The Real WWW - Watching, Waiting and Worshipping

How good are you at waiting? Who of us, when forced to stop in a traffic jam, rejoices at the opportunity for a bit of down time? We find waiting in queues hard at our local supermarket. Apparently we don’t like saving anymore, so we buy things on the never-never because we don’t like waiting. Some find waiting for Christmas so hard they celebrate it earlier and earlier! And then there are all those who camp outside stores to get the latest smart phone. No, we are not very good at waiting. 

And then there are all those prayer requests we have made and are still waiting for the Lord to answer. Or the promises God gave you that have yet to be realised. Are you waiting on a miracle?

In the Bible the idea of “waiting” is connected very much to the idea of “rest”. In the much loved Psalm 23, we read: “The Lord is my shepherd; I lack for nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures…” That being made to lie down is God teaching us how to rest in him. Oh, and by the way, the Bible doesn’t really think that rest is summed up by folding our hands behind our head and kicking back - no, rather, to be at rest is to be trusting, to be faith-filled and thereby to enjoy fully what God has promised. (Hebrews 4:9,10)

And this faith-filled resting is very much connected with “waiting”. In the Hebrew mind, waiting is seen as amalgamating two virtues - that of yearning and hoping. Thus we see in Psalm 130:5, “I wait for the Lord with longing; I put my hope in the Lord.” Psalm 40:1 literally reads, ‘I waited waitingly for the Lord’ - an intense waiting. Back to Psalm 130 - its continues: “My soul waits for the Lord, more eagerly that watchmen for the morning. Like those who watch for the morning, let Israel look for the Lord. For in the Lord is love unfailing, and great is his power to deliver.” (vvs 6,7)

I suppose some of us still think of waiting as passive, easy work. But it is not. I am reminded of the true story of soldiers  in Burma who were assigned their guard duties at night. There they stood, eyes peering into the dark jungle. To stop them falling asleep, they would turn their rifles round with the bayonets gently resting under their chins. Should they ever nod off, they’d have a rude awakening as the blades nicked their skin. When the day time guards took over, they would see that their companions often had bloodied shirts. To wait and watch night after night looking for the morning is no picnic.

All of this waiting and watching on the Lord is nicely summarised in the life of Abraham. We first come across Abram (his name then) in chapter 11, when we read that he was the son of Terah, and that he had a wife, called Sarai, who was barren. (11:27,30) Then in chapter 12, out of nowhere really, God speaks to Abram and tells him to “leave your own country, your kin, and your father’s house…I shall make you into a great nation; I shall bless you; and I shall make your name great…” Note, it is God alone who takes the initiative - see how many times God emphasises that with the repeated “I shall”. Abram was 75 at the time (remember this). Taking his wife Sarai, Lot and all his possessions Abram went on their way to Canaan. We read again the Lord appeared to him (12:7), making a similar promise, “I am giving this land to your descendants.’ Still no children, remember, and naturally speaking, very unlikely chance of there ever being any! But we read Abram built an altar - in other words, he worshipped.  And now we read that “he moved to the hill country east of Bethel and pitched his tent between Bethel on the west and Ai on the east.” (12:8) And again he worshipped. What we won’t get in our English translations is the Hebrew puns: Ai means ‘heap’ (as in heap of stones) and Bethel means ‘house of God’. Abram (as we all are) was on on a journey, we might say, from RUIN to RESTORATION.

For a third time the Lord appears to Abram in a vision and reminds him, “Do not be afraid, Abram; I am your shield. Your reward will be very great” - we are now at the beginning of chapter 15. Abram is bothered about all these appearances and what God is saying to him, “Lord, what can you give me, seeing that I am childless?” He looks at his servant Eliezer , and considers him the rightful heir - Eleiezer, whose name means ‘God has heard’ and the implication is that he has no trouble producing children. It’s all right for him! God has given a promise to Abram, but he has heard Eliezer!

But God is insistent. Taking Abram outside, he says, “Look up at the sky, and count the stars, if you can. So many will your descendants be.” (15:5) We read that “Abram put his faith in the Lord, who reckoned it to him as righteousness.” - A glorious justification - but in our context this morning, Abram is learning to rest in the Lord, to wait on him, to trust him. 

What follows next is not that comforting - God tells the bemused old man that his children will be slaves for 400 years!! Truly God’s ways are not ours and his thoughts are higher than ours.

