Genesis 22-27

Waiting. If there was one recurring theme throughout the history of Abraham and Isaac to identify, it is waiting. God's promise of a child for Abraham. God's promise that the lands would be his and his descendants. Sarah's longing for a child. God's promise to Hagar and her son Ishmael. I had forgotten that Isaac and Rebekah too had to wait for their first born, two sons. Isaac was 60 when they were born...waiting. Are you a waiter? Am I a waiter?

I was struck how chapter 22 began, "After these things God tested Abraham..." Are you kidding me! What's been happening for the more than a century of his life to date? Waiting in testings.

But the key is also found in chapter 22, "Here I am." Being a "waiting person" is being a "here I am" person, completely given to the sovereignty of God. I sometimes wonder if that wasn't Esau's downfall. He couldn't even wait for a few more moments for someone else in their families service, and servants they had in great abundance, to fix him a meal. He was willing to give up his birthright for something to eat. Now that's having a waiting problem.

I'm struck by this because one would think that being a lying, conniving, scheming, manipulating, man of deception would be flaw enough for the purposes of God to find another instrument. Yet, in the end, it was a waiting deficiency that disqualified Esau.

I'm not sure I really agree with the traditional view of what happened when Isaac blessed Jacob but thinking he was blessing Esau. There is one view, that Isaac's words have power, they are like a tangible gift, once given, not being able to be revoked. However, I believe that blessings are more of a prophetic moment. God giving insight to the one giving the blessing, speaking descriptively of what was to come. Jacob stole nothing. The future is the future and only God can see this, and God gave Isaac those words to speak over Jacob just as He had spoken to Rebekah when she inquired of Him in chapter 25 verses 22-23. Equally, Isaac's subsequent words spoken over Esau was born out of prophetic insight.

Are you a waiter? Am I a waiter?

Psalm 27:14 says, "Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord."

I woke up this morning feeling "thin" in the moments of my day. Sometimes I allow the weight of what is waiting for me to thin out my present. Let me give you a picture. If you were to take a bowling ball and place it in a stocking, it would thin out the upper portion of the stocking, its weight pulling all the fabric to itself. Sometimes the moments in our future are heavy maybe because of something unknown, maybe because of responsibility, maybe because of unavoidable consequences, maybe...just heavy. Some call it stress. I call it feeling thin. When I'm feeling thin, I'm allowing my future moments to weigh too heavily in my present and it causes me to miss the beauty of my now.

A Hebrew word for glory is "kabod" and one of its meanings is weighty. What can be weightier than Him?

Being a good waiter is being able to rest in the weightiness of His glory, the great counter weight of all things later.

Paul was a waiter which is why he wrote to the church of Philippi these sacred words: "Don't worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made know to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses every thought, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

Pastor Fred