Ever heard this saying “haste makes waste?” Even if you haven't, I'm sure you’ve experienced it at least once in your life. The Lord is not slack concerning His promises. He’s never late, He means what He says, and says what He means. There are quite a few biblical leaders who learned that the hard way. Mary shared a secret at a wedding in Canaan. “Whatever He tells you to do, do it.” God isn’t into embellishments, neither is He into substitutions. We don’t get to come up with our own ways to obey Him. He lays out the order and expects total compliance. Why? Because He said so! He’s God!
A few years ago the Lord allowed me to preach a sermon entitled “Partial obedience is still disobedience.” If we didn’t do what we were told completely, we were disobedient. God did not create shortcuts, we did that. We are always looking for ways to get things done smarter and quicker. God is a marathoner. Timing is everything with Him. God’s supposed delays are actually opportunities for building trust in Him and faith in us. Faith in His unshakable character. He never changes. He has all the time in the world, He invented time. He could’ve created the heavens and the earth in one day, instead He took His time and enjoyed every aspect of His creativity.
In our hurried and harried lives, we miss the beauty of timed godly delays. I’ve made so many blunders in my life because of haste. Making rash decisions in a lot of areas, some I’ve regretted others the Lord had mercy on me. Delay is not denial and to obey is always better than the costs of doing things our way. I so admire the Old Testament prophets and kings who always took the time to enquire of the Lord before reacting to their circumstances. And whenever they neglected to seek the Lord or wait for Him it has always resulted in regret. Our hearts are reformatted or proven by God’s delays. What we choose to do in the waiting period will always expose the hidden man of the heart. It will show us whether we truly trust His Word. Even the best among us or before us have failed this test. But we praise Jesus for new beginnings, mercy and grace. Let’s look at a few examples.
“Take the staff, and assemble the congregation, you and Aaron your brother, and tell the rock before their eyes to yield its water. So you shall bring water out of the rock for them and give drink to the congregation and their cattle.” And Moses took the staff from before the Lord, as He commanded him. Then Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, “Hear now, you rebels: shall we bring water for you out of this rock?” And Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his staff twice, and water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their livestock. And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not believe in Me, to uphold Me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them.”
Numbers 20:8-12 ESV
Lesson one: never make an emotional decision, never respond in anger and frustration. It takes our eyes off Him and puts it on people or ourselves.
“But when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and to Ai, they on their part acted with cunning and went and made ready provisions and took worn-out sacks for their donkeys, and wineskins, worn-out and torn and mended, with worn-out, patched sandals on their feet, and worn-out clothes. And all their provisions were dry and crumbly. They said to Joshua, “We are your servants.” And Joshua said to them, “Who are you? And where do you come from?” They said to him, “From a very distant country your servants have come, because of the name of the Lord your God. For we have heard a report of Him, and all that he did in Egypt. So the men took some of their provisions, but did not ask counsel from the Lord. At the end of three days after they had made a covenant with them, they heard that they were their neighbors and that they lived among them.”
Joshua 9:3-5, 8-9, 14, 16 ESV please read the entire chapter.
Lesson two: nothing is ever as it appears. Trust and verify. This was the only time Joshua did not seek the Lord. And he was deceived.
“Now when David and his men came to Ziklag on the third day, the Amalekites had made a raid against the Negeb and against Ziklag. They had overcome Ziklag and burned it with fire and taken captive the women and all who were in it, both small and great. They killed no one, but carried them off and went their way. And David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because all the people were bitter in soul, each for his sons and daughters. But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God. And David said to Abiathar the priest, the son of Ahimelech, “Bring me the ephod.” So Abiathar brought the ephod to David. And David inquired of the Lord, “Shall I pursue after this band? Shall I overtake them?” He answered him, “Pursue, for you shall surely overtake and shall surely rescue.” (recover all)
1 Samuel 30:1-2, 6-8 ESV
Lesson three: in your worst moments turn your despair into seeking the Lord for guidance. Don’t move without a sure word from Him.