There then follows the wrong attempt by Abram and Sarai to help God keep his word - through the extraordinary idea of giving Hagar, Sarai’s slave, to sleep with Abram: as if this would not be a bad idea! Couldn’t they see what might happen? And Ishmael is born - another pun, for his name means ‘God has heard’ -but this is a bitter name. God is hearing all the wrong people! And do you see how our trying to make God’s promises happen through our own efforts only ever results in chaos? Ishmael is like “a wild ass” who “will live at odds” with everyone. Isn’t that spiritually true of all our fleshly attempts to bring about God’s plans? They just end up causing hassle and discontentment; they are like letting loose a wild ass into the carefully gardened pastures of God’s blessing. What God in his time means for life turns into the opposite  - all because we couldn’t wait and watch.

Abram is naturally concerned for Ishmael and says “If only Ishmael might enjoy your special favour!” (Thus we beseech God to bless our wrong-headed efforts.) [Translation issue: the AV, RSV, NRSV, ESV, NASB, NET, NEB, REB, JB all have God saying in 17:19, “No” As do German and French versions ….but not the NIV who for some bizarre reason has “yes”!!!] Although God is kind towards Ishmael, he blesses Abram and Sarai with ‘LAUGHTER’  - the meaning of Isaac.

Twenty five years later - 25 - we read in Genesis 21, “The Lord showed favour to Sarah as he had promised…and at the time foretold by God she bore a son to Abraham in his old age.” (1,2) Sarah says in simple trust and resting faith, “God has given me good reason to laugh…” 25 YEARS of waiting, watching and worshipping - he had learnt to bow low before the loving purposes of God.

Oh, there is much to learn here. There is a sequence we all recognise: God speaks to us and promises us his plan will come about  - we are so excited - we wait and watch - we doubt whether we heard God correctly  - we are being tested by God to see whether we can walk by faith and not by sight - God re-enforces his promises gracefully - we wait some more - till there is eventual fulfilment at just the right time to God’s glory and fame. 

Simeon is another example of this waiting, watching and worshipping. Here is this godly man, and we can imagine he spends time meditating on the Scriptures when his whole attention is grabbed and his imagination stirred by the promises of God sending a Messiah. From that moment he had been waiting for the restoration, the consolation of Israel. His prayerful longing had taken him often to the Temple to pray, to watch and to wait. He worshipped “and the Holy Spirit was upon him.” The same Spirit had told him something wonderful: “he would not see death until he had seen the Lord’s Messiah.” (Luke 2:26) Can you imagine what joy that must have given him? And such anticipation! He would be at the Temple watching, searching the crowds, looking out for the Spirit to highlight where Messiah was.  We don’t know how long he waited, watched and worshipped - but there came a glorious day, when guided by the Spirit, he recognised the baby Jesus as the Messiah, and he burst in praise, “Now Lord you are releasing your servant in peace [his watch is over - his guard duty has come to an end] according to your promise . For I have seen with my own eyes the deliverance you have made…”

Simeon spent his life watching, waiting and worshipping.  Through his worship and patient trust God had softened him, moulded and shaped him so that he could hear clearly the prophetic purposes of God.  He had become tender and attentive in the Lord’s presence. His waiting, watching and worshipping yielded the fruit that God intended in Simeon’s life - and furthermore accomplished what God in his mercy had planned for the whole world: the Saviour who is Christ the Lord. He was in the right place, with the right attitude, to do the right thing with the right people.

No time and motion study would have understood Simeon. And perhaps his friends and family thought he was wasting his time. But a greater affection had gripped Simeon’s heart and he was happy and prepared to wait till he could exclaim, “my eyes have seen your salvation”! Marvellous. 

And then - and I wonder how many of us will be able to say this - and then he was able to die in peace, knowing he had obeyed God and had fulfilled exactly what God had asked of him.

Well, I must end… I felt the Lord laid this on my own heart recently, and so this morning I hope it has been helpful to you too as you have listened in to what God has been saying to me. This waiting, watching and worshipping is not being passive; it’s not dithering in the name of Jesus. Rather, it seems to me to provide ample commentary and content to what Jesus said in John 15:5:

“I am the vine; you are the branches. Anyone who dwells in me, as I dwell in him, bears much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”