No Matter What

We do a lot of waiting, don't we?

We wait in line at the post office or the grocery store or the DMV.

We wait for the mail to arrive.

We wait, sometimes for quite a while, for a doctor's appointment.

We wait, with excitement and sometimes with impatience, for Christmas or a birthday or a vacation.

We wait, often with a sense of dread, for a surgery or a dental procedure.

We wait, often with mixed emotions, for the doctor's office to call with test results.

We wait.  A lot.

And we don't often like it very much.

The Bible has a lot to say about waiting.  There are some 90 verses that use the word "wait".  And that doesn't include waits or waited or waiting.

In the original languages, there are several different words used for our English word "wait".  Here are a few examples:

In Ruth 3:18, Naomi said to Ruth, "Wait, my daughter, until you learn how the matter turns out."  In that verse, the Hebrew word means "to sit, to stay, to dwell."  Just what we might expect the word to mean.  It's likely the word we might use (if we spoke Hebrew!) to say "wait until you get the results from that test before you make a decision."

The word "wait" is used often in the Psalms.  Consider these examples:

"You are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long." (Psalm 25:5b ESV)

"Wait for the LORD; be strong and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD."  (Psalm 27:14 ESV)

"Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for Him."  (Psalm 37:7 ESV)

Those verses all use the same Hebrew word for "wait", the word qawah.  More about that in a minute.

Another word for "wait" is also used frequently in the Psalms, the word yahal,  which means "to wait with hope".  That is the word used in Psalm 119:81, for example:  "My soul languishes for your salvation; I wait for your word." (NASB). The same word is also used in Micah 7:7:  "As for me, I will look to the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation."  (ESV).

The word "wait" also occurs in the New Testament, although less frequently.  An example is 1 Thessalonians 1:10, "to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come."   The word used in this verse is a verb meaning to wait expectantly.

This morning in my devotional time I read one of my favorite "waiting" verses.  The word translated "wait" in this verse is qawah, which I mentioned above.  It means " to wait for, to look for, to hope for, as in to put trust in."

It's a verse we would do well to hold on to, to commit to memory, to come back to over and over.  No matter what we are waiting for.  No matter how long we have been waiting.  It's a truth to hold on to.  No matter what.

"Have you not known?  Have you not heard?  The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.  He does not faint or grow weary, his understanding is unsearchable.  He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength.  Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted, but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint."
(Isaiah 40:28-31 ESV, emphasis mine)