Wait

Judges 3 12-14 

But the People of Israel went back to doing evil in God’s sight. So God made Eglon king of Moab a power against Israel because they did evil in God’s sight. He recruited the Ammonites and Amalekites and went out and struck Israel. They took the City of Palms. The People of Israel were in servitude to Eglon fourteen years.

15-19 The People of Israel cried out to God and God raised up for them a savior, Ehud son of Gera, a Benjaminite. He was left-handed. The People of Israel sent tribute by him to Eglon king of Moab. Ehud made himself a short two-edged sword and strapped it on his right thigh under his clothes. He presented the tribute to Eglon king of Moab. Eglon was grossly fat. After Ehud finished presenting the tribute, he went a little way with the men who had carried it. But when he got as far as the stone images near Gilgal, he went back and said, “I have a private message for you, O King.”

The king told his servants, “Leave.” They all left.

20-24 Ehud approached him—the king was now quite alone in his cool rooftop room—and said, “I have a word of God for you.” Eglon stood up from his throne. Ehud reached with his left hand and took his sword from his right thigh and plunged it into the king’s big belly. Not only the blade but the hilt went in. The fat closed in over it so he couldn’t pull it out. Ehud slipped out by way of the porch and shut and locked the doors of the rooftop room behind him. Then he was gone.

When the servants came, they saw with surprise that the doors to the rooftop room were locked. They said, “He’s probably relieving himself in the restroom.”

25 They waited. And then they worried—no one was coming out of those locked doors. Finally, they got a key and unlocked them. There was their master, fallen on the floor, dead!

26-27 While they were standing around wondering what to do, Ehud was long gone. He got past the stone images and escaped to Seirah. When he got there, he sounded the trumpet on Mount Ephraim. The People of Israel came down from the hills and joined him. He took his place at their head.

28 He said, “Follow me, for God has given your enemies—yes, Moab!—to you.” They went down after him and secured the fords of the Jordan against the Moabites. They let no one cross over.

29-30 At that time, they struck down about ten companies of Moabites, all of them well-fed and robust. Not one escaped. That day Moab was subdued under the hand of Israel.

The land was quiet for eighty years.

Luke 11

21-22 Martha said, “Master, if you’d been here, my brother wouldn’t have died. Even now, I know that whatever you ask God he will give you.”

23 Jesus said, “Your brother will be raised up.”

24 Martha replied, “I know that he will be raised up in the resurrection at the end of time.”

25-26 “You don’t have to wait for the End. I am, right now, Resurrection and Life. The one who believes in me, even though he or she dies, will live. And everyone who lives believing in me does not ultimately die at all. Do you believe this?”

27 “Yes, Master. All along I have believed that you are the Messiah, the Son of God who comes into the world.”

37 Others among them said, “Well, if he loved him so much, why didn’t he do something to keep him from dying? After all, he opened the eyes of a blind man.”

Romans 8:26-28
Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.

Today’s word is wait, and the passages I found for it are probably ones I’m not going to try to tie together.  

The first passage I came across is an Old Testament story that I read many years ago, and probably forgot about it quickly because it was a King James Version (and who really wants to wallow through that these days?).  Reading it in the ever so palpable Message, however, gives it a certain...je ne sais quoi.  As in, “Quoi the heck?...”  Because what else do you say about a grossly fat king appointed to torment a misbehaving Israel, whose belly is so massive that when it is stabbed with a sword, the sword is basically sucked in and disappears?  And then after the God ordained assassin slips out through the porch, the king’s servants are all like, “Oh, shoot; door’s lock.  King must be dropping a deuce.  And it’s probably going to take awhile, because dude’s a massive monarch.”  

Besides the wrongly accused deuce-dropping when actually dropped-dead king drama, there are some things that really strike me here.  First, it’s that once again we have a situation presented for us where Israel has turned away from God, and after being forced into slavery, they repent.  When God in his mercy hears their cries, he sends a savior; one of the many smaller preludes hinting at a greater, ultimate savior.  

But really, based on the Old Testament, you can kind of see why Jews would have been surprised when Jesus came as savior; why they might have expect a warrior king.  In the past, that’s how God rescued them--He gave them men who rescued them from slavery; who brought them back to God and ruled in righteousness.  But one of the other common themes in the Old Testament is the Israelites constant return to rebellion; it’s the reason they need to be rescued in the first place.  So despite not taking up a sword strapped to his thigh, Jesus instead reconciled us in a way where we no longer needed any further reconciliation; that of our souls to God.  

The passage in Luke is a familiar one; a chapter that includes the shortest and most easily memorized verse (“Jesus wept.”).  For all those who complain about God’s timing not being our timing, imagine how Mary and Martha (or probably just Martha) felt--”Oh, thanks for showing up Jesus.  Oh no, you’re just a little bit late; considering our brother’s dead and all; but we’re glad you took the scenic route and really enjoyed your time getting here.”  Then Jesus tells them, “The one who believes in me, even though he or she dies, will live. And everyone who lives believing in me does not ultimately die at all.”  He asks if Mary believes, Mary probably nods in a bit of confusion.  

But seriously, these sisters showed a lot of trust in Jesus--unlike these knuckleheads who said this, “Well, if he loved him so much, why didn’t he do something to keep him from dying? After all, he opened the eyes of a blind man.”  And that is a sentiment that we heard echoed to this day, “If God is a loving God, why do so many people starve?”  “If God is good, why didn’t he stop what happened at Sandy Hook?”  “If God is good, why is there evil?”  There is no doubt tragedy in the world.  But even if there were no “big” evils like genocide or starvation, would be satisfied?  Or would the questions just be on a smaller scale; “If God is good, why did my husband cheat on me?”  “If God is loving, why did my wallet get stolen?”  

It’s almost funny, because we always hear that question asked about what is being done to others or to us, rather than what we do.  “If God is good, why do I lie to my parents?”  “If God is perfect, why do I hate my boss?”  Like what I wrote yesterday; we are so ready to judge the evil around us, but we fail to look at our own hearts.  If we did, we might feel more amazed at who Jesus is.  Jesus’s willingness to raise the dead; to comfort the mourning; to die on the cross.  One of the things I think that Jesus is showing here is that yes, things are going to be hard, things will be sad.  People we love will die, and sometimes it won’t feel right.  But he says, “You don’t have to wait for the End. I am, right now, Resurrection and Life... And everyone who lives believing in me does not ultimately die at all.”  Yes, Jesus offers us life beyond this; but he also offers resurrection of a broken heart from hopelessness, and he offers it now.  But it takes belief.

The last passage is one of hope, I feel.  When we are burdened, Jesus God is with us.  When we feel like we are weak, or like we don’t know how to approach him, he intercedes for us.  He prays for us, translating our heartache into a petition for God.  And while he doesn’t promise that it will be easy, he does say it will be worked together for good.  We might not see the end result in it, but we can hope and trust in God’s provision.