WAIT ON THE LORD?

Thursday 5 June

But they that WAIT upon the Lord shall RENEW their STRENGTH; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. Isaiah 40:31 (KJV)

Wait on the LORD; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the LORD! Psalm 27:14 (NKJV)

I’m sure we have all heard the phrase ‘wait on the Lord’ in a sermon by some minister and may have been told that we should do it, but what does it mean and how does it apply to the believer? As we are learning, the Old Testament requires careful interpretation if it is to be understood. Let’s dive right in; shall we?

The word WAIT is the Hebrew word ‘qava’. It has several meanings such as to look for, hope, expect or to look eagerly for. ‘Elpis’ the equivalent in Greek means to have an expectation of good, which is hope. Joyful and confident expectation of eternal salvation and the thing hoped for.

Have you noticed that many of the definitions listed are things that have already been fulfilled in Christ? Some notable ones are ‘joyful and confident expectation of eternal salvation’ which the child of God has already received, ‘the thing hoped for’ which is you in Christ and Christ in you which again is finished. ‘To look for’; I’m not looking for Him, He lives in me. Are you getting the idea?

RENEW is the Hebrew word ‘halap’. It means to change, substitute, alter, change for better, renew as in sprout again. Another word we could use is EXCHANGE, so they that wait on the Lord shall exchange their STRENGTH. Question: do new creations need to exchange their strength for His strength? What does the New Testament say about it. Here are two examples. The believer is:

‘Strengthened with all might according to His glorious power’ Colossians 1:11a

‘Strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man’ Ephesians 3:16b

So do we in the New Testament wait on the Lord to be strengthened or are we strengthened by His Spirit in our inner man? I think you know the answer. We are strengthened by the Spirit of might in us. We stir up strength when we pray in the Holy Spirit, not by waiting or hoping for what we already have which is Christ.

The last word we will look at is STRENGTH. It means power, might, force and ability. We stir up all of this when we speak in tongues and meditate on the Word by speaking it. Remember one of the names to describe the Holy Spirit is Strengthener. Therefore do believers need more strength or do we simply need to access the power, might, force and ability of the Spirit that dwells in us, that we now have become one with in Christ?

I believe it’s safe to say that we have established that ‘waiting on the Lord’ is not a principle for the New Testament saint. It may sound nice and roll easily off the tongue but it is not appropriate for us to practice as believers. To do so would be to bring confusion into our theology and methodology. In other words we would muddy the waters about how we should believe and act as sons of God.

Again, not everything in the Old Testament is for the Christian. Only the truths about Christ that were concealed in the scriptures but now revealed in the epistles apply to us. ‘The things concerning Himself’ (Luke 24:27). This is why we must be taught how to ‘rightly divide’ the word of truth.

We don’t wait on or hope for the Lord. We are not living in that dispensation. We have a ‘better covenant based on better promises.’ Christ in us is the realisation and resource of all our hope and strength.

APPLICATION

In your daily reading and study of the Word always ask yourself the question: is this scripture passage in the Old Testament or the Gospels consistent with the message of Christ in the epistles?