Let's Get Active - Waiting

Genesis 49:18 NKJV

18 I have waited for your salvation, O Lord!

1)Waiting is Not Passive

Dictionary of Bible Themes: Waiting

Being in readiness for service or for some future appointment or event.

Dictionary of Bible Themes 5977 waiting

waiting

Being in readiness for service or for some future appointment or event. Wild animals and the wicked lie in wait to ambush the unsuspecting; servants wait on their masters; believers and the whole creation wait for their renewal by God. God, too, waits for sinners to repent.

wait = “QWH” - qui-we’-tiy

Isaiah 5:7 NKJV

7 For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, And the men of Judah are His pleasant plant. He looked for justice, but behold, oppression; For righteousness, but behold, a cry for help.

Isaiah 5:2 NKJV

2 He dug it up and cleared out its stones, And planted it with the choicest vine. He built a tower in its midst, And also made a winepress in it; So He expected it to bring forth good grapes, But it brought forth wild grapes.

Isaiah 8:17 NKJV

17 And I will wait on the Lord, Who hides His face from the house of Jacob; And I will hope in Him.

wait “HKH” - hik-ki’-tiy = wait, await (look forward), wait for

hope = “QWH”

Psalm 27:14 NKJV

14 Wait on the Lord; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the Lord!

wait = QW - qua-weh = Wait in faith

2) I Should Be Active While Waiting

Luke 19:10–26 NKJV

10 for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.” 11 Now as they heard these things, He spoke another parable, because He was near Jerusalem and because they thought the kingdom of God would appear immediately. 12 Therefore He said: “A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return. 13 So he called ten of his servants, delivered to them ten minas, and said to them, ‘Do business till I come.’ 14 But his citizens hated him, and sent a delegation after him, saying, ‘We will not have this man to reign over us.’ 15 “And so it was that when he returned, having received the kingdom, he then commanded these servants, to whom he had given the money, to be called to him, that he might know how much every man had gained by trading. 16 Then came the first, saying, ‘Master, your mina has earned ten minas.’ 17 And he said to him, ‘Well done, good servant; because you were faithful in a very little, have authority over ten cities.’ 18 And the second came, saying, ‘Master, your mina has earned five minas.’ 19 Likewise he said to him, ‘You also be over five cities.’ 20 “Then another came, saying, ‘Master, here is your mina, which I have kept put away in a handkerchief. 21 For I feared you, because you are an austere man. You collect what you did not deposit, and reap what you did not sow.’ 22 And he said to him, ‘Out of your own mouth I will judge you, you wicked servant. You knew that I was an austere man, collecting what I did not deposit and reaping what I did not sow. 23 Why then did you not put my money in the bank, that at my coming I might have collected it with interest?’ 24 “And he said to those who stood by, ‘Take the mina from him, and give it to him who has ten minas.’ 25 (But they said to him, ‘Master, he has ten minas.’) 26 ‘For I say to you, that to everyone who has will be given; and from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.

3) Waiting In Expectation and Obedience Brings Rescue and Reward

The Abridged Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew-English Lexicon of the Old Testament I. קָוָה

I. [קָוָה] vb. wait for — Qal wait for. Pi. 1. wait, or look eagerly, for, c. ל rei; c. acc. rei; obj. rei om.; sq. inf.; abs.; c. acc. ˊי‍, (+ inf. abs.), acc. om., acc. שִׁמְךָ; c. ל of ˊי‍; c. אֶל־אֱלֹהִים. 2. lie in wait fort, sq. נַפְשִׁי; sq. ל pers. (+ inf. purpose). 3. wait (linger) for c. ל of man (|| יְיַחֵל).

II. קַו n.m. line — measuring-line; for marking off a possession in land (fig.); esp. עַל ˊנָטָה ק‍, in building, (fig. of earth); of designing idol; marking off for destruction.

