, in view of Your patience, take me away; 

            Know that for Your sake I endure reproach.

¹⁶          Your words were found and I ate them, 

            And Your words became for me a joy and the delight of my heart; 

            For I have been called by Your name, 

            O LORD God of hosts.

¹⁷          I did not sit in the circle of merrymakers, 

            Nor did I exult. 

            Because of Your hand upon me I sat alone, 

            For You filled me with indignation.

¹⁸          Why has my pain been perpetual 

            And my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? 

            Will You indeed be to me like a deceptive stream 

            With water that is unreliable?

 

Jer. 15:19          Therefore, thus says the LORD, 

            “If you return, then I will restore you — 

            Before Me you will stand; 

            And if you extract the precious from the worthless, 

            You will become My spokesman. 

            They for their part may turn to you, 

            But as for you, you must not turn to them.

²⁰          “Then I will make you to this people 

            A fortified wall of bronze; 

            And though they fight against you, 

            They will not prevail over you; 

            For I am with you to save you 

            And deliver you,” declares the LORD.

²¹          “So I will deliver you from the hand of the wicked, 

            And I will redeem you from the grasp of the violent.”

First world problems... adventure in travel

I've heard people talk about 'patience' for years. And they talk about how to achieve or gain patience. Usually it's through inopportune times or struggles that patience is learned. I think I get it. I'm not noted as a very patient man. So what does that say about my struggles? Not a thing. It says a lot more about my responses to those struggles and how slow I am to learn.

Case in point. Last Sunday I left my hotel at 7 am in Jerusalem and took a ride to Tel Aviv, Ben Gurion Airport. Easy. Check in with my box of goods was easy, which is rare for me there. But wait, my flight to Istanbul on Turkish Airlines was delayed. OK, no dramas. I'm happy to sit there for a few minutes. They said, "it won't be too long, maybe 15 minutes." Not a problem. I have a new book I'm reading. 15 became 30; 30 became 45, and 45 became "You are going to miss your connection in Istanbul, Mr Mendelsohn." Oy. What was the problem anyway? Seems the inbound plane had not left its location yet. So, wait, if the plane hadn't left yet an hour ago, and it would take 2 hours for that plane to arrive at Ben Gurion, then you and your computer already knew that I would miss my connection. That means your computer or you should have re-organized my travel plans and gotten me a ticket on another airline, so that I could be in Berlin about my scheduled time. But they didn't.

So they flew me eventually through Istanbul about 2 hours later, and I sat in the airport for a bit, watching the rain pour down outside. Then my final flight took off, and I got to Berlin. About 10:30 pm, and the place looked like a ghost town. No personnel to meet us, but what did meet me was a demolished box rounding the carousel. I was really tired after spending the whole day going almost nowhere. Who thinks of finding offical personnel at that point? I was glad that my box was in hand. I was glad to be in Germany and had to get to my AirBNB. They had been awaiting my arrival there since 3 pm.

So I got to my housing. The next morning I logged onto Turkish Airlines website and sent the above photos, with a nice note about my rain-soaked luggage and brutalized box. After another email from Turkish, asking for more information, I sent along with a narrative of the interaction, an invoice for the products which I bought in Israel and which were in the demolished box. Several more emails came from the official website, maybe even from a person (although no one signed it.) Finally yesterday morning I opened an email from the airline. The word was "The evaluation process related to your baggage is completed. Please click the button above to see your evaluation result. For your questions, you can make contact with us by message." Fantastic. Any reasonable person would have paid me what I requested. If there were issues, any reasonable person would have both checked the inbound baggage service, the Istanbul connection, or something to verify my allegation, and the photo evidence. I was shocked when the result of their 'investigation' was a most disappointing disregard.

Again unsigned. No apology. No admission. Did I learn patience? Is it too late for me to learn that just now? Lord, give me another chance.