“And Samuel said to Saul, “The Lord sent me to anoint you king over His people Israel; now therefore listen to the words of the Lord. Thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘I have noted what Amalek did to Israel in opposing them on the way when they came up out of Egypt. Now go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’”
And he took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive and devoted to destruction all the people with the edge of the sword. But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep and of the oxen and of the fattened calves and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them. All that was despised and worthless they devoted to destruction. The word of the Lord came to Samuel: “I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following Me and has not performed My commandments.” And Samuel was angry, and he cried to the Lord all night.”
1 Samuel 15:1-3, 8-11 ESV please read the entire chapter
Lesson four: partial obedience is disobedience. The consequences aren’t worth it. God always has His reasons whether we understand it or not. Our responsibility is total obedience.
“And the Philistines mustered to fight with Israel, thirty thousand chariots and six thousand horsemen and troops like the sand on the seashore in multitude. They came up and encamped in Michmash, to the east of Beth-aven. When the men of Israel saw that they were in trouble (for the people were hard pressed), the people hid themselves in caves and in holes and in rocks and in tombs and in cisterns, and some Hebrews crossed the fords of the Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead. Saul was still at Gilgal, and all the people followed him trembling. He waited seven days, the time appointed by Samuel. But Samuel did not come to Gilgal, and the people were scattering from him. So Saul said, “Bring the burnt offering here to me, and the peace offerings.” And he offered the burnt offering. As soon as he had finished offering the burnt offering, behold, Samuel came. And Saul went out to meet him and greet him. And Samuel said to Saul, “You have done foolishly. You have not kept the command of the Lord your God, with which He commanded you. For then the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever.”
1 Samuel 13:5-10, 13 ESV please read the entire chapter
Lesson five: stay in your lane. Only do what God has anointed you to do. Because you can doesn’t mean you should. Because you have the skill set doesn’t mean you’re qualified. The man of God was delayed, but God’s order must never be set aside no matter what’s happening around us or to us.
I remember when Sheri was thirteen and told me that she knew how to drive. I said, “you do? Who taught you?” She said ”I’ve been watching you.” How many of you know that watching and doing aren’t the same? She may have had knowledge but it wasn’t a qualifier for driving without me being in the car. She learned the hard way. So did Saul. He knew what Samuel did, but he wasn’t qualified to do it. Sheri ended up in my neighbor’s basement window. Training trumps information. The anointing trumps position. He may have been king, but he wasn’t the high priest.
“Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it and laid incense on it and offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, which He had not commanded them. And fire came out from before the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord. Then Moses said to Aaron, “This is what the Lord has said: ‘Among those who are near Me I will be sanctified, and before all the people I will be glorified.’” And Aaron held his peace. You are to distinguish between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean,”
Leviticus 10:1-3, 10 ESV
Lesson six: don’t offer to the Lord what you think He wants. Follow the order. Well intended ideas or prideful arrogance will be met with the same fate. God will be honored, and must be glorified because He is holy. Aaron’s sons acted in complete defiance of protocol. Today, how we present ourselves before a Holy God should be taken just as seriously. The Lord is calling us to distinguish between the holy and the profane.
Jesus the God-man and our eternal example Exemplified through His life and actions the ability to; wait, obey and enquire of His Father. He sought His guidance often. We’d read where He went away alone to pray ( enquire) My hour is not yet come (wait) nevertheless not My will but Yours (obedience) Luke 5:16; John 2:4, John 7:8; Luke 22:42. With His Spirit within us, we are capable of achieving the same results. But it requires that we abandon and forsake all else to follow and cleave to Him. Our success or failure rests solely in our willingness to wait, enquire and obey His Word. Don’t be in a hurry, don’t cut corners, don’t compromise. What has He called and purposed for you to do? Do that. Stay in your lane. Trust Him in the delays. Obey even when it makes no sense. He’s never made a mistake. And He never will. He’s forever faithful.
Written by permission of the Holy Spirit
W. Tennant
August 9, 2021