Do you remember what you made for dinner ten years ago, on… September 3?
Do you know what you ate for dinner last night?
This week I want to encourage you with a thought about one simple Bible word—yesterday.
I trust you are familiar with the story in 1 Kings 21 about a man named Naboth who owned a vineyard next to King Ahab’s palace. Ahab decided he wanted the vineyard and offered to buy it or trade it for a better one, but Naboth refused.
And Naboth said to Ahab, The LORD forbid it me, that I should give the inheritance of my fathers unto thee. — 1 Kings 21:3
Ahab went home pouting that he couldn’t get what he wanted. And Jezebel, ever so loving and crafty, came up with a plan to gather false witnesses against Naboth and have him stoned to death. With Naboth dead, Ahab took possession of the vineyard.
There aren’t a lot of details about Naboth’s family outside of this story, but I wonder about them. He had sons, so, did he have a wife living at this time? What did she think when Ahab wanted to buy the vineyard? Did she understand why her husband refused or did she ever wish he would simply sell it and avoid upsetting the king? Did she support his decision or was she like Job’s wife and speak foolishly?
And what was she thinking as Naboth was set on high as we read in verses 9-13? Did she understand how men were hired to speak lies against her hsuabnd? What did she do after he was killed?
I realize I’m imagining more to the story than the Bible gives us, but Naboth was a real man, so surely there were people who were affected by his death. What about them? Were they angry? Devastated? Grieving?
Before 1 Kings 21 ends, God sends Elijah to Ahab with a message of judgment.
And thou shalt speak unto him, saying, Thus saith the LORD, Hast thou killed, and also taken possession? And thou shalt speak unto him, saying, Thus saith the LORD, In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick thy blood, even thine. — 1 Kings 21:19
The Lord knew what had happened. He knew of all the wicked scheming behind the scenes and how the false witnesses came about. Jezebel may have appeared to succeed and Ahab might have taken possession of the vineyard, but God was not ignoring any of what happened.
But, because Ahab humbled himself, God tells Elijah that He will delay judgment until the days of Ahab’s sons.
Seest thou how Ahab humbleth himself before me? because he humbleth himself before me, I will not bring the evil in his days: but in his son’s days will I bring the evil upon his house. — 1 Kings 21:29
And so time moves forward. Slowly. As time always seems to move when you are hurting and waiting on things to make sense.
It can be easy for us to overlook the length of time because all we have to do is turn a few pages.
Naboth is dead in 1 Kings 21, and in short order we come to 2 Kings 9, where Jehu is carrying out God’s judgment.
But for Naboth’s wife or loved ones, they had to live every day in between those pages. They had to go past the vineyard and remember how that used to belong to their family. They had to live with the hurt and pain. I wonder if Naboth’s family was even aware of God’s promise to avenge his blood?
And then we come to the verse that caught my attention. As Jehu is telling the story after his arrow strikes King Ahab in his chariot, he says:
Then said Jehu to Bidkar his captain, Take up, and cast him in the portion of the field of Naboth the Jezreelite: for remember how that, when I and thou rode together after Ahab his father, the LORD laid this burden upon him; Surely I have seen yesterday the blood of Naboth, and the blood of his sons, saith the LORD; and I will requite thee in this plat, saith the LORD. Now therefore take and cast him into the plat of ground, according to the word of the LORD. — 2 Kings 9: 25, 26
“Surely I have seen yesterday...”
Yesterday.
Except it wasn’t yesterday.
More than a decade has passed since Naboth’s death. Years full of ordinary days have passed between Jezebel’s wicked actions and the judgment that God had promised.
When people talk about God’s concept of time, they often run to 2 Peter 3:8 which says “one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” I believe that, but it’s also a bit hard to comprehend. A thousand years is outside my experience. I don’t know what a thousand years feels like.
But I can understand yesterday.
I can usually remember what I did yesterday. Yesterday is the dishes left in the sink. Yesterday doesn’t feel forgotten or buried in history.
I can also comprehend the passing of 14 or 15 years. And in some ways, those days really do feel like “yesterday”. But when I’m waiting on an answer from God, even a week feels like an eternity.
And in meditating on this passage, I can understand just a little better how God sees time differently than I do.
There are some things in my life that I have been waiting on for so long. Prayers that once felt so urgent, but now I have prayed so often that I almost don’t know what else to say. There are situations and circumstances that I thought surely God would have moved in by now, purposes that I thought surely I would understand by now.
But I am still living inside the story. In between those pages.
And God is eternal.
For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. — Isaiah 57:15
What feels like a long time to me is a wisp of vapor to God. The passing of time doesn’t mean that God has forgotten what happened, or forgotten what I prayed. The promises of His Word are still sure even though they were given thousands of years ago.
When we read this story of Naboth again and again, we already know the ending. We know judgment is coming. We know that in just a few pages Ahab will be killed and Jezebel will be thrown down and righteousness will prevail. The passage of time and waiting seems so easy in most Bible stories that it can be overlooked.
Abraham didn’t know when Isaac would be born. Joseph didn’t know if the prison door would ever open. Job didn’t know if his health would ever be restored. And whoever mourned Naboth didn’t know when or how God would fulfill what He had said.
Likewise, we can’t flip ahead in our own lives.
I don’t know what God is going to do next year. I don’t know which prayers will be answered, how circumstances might change, or what I may understand better someday. I don’t know how many pages lie between where I am now and whatever God is doing.
And that becomes a trying of faith.
When I am waiting on God, two passages that come to mind often are Romans 5:3-5 and James 1:3 and 4. “...we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope:” And in James: “Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.”
I don’t really like the word patience when I’m the one who has to practice it. I would rather have wisdom and understanding. I would rather see the plan, know the timetable, be able to point to the ending and say “see, there it is. That’s what God has been doing all along.”
But apparently the trying of my faith can accomplish something in me that God deems necessary.
Peter describes the trial of faith as something “more precious than gold” (1 Peter 1:7).
Waiting is not wasted. Patience is doing a work, even though sometimes I can’t see God at work anywhere else.
I look at the circumstances today and wonder what God is doing. I see the passage of weeks and months and wonder why I don’t have an answer yet. So much time has passed that details begin to get fuzzy in my memory.
But God hasn’t lost track of the story. And after all the months and years of waiting, He can still say “surely I have seen yesterday.”
Maybe I don’t need to try to understand God’s timetable so much as I need to trust that He is working. Years that feel so long to me have not made Him forgetful or inattentive. And while I wait for Him to fulfill His purpose, I can trust that He is doing a work within me, allowing patience to have her perfect work and refine my faith.
If it feels like yesterday to the Lord, perhaps I can wait on Him, one more day.
Recall the words of the hymn:
Day by day, and with each passing moment,Strength I find to meet my trials here;Trusting in my Father’s wise bestowment,I’ve no cause for worry or for fear...Help me then, in every tribulation,So to trust The promises, O Lord,That I lose not faith’s sweet consolation,Offered me within Thy holy Word.
I hope you can take this thought with you into the weekend and the days ahead and know that whatever trial you face, whatever circumstances just don’t make sense right now—the Lord is working and we can allow Him to use this trial to strength our faith. He promises to give us His grace sufficient for one more day.
