Wait For It
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Why do you complain, Jacob? Why do you say, Israel, “My way is hidden from the Lord; my cause is disregarded by my God”? Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.
According to “know your meme” (a website we should all know), the term “Wait for it” became “a thing” from the show “How I Met Your Mother.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqkYnfAhgy0
When you find a funny video on social media and show it to your friend, there’s often a “what is this?” type reaction. At first the video isn’t that great and your friend asks, “why are you showing me this lame video.” What do you say? “Wait for it.” You’re saying OK yeah I know, just hang on a second because the wait is going to pay off. This is going to be good and you’ll thank me later.
For example: Here’s a video of a random cat sitting on the ground. Doug, why are you wasting my time? You’re supposed to be preaching the Gospel. Wait for it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7ssVT6T3mQ
Mookie Betts a baseball player with the Boston Red Sox, was the American League MVP runner up in 2016 and won the MVP award in 2018. He signed a $27 million dollar contract with the Red Sox but was traded to the Dodgers to avoid arbitration (a process where the player and management submit their proposed salary to a third party negotiator who decides for one or the other). At the time this was the highest ever one year salary for an arbitration eligible player. Now the Dodgers are stuck with that contract. Chump change you say? Except that the Coronavirus has ensured that baseball players are actually baseball bench warmers, and the trade for Mookie may go down as one of the “worst trade in baseball history.”
It’s not only multi million dollar baseball players who are sitting on the bench, the latest unemployment report was released Friday, and our unemployment rate is now just under 15% the highest since the Great Depression. The country is opening back up but the waiting and the financial struggle continues.
Maybe Tom Petty said it best. “The waiting is the hardest part.”
I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
“Our present suffering.” Not just what Paul and the believers are currently experiencing, but the suffering of “the present age.” The in between time from when Jesus has secured our salvation on the cross and the final victory. The believer should expect to know suffering.
But the current suffering isn’t even worth a comparison to what is coming. Not even close. You can’t put the two experiences side by side the other is so great. Think about going to Vons and grabbing some packaged cookies like Keebler or Pepperidge Farm. Something in a box and you open it up and there’s the plastic tray that slides out. You bite into it and it’s dry and a bunch of crumbs tumble down. Meh. Then think about making home made chocolate chip cookies or eating a heavenly slice of Cheesecake Factory or a “Nothing Bundt Cakes” Do you have those in Pasadena? Lemon raspberry. THERE’S NO COMPARISON. Yeah, they’re both labeled “dessert” but that’s it. Not even close.
For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.
And you recall that Paul himself was thoroughly acquainted with hardships of every kind—beatings, imprisonments, sleepless nights, and hunger. He says these things “light and momentary.”
Glory will be revealed
There’s a certainty expressed here in the words. “Will be revealed” isn’t just used in a temporal sense (“eventually”) but in a determinative sense “Will be revealed.” God has determined it. The glory isn’t going to be made up. God’s not currently thinking about it, the Glory will be unveiled / revealed. It exists and its by faith we believe it is not only waiting for us but will be revealed in us.
All of creation itself is also waiting to see this revealing of the children of God. One translation has a nice word picture: “The whole creation is on tiptoe to see the wonderful sight of the children of God coming into their own.” Creation is looking around and excited and waiting expectantly to see what happens to you and me. Creation knows what’s it’s like to subject to frustration. Creation is used to being under a curse.
Gen 3
“Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground.” Food chain issues
In Genesis 5, Lamech had a son.
He named him Noah and said, “He will comfort us in the labor and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground the Lord has cursed.”
I love gardening because it is such a change from sitting at a desk in front of a computer, but pulling those weeds gets old. Wouldn’t it be great if your garden just grew beautiful flowers, vegetables, fruit trees with no work? Your background garden is under a curse! So creation is longing and groaning along with us to see how this will all end. The pain of childbirth isn’t meaningless and wasted but “carries with it the hope of new life for all creation.”
And we have a little taste of this revelation of glory.
The New American Commentary: Romans 3. Living in the Spirit (8:1–39)
In the Old Testament firstfruits consisted of the initial portion of the harvest that was given in sacrifice to God (Exod 23:19; Lev 23:9–14). Paul used the term in reference to the gift of the Spirit as an eschatological pledge (cf. 2 Cor 5:5, where the Spirit is given “as a deposit guaranteeing what is to come”). The Spirit is evidence that at the present time we are the sons of God (vv. 14, 16). He is also the “down payment” (the term aparchēn, “firstfruits,” having essentially the same meaning here as arrabōn in 2 Cor 1:22; Eph 1:14) on the inheritance that will be ours as members of the family of God.
So the spirit is a taste of what is to come. Rom 8:24
We “wait for it.”
So even in the midst of suffering / waiting / longing / feeling the effects of the curse of creation we have a great hope. We can’t see it because if we could we wouldn’t be walking by faith, we wouldn’t be a hopeful people, so in our waiting we can be patient while we wait for what we don’t yet have.
But should we just sit around? What can we do while we wait? Some think about waiting like is described in Dr. Seuss:
Dr. Seuss “The Waiting Place”
You can get so confused
that you’ll start in to race
down long wiggled roads at a break-necking pace
and grind on for miles cross weirdish wild space,
headed, I fear, toward a most useless place.
The Waiting Place…
…for people just waiting.
Waiting for a train to go
or a bus to come, or a plane to go
or the mail to come, or the rain to go
or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow
or the waiting around for a Yes or No
or waiting for their hair to grow.
Everyone is just waiting.
Waiting for the fish to bite
or waiting for the wind to fly a kite
or waiting around for Friday night
or waiting, perhaps, for their Uncle Jake
or a pot to boil, or a Better Break
or a string of pearls, or a pair of pants
or a wig with curls, or Another Chance.
Everyone is just waiting.
Yes we are patient, but we shouldn’t be bored. We have a job to do while we wait.
“Tikkun olam”
(Credit Andy for sharing this Jewish phrase) means to “repair the world.” In some strains of Judiasm it is more about overcoming idolatry, and in others, it is the idea that Jews bear responsibility not only for their own moral, spiritual, and material welfare, but also for the welfare of society. For many contemporary Rabbis, the term refers to "Jewish social justice"or "the establishment of Godly qualities throughout the world.”
A common but more modern understanding of this phrase is that we share a partnership with God, and are instructed to take the steps towards improving the state of the world and helping others, which simultaneously brings more honor to God's sovereignty. I like that phrase, that we have a job to do. We’re not just passively “waiting.”
Jon Foreman says:
Feels like we're just waiting, waiting
While are hearts are just breaking, breaking
Feels like we've been fighting against the tide
I wanna see the earth start shaking
I wanna see a generation
Finally waking up inside
Until I die I'll sing these songs
On the shores of Babylon
Still looking for a home
In a world where I belong
Where the weak are finally strong and . . . “wait for it”
Where the righteous right the wrongs
That’s our job church. Righting the wrongs, seeking justice and mercy, struggling against oppression, walking humbly with our God.
So we’re waiting out a pandemic, but we’re also waiting for God’s glory to be ultimately revealed in us, and our job while we wait is to join with God and right the wrongs we see in the world.
Israel was redeemed from Egypt, but the consummation of their salvation was delayed a generation by their disobedience in the wilderness; it was nearly 40 years before they entered the Promised Land. Paul explains Christ’s salvation in the same way because it is a new exodus. The beginning and completion of salvation are separated by the period of God’s leading through the tests of the present age (Ro 8: 18)