Two days ago, on Friday I left Berlin to fly to Detroit, outside of which I'm writing this morning. I checked in to the Lufthansa Airline flights to Frankfurt and then to Detroit on Thursday morning. No problem. Took the taxi on Friday morning at 7 am to Berlin airport without a problem. Got to the counter and the agent took my luggage (new box) and handed me my boarding passes. All good. Phew. But wait, I noticed she had given me three passes. I only had two flights. Oh, maybe the 3rd was a receipt for baggage. Nope. It was a triad of flights, and now my flight from Frankfurt actually went to Dulles (Washington, DC) and then another from Dulles to Detroit.

What? The counter agent didn't say a word. She didn't inform me of any changes to my routing. I had received no notification from Lufthansa (even though they had my mobile phone number and my email address in my profile) When I asked, the agent actually didn't know anything as to why my non-stop had been removed from my reservation. "That's all I know," she said.

Instead of arriving into Detroit at 2:15 pm on Friday afternoon, I would now arrive at 6:30. OK, not horrible, really, as I would sit in the Frankfurt lounge for a while, but maybe United airlines would know what happened. It was a code shared flight with Lufthansa. The agent I rang in Chicago saw my new arrangements on her computer but was surprised that Lufthansa had not informed me, and they had actually created a new reservation altogether. If I had not rung the United agent, United would have canceled the rest of my flights from Detroit through SF to Sydney. Wow... thanks (for nothing) Lufthansa.

Seems as though a major snow storm was making its way in and through Michigan, hitting Detroit fairly hard and dumped 7 inches of snow on the airport through Friday alone. Eventually, my flight from Dulles, delayed 5 different times from its 5 pm departure to 10 pm, and then was canceled at about 7:30 pm. Again the United airlines personnel helped me a lot and secure a new flight on American Airlines, although from Reagan National not from Dulles, but with plenty of time for me to make it from Dulles. They organized my baggage, a voucher for a taxi, another voucher for a meal... and I sat on the American flight which left at 10:30 pm, arriving into Detroit at midnight. (6 am in Berlin)

My friend Glenn Harris fetched me from the airport and took me home with him for a wonderful night/morning of hospitality.

These adventures in travel were simply first-world problems. I didn't have to shovel the snow at the Detroit airport. I didn't have to work on the baggage services. I just sat most of the time. I was able to put the problems in perspective due to God's grace. Seeing things from His point of view-- that's a gift!

Did I learn patience? Was I really patient during those 5 delays?

Was I a patient man ever during this experience?

This is a hard one to calculate and to evaluate. But in the last couple years I've been self-evaluating a lot, and honestly can say, "Yes, Bob is growing in patience." I was able to relax on Friday; I had no control and freely yielded to the Lord. It was faith, personal faith in the God of the universes, which allowed me to relax. The Bible says the 'fruit of the Spirit' is love, joy..."patience... self-control." (Galatians 5.22-23) In other words, God is producing this fruit in me, as I stay connected to Him. It's not a function of my willing, white-knuckling. It's not a function of personal religious manipulation. It's a function of faith in the Lord, who is the Spirit.

As a result of that recognition, and observation... I'm more and more humbled and thrilled that the Lord Himself is making Himself real to me, and making His life in me that much clearer. Thank you, Lord. Thanks be to God.

Timing-- it is everything

Before mobile phones, we used to agree with another for a time to meet, at a location, and caught up with each other. We had to listen, to write things down in a diary, and remember to be there. At that time. If we were late, or forgot the appointment altogether, the other person was frustrated, and ever checking his watch. I remember having an appointment in Wollongong and traveled there to meet a man who stood me up. No response; no apology; you can bet there is no continuing relationship!

Nowadays, that would be all sorted with a call to another, for each of us would have a phone, and it would be turned on, and we could notify each other of any train delays or other situations which would prevent our keeping the appointment.

Waiting for another can be frustrating nonetheless. A husband and wife who are in the same house trying to get to the movies on time, or the grandmother who has to check the kettle one more time before she leaves home, all the while the family is in the car, and the patient father not honking the horn to hurry her up, describe similar frustration possibilities.

