Waiting

Sometimes I forget that the people of Bible times had to wait for just about everything. I was reading today about Abraham sending his servant to find a wife for Isaac. The servant was commissioned to travel back to Abraham's home and find a wife from Abraham's family.

"Then the servant took ten of his master's camels and departed, taking all sorts of choice gifts from his master; and he arose and went to Mesopotamia to the city of Nahor." (Genesis 24:10) This sounds to me quick and easy. But as I looked at maps I saw that this was around 600 miles - one way - if they were still in living in the vicinity of Hebron, where Sarah was buried. So I wondered how fast camels walk and learned they walk 2.5 - 3 mph. Josephus' account of this journey says "for it requires much time to pass through Mesopotamia, in which it is tedious traveling, both in winter, for the depth of the clay - and in summer for want of water; and, besides this, for the robberies there committed which are not to be avoided by travelers but by caution beforehand." So this took a long time, months just to get there and more months to come back. 

For all these months Abraham waited. Waiting was just what they did because everything took time whether it was preparing food for a meal or going on a journey. Not so today. We have instant everything.

We have instant messages and email for instant communication; microwave ovens and drive-thru's for instant food; cars and airplanes and trains that can get us where we want to go in a hurry. Flip a switch we have light; turn a faucet we have water. We don't wait for much of anything.

And maybe that's why we often have trouble waiting for God. We want to hear from God right now. We want the answers to our prayers today. But the waiting is important. Waiting keeps us dependent on God. Waiting gives us time to see our situation from God's perspective. Waiting gives God time to change us. Waiting should cause us to slow down a little so that we can build a deeper relationship with God.

We just need to remember that our hurried life, our hurried timeframe, is not God's. He is not our servant, we are at His. He is Master and Lord and He gets to work at His pace. "...but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint." (Isaiah 40:21)