Waiting on God

Yes, Lord, walking in the way of Your laws, we wait for You;
Your name and renown are the desire of our hearts — Isaiah 26:8

I’ve been reading about Joseph. As I often do in reading Genesis, I wish there was more detail. I wonder so much about what’s not said. But in Joseph’s case, the little he does say reveals a lot.

If you didn’t know the ending, you would think Joseph’s life story a great tragedy. The apple of his father’s eye, his jealous brothers kidnap him and sell him to a slave trader. Through his own strength of character and God’s blessing, he ends up running Potiphar’s household, and we begin to have some hope for this displaced young man. But Potiphar’s wife is impressed with him too (evidently, his physique was as attractive as his character). When Joseph rebuffs her advances, declaring His devotion to God and to her husband, she cries rape and Joseph ends up in prison. There, God continues to be with him, and he helps two cellmates by interpreting their dreams. When the dreams come true and one man is released to serve Pharaoh again, Joseph has one request: Tell the Pharaoh about me, so that he will let me out. But the very next verse says: When two full years had passed... 

We read a careful telling of the prison scene, and suddenly two whole years are gone. What happened? Wait a minute!

Evidently, the cupbearer forgot his promise to Joseph, that is, until the Pharaoh is troubled by two dreams of his own that none of his wise men can interpret. Joseph is finally summoned to the Pharaoh’s presence, but we are never told about those "missing" two years.

Did Joseph pray? Was he faithful to his God? Did he grow bitter, blaming others for his plight? We know Joseph waited, but we aren’t told just how he waited.

However, we get a strong clue when Joseph answers the Pharaoh’s request to interpret his dream. Joseph simply says, "I cannot do this; but God will tell you your dream."

Without one narrative verse of those two years, we learn from his words that Joseph was not blaming God for doing wrong, or wallowing in self-pity, or entertaining vengeful fantasies. The humility of his answer, and his impulse for giving God glory, reveal his heart: he was a man who had waited with God, and waited for God.

We desire to walk well, as we follow Christ. What I continue to learn is this: much of walking well is connected with waiting well. So much in our life is a process of waiting: waiting for a loved one to accept Christ, for a health problem to be solved, for a relationship to be healed, for our financial situation to improve. No-one likes to wait; we feel inactive; we think we are accomplishing nothing.

But in fact, waiting well is an active pursuit. We can choose to wait in faith, trusting God is at work, even when we don’t see Him at work. We can choose to pray without ceasing as we wait for answers. Or we can choose to wait in frustration, forgetting the grace that God has supplied for our wait.

Waiting on the Lord is never wasted time. May the Lord give each of us the grace to wait with Him in view, to trust that His timing is perfect, and to bring glory to Him, no matter how long we wait.

Recommended reading: Waiting on God, by Andrew Murray