On the airplane I'm always fascinated when we are delayed from departure due to whatever reason they tell us, and then the pilot tells us in his opening in-flight remarks that "we will make up some time" by doing something. Wait, if he could have taken a shortcut anyway, why don't they build that into the flight plan? I mean, we aren't on a scenic tour of a 2-lane highway; we are flying at 500 miles per hour for goodness' sake. So if they could have gone faster, why didn't they do that without the delay?

Delays and timing. Tough to be out of control with these realities.

Back in Bible days, Abraham the father of faith, was told he was going to have a son, actually an entire line of family that would be as plenteous as the stars of the heaven or as many as the sands on the seashore. Not bad, he might have thought at the time, but he was in his early 70s when he heard those words. I'm in my late 60s now and think this would be remarkable. I only have three adult children. How could they produce so many?

But wait, Abraham was father of 0 adult children at the time. He waited a while, but by the time he was in his 80s, the clock was ticking, and he took matters into his own hands. At the suggestion of his wife Sarah, he took her handmaid Hagar and had a baby with her. That boy, Ishmael, became what we call today many of the Arab nations. Abraham was 86 and still the promise of God to him was not fulfilled.

This part of the story finishes with the birth of Isaac, the son of Promise (Genesis 21). Fourteen years after Abraham took matters into his own hands, God answered. The timetable of man is not the timetable of God. Look at the results of Abraham's inability to wait. The Middle East is filled with people from one side of Abraham's lineage waging battle with those on the other side. They really are cousins, but often dreaded enemies. Shortcuts don't always help.

What about King Saul, the first king of the nation of Israel (about 1,100 BCE)? He was told to wait until something happened and to wait 7 days specifically. This is recorded in 1 Samuel chapter 10. From a message given by David Wilkerson we read this, "The kind of pride I'm talking about is an impatience to wait for God to act in his own time and way. It rushes to take matters into its own hands. After decades in ministry, I'm convinced this is one of the greatest temptations facing any true Christian: to act hurriedly on our own when it appears God isn't working fast enough.

Saul committed this very sin at Gilgal, early in his kingship over Israel. The prophet Samuel had anointed Saul as king, and now the two men discussed the great war that Israel faced against the Philistines. Samuel made it clear to Saul that he was the man divinely called to break the bondage that the Philistines held over Israel.

As the time for war grew near, Samuel commanded Saul to wait for him before moving into battle. All the people were to gather at Gilgal to seek the Lord for direction, and Samuel would return with a specific word of direction from the Lord. He told Saul, "Seven days shalt thou tarry, till I come to thee, and show thee what thou shalt do" (1 Samuel 10:8).

Simply put, God alone was to remain in total control. The war plan against the Philistines was to be all his doing. Samuel represented the voice of the Lord, and through him Israel would receive supernatural, sovereign guidance. God himself was going to form all of Israel's plans and show them how to wage war.

So Saul was to wait at Gilgal for word to come from Samuel. But the war commenced sooner than expected, when Saul's son Jonathan smote a Philistine garrison at Geba. When this happened, Saul blew the trumpet to gather all the people together at Gilgal.

Yet as he waited there, Saul grew impatient for Samuel to arrive. The Philistines were on the move, but according to God's command Saul himself couldn't stir until Samuel brought forth the word to direct Israel in battle.

Meanwhile, the Israelite army was in a panic. They were a small, motley militia with not a single sword among them. All they had were axes and farm tools, while their enemy was made up of 6,000 horsemen, thousands of chariots, and soldiers who appeared to them as numerous as the sand on the seashore. As that massive, well-armed Philistine military drew near, Saul's men got scared. Soon they were deserting on all sides.

God knew all along that Israel would be in this situation. Indeed, this was the very war crisis that Samuel had discussed with Saul to prepare him. No matter the size or might of their enemy, the Israelites were to gather in faith to wait on God for his clear word of direction. This wasn't just to be a matter of waiting, but of "waiting until" — until the word came, until direction from heaven was given. Samuel had told Saul clearly, "Wait till I come to thee and show thee."

