Abraham, my Friend 41

Wait I say on the Lord

Our previous devotional found Abraham ‘waiting upon’ his visitors. His waiting upon God was not ‘in order that’… There was no secret ambition in his service; it was simply the instinct of his life. He was not trying to gain God’s attention to spring some long-hidden request, but simply ‘waiting upon’ Him. From this simple availability came two wonderful consequences; the specific timing of Isaac’s birth, and a revelation of God’s plan for the world.

Waiting on God

Let’s take a couple of examples of waiting upon God, one from the Old Testament and one from the New.

Habakkuk Chapter 1 – the divine focus

The first is the prophet Habakkuk. Habbakuk is one of the most difficult Bible books to date, but as it happens this need not affect our current thoughts. It begins with a cry from the prophet’s heart that his prayer is unanswered. It is a classic cry that could have come at any point in earth’s history; God, why don’t You do something? Habakkuk’s horizontal vision has only taken in the increasing wickedness and the undermining of God’s law. His cry, as often ours, is ‘How long?’ The answer must have taken his breath away.

Look among the nations! Observe! Be astonished! Wonder! Because I am doing something in your days– You would not believe if you were told. (Hab 1:5 NASB)

The New American Standard Bible captures the divine protest: ‘I am ‘already’ doing something.’ Although the prophet had not picked it up on his ‘radar’ God was already at work. He was doing something that was so extraordinary that there had been no point in sharing it with Habakkuk because Habakkuk would not have believed it anyway! This is humbling for a prophet! It reminds us of the Lord’s word to His disciples:

 I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. (Joh 16:12 NKJV)

God then reveals what is already at work; this is an aspect of prophecy that is sometimes forgotten. Prophecy is not always prediction, but it is always revelation. Prophecy is the divine focus; it may be in the future, the present or even the past. It gives the God’s-eye-view of events.

For many decades the superpower of the day had been Assyria. Its grip seemed relentless and permanent; it had no real challengers. But God was at work. During the time of Uzziah, approximately 150 years before the event, he prophesied that Tyre and Sidon would be overthrown by an upstart kingdom that no-one reckoned a real danger:

Behold, the land of the Chaldeans: this people was not; the Assyrian founded it for them that dwell in the wilderness; they set up their towers; they overthrew the palaces thereof; they made it a ruin. Howl, ye ships of Tarshish; for your stronghold is laid waste. (Isa 23:13–14 ASV)

The Chaldeans with their capital at Babylon were one of history’s ‘yesterday’s men’. The Babylonian empire of Nimrod had slid into oblivion, and ‘was not’. From the graveyard of history God was creating a political prodigy; His word to Habakkuk is astonishing:

For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, that march through the breadth of the earth, to possess dwelling-places that are not theirs. (Hab 1:6 ASV)

It was as if in answer to our cries for revival God were to say I am going to raise up the Nazi’s to do my purpose. It is not only historically impossible, but it is also morally unthinkable.

Habakkuk now has another reason for protest. God’s word has proved true; Habakkuk did not believe, though it was told him. He launches into a passionate argument as to why God cannot do it this way:

Art not thou from everlasting, O Jehovah my God, my Holy One? we shall not die. O Jehovah, thou hast ordained him for judgment; and thou, O Rock, hast established him for correction. Thou that art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and that canst not look on perverseness, wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, and holdest thy peace when the wicked swalloweth up the man that is more righteous than he… (Hab 1:12–13 ASV)

None of this squares with Habakkuk’s theology; this is not the way God does things. What is a man to do with such a revelation?

Habakkuk Chapter 2 – the prophet’s response

Habakkuk’s second chapter finds the prophet in a more reflective mood, and gives us a glimpse into the way he intends to cope with this revelation. I think it is significant that he does not launch into a prayer meeting, or form a committee for the public reformation of morals. His decision is profound in its simplicity:

I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved. (Hab 2:1 KJV)

The King James Version margin gives an alternate rendering, ‘what He will say within me’. The American Standard Version margin has ‘what he will say by me’. Here then is the prophet’s response to an impending tragedy of immeasurable proportions:

• • • I will stand upon my watch. He takes the place of the watchman, ready to give the alarm.
    • I will set me upon the tower. He fixes his position in readiness.
    • I will watch to see what He will say within me. Now he can do nothing more than wait and listen to hear what God has to say.

God spoke to him and assured him that the predations of the Chaldeans would have their end too. In the midst of all the coming fog of war, its confused noise and garments rolled in blood, God has a final word for the nations:

But Jehovah is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him. (Hab 2:20 ASV)

The response of Habakkuk is a wonderful outpouring of heart. There is an interesting sequence to this ‘minor’ prophet’s work; through its three brief chapters, it moves from a burden which leads to a revelation which leads to powerful and confident intercession. I won’t spoil it for you, please read Habakkuk 3 and see the power of this prayer.

This is the kind of prayer that those who ‘wait upon the Lord’ may be empowered to pray. I encourage all readers of these devotionals to read it carefully and prayerfully.

