Listen:
Exodus 14:17-22
When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, though that was shorter. For God said, “If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.” So God led the people around by the desert road toward the Red Sea. The Israelites went up out of Egypt ready for battle.
Moses took the bones of Joseph with him because Joseph had made the Israelites swear an oath. He had said, “God will surely come to your aid, and then you must carry my bones up with you from this place.”
After leaving Sukkoth they camped at Etham on the edge of the desert. By day the Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night. Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people.
Consider:
Waiting…who wants to do that? Particularly waiting while also anticipating something! We do not live in a culture where waiting on something, bad OR good, is celebrated. We want the answer/the solution/the excitement now, or yesterday, and we want to know EXACTLY how things are going to go before we can settle into any sort of waiting pattern. Waiting. Is. Hard.
But guess what? The bible is filled with example after example of people waiting (sometimes faithfully, a lot of times, with some complaint involved). At every turn, God provides context to the waiting, help in the waiting, and ways of faithful response while in the waiting period.
What type of “waiting” do you see/sense in today’s scripture? What clues (obvious or not) does God provide of God’s presence in this moment for the Israelites?
Respond:
Is there something you’ve been waiting on recently? How have you found yourself waiting? (anxiously? calmly? angrily? joyfully?) Have you felt God’s presence in your waiting at any point? Take a moment (or 5) today to sit with your feelings around waiting, and see where God just might be offering you a “pillar” of guidance.
Pray:
God, we know that waiting is hard because we want the answers. We want to KNOW. We want a guarantee of success. We want to see how it turns out before we begin.
Help us to wait with patience, but also with a readiness that when the waiting period ends, we may go.
Join us. Sit with us. Be with us in the waiting. Amen.