Instead, Saul gave God a deadline to act. He didn't declare it, but it was a deadline he determined in his heart. Saul decided that if a word from above didn't come by a certain time, he would do whatever was needed to save the situation.

"And (Saul) tarried [waited] seven days, according to the set time that Samuel had appointed: but Samuel came not to Gilgal; and the people were scattered from him. And Saul said, bring hither a burnt offering to me, and peace offerings. And he offered the burnt offering" (1 Samuel 13:8-9).

Impatiently, Saul moved ahead, sinfully acting as a priest to make the sacrifice. Little did he know that Samuel was just around the bend. Soon the prophet would arrive, smelling the sacrifice Saul had offered and becoming incensed at the king's sinful impatience.

Samuel was just a few hours late because Saul was being tested.

I'm convinced Samuel was delayed because God spoke to him clearly, telling him exactly when to arrive. You see, this was a test to see whether Saul would believe that God could be trusted. It would tell whether Saul would patiently wait in faith even if things were not right on schedule.

The fact is God had orchestrated it all. He had wanted to give Saul a testimony of humble dependence on him in all things, especially in a dark crisis. But Saul failed the test. He looked at the worsening conditions and it all appeared hopeless. Logic told him the hour had gotten too late, that something had to be done.

Can you picture yourself in Saul's situation? I hear him reasoning to himself, "I can't take this indecision any longer. God sent me to do his work and I'm willing to die for his cause. So, do I really have to sit here doing nothing? I have to make something happen or this will be the end. If I don't act, everything will spin out of control."

Saul felt a gripping need to act immediately in the situation. And finally his impatience overwhelmed him.

I have to admit, this is where I have failed at times in my walk with the Lord. At certain times I have not waited for direction and taken matters into my own hands. I simply don't like feeling helpless and anxious. I have never felt more so than when we moved back to New York in the 1980s to start Times Square Church.

After years on property we owned in Texas, I was once again subject to the mercy of landlords and building superintendents' schedules. When things didn't work I had to wait, and it made me impatient. For a while we rented space from theater owners on Broadway, and I grew anxious to have a building of our own. I cried, "Lord, there's so much to be done in New York and so little time. How long do we have to wait? We need you to act."

Yet time after time God patiently answered me, "David, do you trust me? Then wait. Having done all you can, stand still and see my salvation."

You have heard the expression, "The hardest part of faith is the last half hour." I can testify to this over and over from my years in ministry. The most trying period is always right before the answer comes, just before God works his deliverance. That's when we begin to wilt and faint. Suddenly, we're tempted fiercely to make something happen on our own. This can lead us into confusion and plans that are not of God."

That long message was delivered by David Wilkerson Ipictured) in 1988 and published on the World Challenge website on June 28, 2010

Brad Bigney in his book Gospel Treason writes about this sin, and he calls it part of idolatry, "God is not always on our timetable. That was the problem with the Israelites." He references a situation with the Golden Calf. The scene took place just a few weeks after the Exodus, when God delivered the Jewish people from Egyptian slavery.  Moses had gone up on Mt Sinai a few weeks earlier to receive what we would later learn to be the Ten Commandments on two tablets of stone. Bigney writes, "They thought Moses had been gone too long. "he's not coming back," they said. "We have to take care of this ourselves." It's the same thing we struggle with now-- timing. God's timing is not our timing. So we turn to something we can control, even though it serves us poorly. Our idols serve us so poorly; they hurt us, they cost us-- but we think they're more predictable than God is, and they keep us in the driver's seat." (page 29)

This is a long blog, and usually I would apologize for this. But the subject is so important, I don't want to diminish it by being cute or understating. Let's be honest about our own idolatry and failures. Let's be repentant and acknowledge God's role in our lives. Let's turn to Yeshua, our Saviour and Timekeeper...He is our life, and the one who both informs us of God's will, and gives us patience by His Spirit until that will is accomplished.

Shabbat shalom-- rest well.