Troublesome Topic: Learning to Wait

Before this New Covenant could be cut there was a very long period of waiting. After the people of Israel had been punished, and many had suffered the covenant curse and been killed, and after a remnant had been spared, they did not hear from God for four hundred years. They did not hear a single sound. There was absolutely no communication at all. God’s word does not tell us why the silence was so long, but two reasons come to mind based on what we have discussed up to this point.

If God had continued communicating with them on a regular basis, the people would not have gotten the idea that the relationship was truly severed. Also, God wanted the desire for a Messiah, and a New Covenant to become so strong that the people could not eat or breathe without having that on their minds.

The wiser ones among them may have sensed that, when God did break the silence, it would somehow be different, either the message or the messenger would be new and fresh.

We now know that when God began to speak to them once again it was through His own Son. We know that God chose to take on human flesh and actually embody the message. He lived the message visibly. Four hundred years still seems like an incredibly long time to us. But we all know that God’s timing is not what our timing would be. God said He would do a new thing, and He surely did, but first there was a long, silent wait.

Have you learned to wait on the Lord? Waiting is more than just putting up with things and dealing with them because we have to. Waiting is trusting. Waiting means acknowledging that God’s timing is always best. Waiting is wanting God’s will to be done God’s way. Waiting is submitting all our preferences, desires, hopes and dreams to His will.

(The next section in this topical study is called The New Covenant, and its first subsection is called A New Covenant is Cut. You can go to the first lesson of that section by clicking on this link: The Introduction to the New Covenant.)