Thursday, October 5, 2017

Isaiah 30:18 -- On Waiting, and Waiting

"And therefore will the Lord wait, that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you: for the Lord is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for him."
Isaiah 30:18


This is an interesting verse.  Sometimes we wonder why the Lord delays his coming, or why he waits to administer justice to the evil... to clear the bad our of the way so that the good can grow.  I think that this verse addresses that.  God waits so that he can be gracious to us.  He delays judgment so that we can take the time to repent, and have that chance to not be on the evil list.  The judgment will come, but he gives us a chance to avoid it.

And we, in turn, wait for him *because* he is waiting for us.  If we were all perfect it would go much faster both ways, but because we are not, God gives us the space to learn and to change.

It's kind of weird to think about the reason for evil in the world is mercy, but it seems kind of baked into the whole *idea* of the world, not only to delay judgment.  In order to bring us through the plan of joy, God had to grant us free agency, which means being able to choose either way.  If he only allowed good, or immediately punished bad, then that would pretty much negate any choice we made, and we'd end up just doing what God said all of the time.  Instead, God wanted us to grow and become independent thinkers... to learn the differences between different choices and to have a chance to choose to be who *we* wanted to be.  And here we are. :)

Today, let's choose to be good, and learn to love the good. :)  Let's patiently wait on the Lord, as he kindly waits for us.

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