The local church in Syrian Antioch

Let’s take a different account, this time from the New Testament. It comes at a critical time in the development of the early church. Unexpected things have been happening in Antioch in Syria. The gospel chick has broken from its shell and the gospel is being preached to Gentiles. The results were so fruitful that Barnabas elicits the help of Saul of Tarsus, and for a whole year these two and others became an integral part of the church in Ephesus:

Then Barnabas departed for Tarsus to seek Saul. And when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. So it was that for a whole year they assembled with the church and taught a great many people. And the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch. (Acts 11:25–26 NKJV)

We are not to imagine Paul and Barnabas as ‘the ministers’ with the church ‘under’ them, but Paul and Barnabas as integral members of the church at Antioch.

After a brief relief visit to Jerusalem, Paul and Barnabas returned to Antioch, where life in the church continued. Luke gives us a wonderful glimpse into the simple pattern of their gatherings:

Now in the church that was at Antioch there were certain prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. As they ministered to the Lord and fasted…” (Acts 13:1–2 NKJV)

I have purposely cut this verse short so that we can give a little time to the process rather than the result. Five men are named. It may be that there were other prophets and teachers too. What would you expect the main responsibility to be of prophets and teachers, ministry to the people in prophesying and teaching?. That may not be the right answer. Apparently these men ministered to the Lord.

It is a comment that reminds us of the choice of the first ‘deacons’ and the reasons behind it:

…Therefore, brethren, seek out from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business; but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word. (Acts 6:3–4 NKJV)

Their first responsibility, even before the ministry of the word, was to be continually available for prayer.

This is such a revolutionary idea in the 21st century that we probably need to re-emphasize the fact. They were not ‘ministering for the Lord’ in preaching and teaching, they were ‘ministering to the Lord’. Again it reminds us of another Bible saint, Anna, who ‘

…was a widow of about eighty-four years, who did not depart from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day’ (Luke 2:37 NKJV).

I cannot help but note that she did not use fasting and prayer to pry things from God’s unwilling grip, but that she brought herself into His presence to serve God. In like manner the ‘ministers’ of Acts 13 were ministering to the Lord and fasting.

The word ‘served’ in Luke 2:37 is the New Testament’s first use of this particular word for ‘ministering’ but it is the word used in connection with the priestly responsibilities of the Old Covenant:

And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. (Heb 10:11 NKJV)

Those priests who ‘stood daily’ did so in their ‘ministry’ to God. We now have a vivid picture of the saints in Antioch; they ‘stand’ (in spirit) ‘ministering to the Lord’. These are genuine priests — not appointed by bishops or popes but by God Himself. They are ‘waiting upon the Lord’. Like Habakkuk they are ‘watching to see what He will speak within me’. And ‘speak’ He did; the launch of the gospel towards the West did not come from a missionary committee or from a convention but from a gathering os God’s people who were ‘ministering to the Lord and fasting’.

The process

Now we need to read the full verse:

As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, “Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” (Act 13:2 NKJV)

This word ‘separate’ is a very deliberate one; it is used of Paul to describe the cutting of the umbilical cord (Gal 1:15). Barnabas and Paul have served God as an integral part of the church at Antioch; they were members of this body. Now the time had come for their severing from their responsibilities in the local church. ‘Separate them’ says God, ‘for the work for which I have called them to myself’ (RB Lit).

Or as the New American Standard Bible translates,

While they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” (Act 13:2 NASB).

The ‘I have called them’ is the perfect tense. It sounds as though the ‘calling’ may have been earlier than this, but now is the time for separation.

The ‘church at Antioch’ immediately responds to this word from God. This time I’ll use the Darby translation:

Then, having fasted and prayed, and having laid their hands on them, they let them go. (Act 13:3 Darby)

Darby brings out an important truth here. The church at Antioch did NOT ‘send them away’; the verb apoluō is not primarily ‘send away’ but ‘release’. The church did what God had requested; they ‘freed them’. Whole missionary programmes are based on the concept of the ‘sending church’ but the concept obscures an important New Testament truth that the first missionaries weren’t sent; they were released.

In fact, the next verse shows very plainly who did the sending:

So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus. (Acts 13:4 NKJV)

This time an entirely different word is used; ekpempō – despatched. It is a word that was used in the Greek of the day in commercial literature as ‘export’. What a vivid picture of New Testament missionary work this is. They wait upon God together, available to Him, listening to hear what He will say. The word comes to the church to ‘cut Paul and Barnabas free’. The church responds by loosing them, and the Holy Spirit ‘exports’ them to their next field of service.

Important lessons for our day

There are some who think ‘waiting upon God’ is altogether too passive and pietistic, but Habakkuk ‘waited’ and the word he heard caused a passionate prayer for revival to rise in his heart, and the saints in Antioch ‘waited’ and the word they received launched a missionary enterprise that continues in its impact to our own day. Abraham waited and received the final promise of his son; he waited and the secrets of God’s heart were opened to him.

Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD. (Psa 27:14 KJV)

Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress; so our eyes wait upon the LORD our God, until that he have mercy upon us. (Psa 123:2 KJV)