Tired of waiting

And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him. And Aaron said unto them, Break off the golden earrings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them unto me. And all the people brake off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron. And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, To morrow is a feast to the LORD. – Exodus 32.1-5

I hate to wait. Mary and I were back in St James’ Hospital Monday for a follow-up after my operation. I didn’t have to wait very long for my echo-cardiogram and not too long for my x-ray. But when it came time to see a doctor it took ‘forever’ (actually, it was only a little over an hour, but you know what I mean). It never suits me to wait, and though I am ashamed to admit it, sometimes I get tired of waiting on God. Sometimes as week after week and month after month and year after year go by and we don’t see much happening (in our eyes) I get tired of waiting and even get tempted to quit or do things my way or whatever.

The Israelites must have had the same problem. They were waiting and waiting for Moses to come down with God’s instructions, but he didn’t come back in their timeframe. So rather than wait on God and Moses they just gave up and decided to make their own gods out of the gold they had brought out of Egypt. If God wasn’t going to act they were going to worship a god of their own design.

That sounds appalling doesn’t it? How can they do that? Why couldn’t they just wait on God? Why did they have to turn to their own devices?

The answer is simple enough. Waiting requires faith and if we are not careful faith can run thin after a while. We are proud arrogant creatures. If we have to wait too long we figure that we can sort it out ourselves.

But waiting on God is right and good and eventually has the only good result. Rushing ahead of God always brings disaster. ‘They that wait on the Lord will renew their strength.’ ‘It is good that a young man should wait.’

Teach me Lord to wait.