Why should I wait for the
Lord any longer? 2 Kings 6:33
Can you relate to King Joram? He is in a desperate situation. His city is under siege; food of the most
repulsive sort is extortionately expensive – and the horrific story of these
starving women being prepared to eat their own babies underlines the utterly
dehumanising effect of this ordeal.
Joram is in charge and supposed to find an answer. He has no solution – no recourse apart from
mourning with his people v30, and in complete helplessness and frustration to
lash out and hurt something, somehow, somewhere, so he decides to close down on
God v33. Surely He could be doing something to turn things around. Why does he not act?
This is the
assurance that we still have: as soon as
we pray, God hears and acts, though it may not be instantly visible - Daniel
9:23. Waiting is a very important and vastly underrated spiritual discipline.
The dreadful ordeal is all the more galling when
contrasted with how God acted on behalf of his people in former times 6:8-23 –
giving Elisha supernatural warnings about where the Aramean army is; when the
enemy are blinded and led into Samaria where they could have been finished off
had it been a holy war. However, the
city has now descended into chaos and cannibalism. Where are the heavenly hosts and the chariots
of fire when they are urgently needed?
Joram needs to wait to find out and of course the answer – once again –
is completely beyond his thinking or imagining.
- Are you currently having to wait for God’s timing and visible answer to a situation you have been praying persistently and fervently about?
- Are you tempted to give up and shut down on God? To withdraw your trust?
- Is the wait too long? The burden too heavy? The temptation without an apparent way out?
I find it really helpful to declare with the Psalmist:
I am still confident of this:
I will see the goodness of the Lord
I know I will see the goodness of the Lord in this
present life.
Wait on the Lord;
be strong and take heart
and wait on the Lord.
Ps 27
Your waiting in faith and trust are hugely glorifying
to God. Those who hope in him will not be disappointed. Is 49:23
(member of women’s ministry)