Exodus 24:12-18 (NIV)
12 The LORD said to Moses, "Come up to me on the mountain
and stay here, and I will give you the tablets of stone,
with the law and commands I have written for their instruction."
13 Then Moses set out with Joshua his aide, and Moses went
up on the mountain of God. 14 He said to the elders, "Wait
here for us until we come back to you. Aaron and Hur are
with you, and anyone involved in a dispute can go to them."
15 When Moses went up on the mountain, the cloud covered
it, 16 and the glory of the LORD settled on Mount Sinai.
For six days the cloud covered the mountain, and on the seventh
day the LORD called to Moses from within the cloud. 17 To
the Israelites the glory of the LORD looked like a consuming
fire on top of the mountain. 18 Then Moses entered the cloud
as he went on up the mountain. And he stayed on the mountain
forty days and forty nights.
___________________________________________________________________
The tests had all been done. She had been poked and prodded,
X-rayed and MRI’d, kept off food and put on medication.
The call from the specialist actually came as a relief.
Finally some answers! All it would take was another visit
to another Doctor’s office.
The appointment was for 10:30 that morning.
She was awake at 4.
She and her husband made the drive in silence but both
minds and imaginations were going at breakneck speed. Questions
wouldn’t go away to allow any peace.
What was going to be said?
What would they need to ask?
Would everything be fine?
How might life be changed?
Would there be treatments needed?
Would there be hope offered?
They arrived at the Doctor’s office early—ten
past ten. She was shocked to see how many people were already
there—ahead of them—waiting—silent—wondering
the same things she was wondering.
She hadn’t been to a Doctor in years who ran on time.
She arrived early, not because she expected to be seen earlier,
but because she couldn’t stay at home any longer.
And so a new waiting time began.
Waiting was a good description for her life these last few months.
Waiting for Doctor’s appointments.
Waiting for tests to be booked.
Waiting for results.
Waiting for the call to come.
Waiting for the sun to come up this morning.
Waiting to move from the waiting room past the door and in to see the Doctor,
face to face.
And, finally, waiting to hear the first words that came from the Doctor’s
mouth.
Waiting in a Doctor’s waiting room.
Waiting in God’s waiting room.
Some of us have been in such a place ourselves. If we haven’t
experienced it firsthand, we probably have someone close
to us who has.
Such waiting can be horrendous.
It can be draining.
It can seem to last forever.
I wonder if that’s how Moses felt in what happened
as described in our Scripture lesson?
Exodus 24 tells us that Moses had been summoned.
Summoned to meet with the Lord God Almighty.
Summoned to meet with God face to face.
The Covenant between God and Israel had been confirmed.
God had said He would be the God of Israel. Israel had agreed
to be obedient. A ritual had taken place to mark the occasion.
Now God summoned Moses to come to receive tablets upon
which God had written the Ten Commandments.
This was a most important and serious time in the history
of Israel.
It was a most awesome and frightening time for Moses as he approached Mount
Sinai where God was waiting.
Cloud covered the mountain.
You couldn’t see the top from the bottom.
Herbert O’Driscoll (in “The Word Today”)
notes that it’s very possible that Mount Sinai was
an active volcano at this time. And so perhaps the cloud
was more than a settled mist from above. It might well
have been smoke and steam and ash from the volcano.
Not an easy place to get to.
Not a place to feel easy about when you arrived.
But it was to this place that Moses was summoned.
This was where he was to meet God.
This is where God was to give him the Ten Commandments.
But not right away.
This didn’t end up being a quick trip up and down
a mountain.
Moses went up—and waited.
He waited amidst the smoke and steam and ash.
He waited close to the heat and rumbling.
He waited for God.
He waited for six days.
Six days in God’s waiting room!
We aren’t told why Moses had to wait.
It certainly made clear that God was in charge.
God had summoned Moses and, when Moses arrived, Moses didn’t
dare summon God.
But the wait was about more than God showing who was in
charge. God’s sovereignty is always an important lesson,
but this isn’t about a petulant God showing Moses who’s
boss.
The six days offered some lessons that could only be taught
in the waiting room.
In those six days Moses must have learned about facing risk.
Moses must have learned about courage.
Moses must have learned about patience.
As we find ourselves waiting, those lessons can be of help
to us.
Many times in life we can find ourselves in a kind of limbo.
We know what we want to happen next.
We convince ourselves that what we want must be for the best.
And yet, nothing happens!
Sometimes these waiting times simply keep us from moving on with life. We need
to move along but suddenly the road gets blocked.
