The Wait-ers of Scripture

I've long been captivated by the pace of growth in Scripture. It's so...agrarian.

Think about it. All kinds of agricultural references permeate the pages of the Bible: seeds, branches, trees, fields, harvests, crops, manure, plants, soil, leaves, livestock, fruit. Among other things.

The frustration of farming's pace

Agricultural growth and imagery is wonderful when we're in no hurry to see results; it's awful when we want something figured out, worked out, or built out.

When that tension is present, we don't like agricultural pacing. We like industrial, mechanical, and digital pacing. Things like manufacturing and building and assembling come to mind. These are processes we can have much greater control over.

But agricultural growth invites us to consider that what God is up to happens outside our view, timing, control, and preferences.

Waiting doesn't have to be weighty

And it can change the way we wait. If you find yourself waiting on something, consider some of the well-known wait-ers of Scripture:

• Moses: 40 years

• Joseph: 22 years

• Noah: 120 years

• Abraham: 25 years

• David: 12 years

These - and others we'll look at - are the wait-ers of Scripture. But they're also the waiters of Scripture - because God's activity in their lives serves up a nourishing meal for us. The most nourishing part? God's work in their wait takes the weight off of our waiting, and we can know God is at work while we wait on Him.

We'll explore this more in this email each of the coming weeks, but for now, know this: if you're waiting, you're in good company.

Until next week,

Nathan