Joshua 2:14–21 NKJV

14 So the men answered her, “Our lives for yours, if none of you tell this business of ours. And it shall be, when the Lord has given us the land, that we will deal kindly and truly with you.” 15 Then she let them down by a rope through the window, for her house was on the city wall; she dwelt on the wall. 16 And she said to them, “Get to the mountain, lest the pursuers meet you. Hide there three days, until the pursuers have returned. Afterward you may go your way.” 17 So the men said to her: “We will be blameless of this oath of yours which you have made us swear, 18 unless, when we come into the land, you bind this line of scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down, and unless you bring your father, your mother, your brothers, and all your father’s household to your own home. 19 So it shall be that whoever goes outside the doors of your house into the street, his blood shall be on his own head, and we will be guiltless. And whoever is with you in the house, his blood shall be on our head if a hand is laid on him. 20 And if you tell this business of ours, then we will be free from your oath which you made us swear.” 21 Then she said, “According to your words, so be it.” And she sent them away, and they departed. And she bound the scarlet cord in the window.

Rahab was an innkeeper who, sadly, found other ways of bringing in revenue. According to the Bible, she was a prostitute. Of course, the Canaanites were infamous for cultic prostitution related to idolatrous worship. It may very well have been that Rahab was "a religious prostitute” in pagan practices. We only know what the Bible reveals.

But there's more to the story of Rahab — so much more. Rahab recognized the God of Israel. She trusted in him for the righteousness she could not produce in her own life:

“I know that the Lord has given you the land, and that the fear of you has fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you devoted to destruction. And as soon as we heard it, our hearts melted, and there was no spirit left in any man because of you, for the Lord your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath” (Joshua 2:9-11 ESV).

Whatever Rahab was before Israel crossed into the land of the Canaanites she became someone new in the promised land. For Rahab believed. She not only believed in God but she also acted. For Rahab trusted in God who fulfilled the covenantal promise to Abraham that he would be given land from which would bring a nation, and a descendant, who would bless the earth. And we must always remember that this woman, rehab, was chosen by Almighty God to be a chosen instrument in bringing about salvation to the ends of the earth.

James 2:25 NKJV

25 Likewise, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way?

Hebrews 11:31 NKJV

31 By faith the harlot Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe, when she had received the spies with peace.

Rehab became a central strategic figure of incomparable courage as she helped Israel to enter the promised land and subdue her own people. Whenever the Army of Israel entered Canaan, Rahab acted according to a prearranged plan and hung out a scarlet cord from the window of her establishment. Thus, she and her family were saved. How interesting that a scarlet cord, likely, an emblem of ill-repute, became a sign of salvation. How very beautiful to think that it is a scarlet cord of the covenant of God's grace that binds all of the Word of God together. And in Christ Jesus, the blood-stained crimson cross of shame became the gleaming symbol of salvation.

Rahab’s faith in God engrafted her into a new family. Even more, Rahab was, soon, engrafted into the physical family of Israel as she became the wife of Salmon, one of the leaders of Israel who supported Moses when they left Egypt. Rahab’s husband is chronicled in both the Old and New Testaments (1 Chronicles 2:10-11, Ruth 4:20-21, Matthew 1:4-5 and Luke 3:32).

A Woman Saved by Faith

The woman who had been called a harlot became a godly wife and mother in Israel. She and her husband became the parents of a boy named Boaz. And that boy would one day marry a widow woman by the name of Ruth (Ruth 4:5, 10). Thus, as God worked all things together for the good, using the humble and the most unlikely, God raised up a harlot to become the great-great-grandmother of King David. From the line of Rahab came the Messiah of Israel, the Savior of the world, our God and King, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Hebrews 11:31 NKJV

31 By faith the harlot Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe, when she had received the spies with peace.

4) Actively Waiting Brings Strength into My Weakness

Isaiah 40:31 NKJV

31 But those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.

Illustration - Meeting the Manager at Panera

5) God is Actively Waiting for You

Romans 2:4 NKJV

4 Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?

2 Peter 3:9 NKJV

9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

Who can look back and see the hand of God ACTIVE in your life PRIOR to your salvation?

God was actively waiting on you.

And so if you ask me, "How could God possibly use me? How could Almighty God, the holy God of heaven, use such a sinner like me?" Then I will introduce you to the woman of the scarlet cord, the greater grandmother of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. She is not remembered for her sin. She is remembered for the remarkable transformation. The word "harlot" is undoubtedly repeated so that you and I will know that whatever we have done God will forgive us if we come to him by faith. Rahab is the ever-present message of God to you:

2 Corinthians 5:17 NKJV

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.