Sometimes these waiting times are more serious. We wait to see how forces beyond
our control will affect our lives.
There are rumours about the future of where we work and
we find our job in jeopardy.
Our child continues to make bad decisions in life and it’s
only a matter of time before the consequences catch up
to them.
A relationship that’s important to us seems to be fading
away and we don’t seem to be able to do anything
about it.
We wait for medical tests to come back so a diagnosis can
be made for us or a loved one.
And the clock ticks away.
We pray and pray and pray—but answers fail to appear.
We start to bargain with God.
We’ll do this or that if only God will do what we want.
After a while we’ll do anything if only we can find out what’s
happening.
We look for signs that might cast a small bit of light into our world of darkness
and anxiety.
And we wait.
We have brought it all to God but find ourselves in God’s
waiting room.
We know God is in the other room but the door is closed.
And we wait.
Perhaps when this happens we can also learn.
Learn about facing risk.
Learn about courage.
Learn about patience.
The risks are many.
There is the risk that things won’t go the way we want.
There is the risk that our wait will draw us further away from God than closer
to Him.
There is the risk of going it alone—doing things on our own—in
our own strength.
There is the risk of failure—not getting what we want and not learning
from the process.
Probably the thing we need to learn most as we face risk
in the waiting room is the importance of being open to lessons
about courage and patience!
In many ways the three things are inter-connected. The
lessons feed off each other and feed into each other.
And so, courage isn’t blindly taking on risks and
dangers and circumstances as if we were a swashbuckling,
invincible hero.
Courage has been defined as “fear that has said its
prayers.”
Ambrose Redmoon said, “Courage is not the absence
of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is
more important than fear.”
As we cool our heels in God’s waiting room, we have
time to remember the things that are more important than
fear.
We remember God’s care for us in the past.
We remember God doesn’t always protect us from risks
and circumstances, but God always stands with us in the
midst of whatever we face.
We remember God’s timing isn’t always our own, but God’s
timing ultimately shows itself as best.
And we remember the love and support of those around us.
We remember the prayers that are being offered—our
own and those of others.
A renowned Korean evangelist, Billy Kim, told the story
of an American soldier hiding in a bunker during the Korean
War. When his commander ordered him to rescue some of his
fallen mates on the front lines, the soldier nodded his head,
took a covert glance at his watch, stalled till his commanding
officer was out of sight, and simply made no move.
Several minutes went by, and a colleague reminded him of
his rescue assignment. Again he looked at his watch and delayed.
Finally, he leaped out of the bunker and fearlessly began
carrying his compatriots to safety.
" At the end of the day, a friend asked him to explain what
happened.
The soldier said, 'I was afraid because I knew I wasn’t
ready to die. I waited until my fear would be overcome—remembering
that at a certain time every hour my mother had said she
would pray for me. Then I knew that no matter what awaited
me, I could face it.'"
We can learn about courage when we remember that when we
are waiting—when we are at risk—we don’t
face these things on our own.
We never wait alone! The love and support of others fills
the room.
Indeed, even when we are in God’s waiting room, God
in some way, is also there with us.
Patience goes hand in hand with courage.
It, too, doesn’t ignore the risks or the difficulties
of the wait.
Henri Nouwen put it this way:
“How do we wait for God? We wait with patience. But
patience does not mean passivity.
Waiting patiently is not like waiting for the bus to come,
the rain to stop, or the sun to rise. It is an active waiting
in which we live the present moment to the full in order
to find there the signs of the One we are waiting for.
The word patience comes from the Latin verb patior which
means "to suffer." Waiting patiently is suffering
through the present moment, tasting it to the full, and
letting the seeds that are sown in the ground on which
we stand grow
into strong plants. Waiting patiently always means paying
attention to what is happening right before our eyes and
seeing there the first rays of God's glorious coming.”
www.henrinouwen.org
Such patience requires courage doesn’t it?
Such patience recognizes the risks.
Risk, courage, patience—all three were a part of Moses’ experience
for those six days, waiting for God.
In the midst of our own waiting—when we occupy an
uncomfortable seat in God’s waiting room, those three
things are a part of our experience.
It is my prayer that we can open ourselves, little by little,
to learn to face the risk, draw courage from the support
around us and suffer patiently through the present moment—precious
lessons that can only be taught in God’s waiting
room.
(1732)
© The Rev. Dennis Cook, St. Timothy’s Presbyterian
Church, Ajax, ON, Canada
