Our Patient Lord

"I will wait until you come back." - Judges 6:18

I know I'm close to doing what so many other teachers will do in using a verse or part of a verse as a diving board to talk on more than is necessarily in the verse. I'm not going to do that.

However, while reading this passage the Lord brought it to my attention about His patience. We know various passages talking about how the Lord is slow to anger (Exodus 34:6 as one example), how He is patient, and have seen examples of this patience (Genesis 15:11-16 where he waited 400 years before judging the Amorites), but it was in Judges 6:18 that once again I was reminded of His patience.

Bare with me as I put a bit of a human spin into this, but here we see Gideon ask the Lord to wait until he could prepare an offering for Him. Now the Lord could have simply said, "well I'll come back after you have it prepared because afterall I am God and I have too many other things to worry about going on in this world than to sit and wait for this offering that I don't really need anyway." But no, He is all powerful enough and all knowing enough to be content to wait because He has all under control, whether He is waiting for an offering or waiting for you or I to respond to His calling on our lives.

We so often want to rush through things and get things done. We have a calling and so, bam, we must get it done NOW! We tend to worry what the Lord will do if we don't hurry, hurry, hurry. But sometimes, we need to be content and simply wait.