While You're Waiting - Exodus 40:34-38
Moving Forward - Lessons From Exodus • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Today we are going to read the end of the book of Exodus, but this message series will continue into the book of Numbers. As I was prayerfully considering where to go next, I was not sure that this topic of moving forward was complete yet.
Last week we read chapter 35 and 36 about sacrificial giving. I believe there will be a season ahead where we will all be challenged to give above and beyond what we are giving now. We’ll need to do so in order to move ahead some of the ministry efforts we have here at Crossroads. Today we’ll talk about the topic of waiting, and what we are to do while we wait.
Go ahead and turn with me to Exodus 40…we’ll read at the end of the chapter…while you turn there, let me catch you up on what has happened.
After Moses asks for people to give, they do and they begin to put together the tabernacle and all of the contents. At some point so much was given that the leaders had to restrain them from bringing more offerings.
From chapter 36 to the end of the book, we can read about how all of those items were put together and then set up in the way God told Moses to do so.
Let’s read in verse 34...
34 Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. 35 Moses could not enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.
36 In all the travels of the Israelites, whenever the cloud lifted from above the tabernacle, they would set out; 37 but if the cloud did not lift, they did not set out—until the day it lifted. 38 So the cloud of the Lord was over the tabernacle by day, and fire was in the cloud by night, in the sight of all the Israelites during all their travels.
Today’s message is going to focus on just one verse in this passage, verse 37
37 but if the cloud did not lift, they did not set out—until the day it lifted.
We are not beings who like to wait…generally speaking anyway. How often do we hear the phrase…I just can’t wait until. Has anyone ever not said that phrase or something similar? I know I have, and yet there are times in life when we just don’t set out. We just wait.
The nation of Israel stayed put while God’s presence rested on the tabernacle and they waited. When God presence lifted, they knew it was time to set out.
I wonder how many times the people looked at the cloud resting on the tabernacle after a long stretch of time in the same place and just wondered when God would move so they could move.
And let’s not sugar coat things…they ultimately waited for 40 years to be able to enter into the promised land.
So what did they do while they waited? Leviticus and Numbers tells us a great deal about what they did. Fortunately for you we are not going to go through those books today. I do want to give us some practical things that we can lean on while we wait, because let’s face it we all will have to wait on something at some point.
Turn with me to Psalm 37 and David will help us with some things that he found helpful in the times where he had to wait. Let’s take this a few verses at a time...
1 Do not fret because of those who are evil
or be envious of those who do wrong;
2 for like the grass they will soon wither,
like green plants they will soon die away.
I don’t know if this is you, but do you sometimes look at what others have and they seem to have gotten it quicker than you? We were at a restaurant the other day and we watch as people who arrived after us get their meal before us. Isn’t it wild how we can get fired up about something so trivial?
David says to not fret or be envious of others. Here it says those who are evil or doing wrong, but I would extend that. Don’t fret or be envious of others.
When we fret about others or we are envious of others, where is our focus? It is on others. Some translations use the word jealous. Look what Proverbs says:
30 A heart at peace gives life to the body,
but envy rots the bones.
It’s so easy during times of waiting to look at what others have and wish for the same and then we fret about it and complain. We’ve lost what our focus needs to be.
The next verse helps bring us back...
3 Trust in the Lord and do good;
dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.
First we see the word trust. Going out on a limb here, but I would venture a guess to say that when we get impatient with the waiting and take matters into our own hands, we are saying that we don’t trust the Lord.
That doesn’t mean that waiting means not doing anything…because the second thing we see is that we are to do good. While we wait, we also do good. So, how do I know if I’m doing good or taking matters into my own hands? I’m glad you asked…let me give you an example.
In 2008, there was a movie released by the name of Fire Proof. If you haven’t seen it yet, I recommend it. Here’s a quick recap of the movie: there is a couple in distress - he is selfish and she is fed up and asks for a divorce. This serves as a wake up call for him and he is challenged by a friend to love his wife even if she doesn’t reciprocate. So he does. Then she starts seeing another guy and the divorce moves along in the process.
At this point in the movie, we see the husband struggle with all that is happening and yet he continues to act lovingly toward his wife and in the background we hear this song playing that is titled “While I’m Waiting”. Here are some of the lyrics:
I’m waiting on You, Lord
And I am hopeful
I’m waiting on You, Lord
Though it is painful
But patiently, I will wait
I will move ahead, bold and confident
Taking every step in obedience
While I’m waiting
I will serve You
While I’m waiting
I will worship
While I’m waiting
I will not faint
I’ll be running the race
Even while I wait
3 Trust in the Lord and do good;
dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.
He is doing good, while he trusts in the Lord to change his marriage. If he tried to change his wife by his words or actions, he would be taking things into his own hands.
Often, when a relationship gets to this point, or if a circumstance is gotten to a place where things are bad, we can’t see anything else but what the other person needs to change or how the circumstance needs to change.
Really what we need to see is that we need change. God wants to work in us first and as we trust him and do the good we can do, he is then able to work in ways you and I can’t to change the circumstance. We just need to be patient as the Lord does his thing in His time.
Next verse says this:
4 Take delight in the Lord,
and he will give you the desires of your heart.
We are to take delight in the Lord. I don’t know if you have seen this in yourself, but when I take delight in the Lord, all of my other junk gets so much smaller and less significant. The things that I want change. My heart changes. I begin to see and want the things that God wants for me. And then I begin to get them and that further deepens my delight in the Lord.
The opposite is also true. If I don’t delight in the Lord, my attitude stinks and I get more selfish. The more selfish I get, the more I want what I don’t have which causes me to be angry and I direct that anger toward God…and the cycle continues.
next verse
5 Commit your way to the Lord;
trust in him and he will do this:
6 He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn,
your vindication like the noonday sun.
Whose way are you doing things? Your way? Man’s way? God’s way? The essence of this phrase to be in submission or surrendered in all things, in all of your ways of doing things to the Lord.
And with that Trust God with the outcome.
I think we do things our way sometimes because we don’t trust God with the outcome. The promise here to that we have a reward on the other side of trusting him.
Finally...
7 Be still before the Lord
and wait patiently for him;
do not fret when people succeed in their ways,
when they carry out their wicked schemes.
Be still and wait patiently. This doesn’t mean we don’t do anything. Do you think the nation of Israel just sat around watching the cloud on the tabernacle and only did something when the cloud moved. No. Read Leviticus and Numbers…God had a lot of things for them to do, but they left the leading up to him. They (mostly) trusted him. When they did, things went fairly well. When they tried to do their own things and take matters into their own hands…not so much.
What would it look like for you to be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him?
Is there something you are trying really hard to make happen? Is there a person in your life you are trying really hard to change? Is there a circumstance you are trying to reason your way around? And all the while God is just looking for you to wait for him, to be still, to be surrendered about.
Maybe God wants to change you through the circumstance first and then he’ll change the other thing. 7