While We Wait

The world’s attention has been captivated by the issue of racism lately. A steady drumbeat of protests, violence, and legislation has kept the nation fixated on the issue of what some call “systemic racism” within the institutions of our nation. In an effort to once and for all abolish racism from our national psyche, statues have been torn down, police reform efforts have run through Congress, and special attention has been given to every use of force. In this struggle, some have expressed hope that this might be the beginning of the end for racism. I watched one interview in which an older African-American woman who had been thru the civil rights struggles of the 60s, expressed hope by saying, “racism may not be eliminated in my lifetime, but I believe that it can be in the lifetime of my children.”

            The truth is, racism cannot be abolished by revolutionizing our government, abolishing the police, tearing down statues, or shaming racists into obedience. Sure, these actions may have some normalizing effect in forcing people to behave better in public but changing names and restructuring cannot change the heart of man. Racism, like any other sin, is due to the sinful heart of man.

            Yet, this idea that we can somehow abolish one sin or another by changing the external symbols and laws of our land betrays a belief that we have about this world. This world, we think, just needs a little reforming, a little restructuring, a little revolution. Every philosopher from Plato to Hegel has believed that the right philosophy can change the way men act and make a better society. Every political theorist from John Locke to Karl Marx has believed that the ideal government can bring about a utopian culture.

            Even as we thirst for justice and peace and mercy, one generation’s righteous revolution is the next generation’s systemic failure. Because of our sinful hearts, we cannot know perfect justice. So, in order to fix police brutality, we respond by calling for the defunding of the police. In order to bring about law and order, we attack peaceful protesters and exacerbate the situation rather than healing it. All the while, instead of being driven to our knees to beg God to save us, we try to come up with one more solution to the problem.

            The Old Testament patriarchs were no better at this than we are. On at least three different occasions Abraham nearly gave away the promise of God for the sake of his immediate need. In Genesis 26, we have the next generation of this promised line of Abraham in the story of Isaac. The author uses this chapter to show us that God is still faithful to his promise by extending the blessing of Abraham through Isaac. And, he also shows us what it looks like to wait for the promise to be fulfilled. Isaac serves as both a good example and a bad example of what it looks like to wait on the promises of God.

            The chapter begins with a renewal and an extension of the covenant that God made with Abraham. God catches Isaac as he is leaving Canaan to escape a famine, and he warns him not to go down to Egypt. Rather, God commands Isaac to “sojourn” or to wait in the land that he will give him. Remember that Abraham had failed miserably at waiting when God initially made the promise, so now he calls on Isaac to be faithful by waiting.

            Initially, Isaac doesn’t do so well at waiting. He is already in the land of the Philistines because this land was on the way down to Egypt. So, he just stops there and sets up camp for a while. But, just like his father before him, he is wary of the Philistines. He has good reasons for that. These people are lawless and worship pagan gods. Even though Abraham had made a covenant with the previous king of the Philistines, there is no reason for Isaac to expect these heathens to honor it. So, he devises the same plan that his father did: he will lie to the people of the land and tell them that his beautiful wife, Rebekah, is actually his sister. The rouse works for a while, until one day the king sees Isaac and Rebekah “laughing” together. This is actually an innuendo for something more intimate between Isaac and Rebekah. Because of this intimate exchange, the king recognizes that they are husband and wife and challenges Isaac with his lie. This deception causes a rift between the Philistines and the Hebrews that one could argue lasted all the way up to the reign of King David.

            In this deception, Isaac, like his father, showed a lack of faith in God’s ability while he waited on the fulfillment of the promise. This is in spite of the fact that Isaac was the impossible child of promise, born to a barren woman. And yet, when his life was at risk and he had to trust in his wits or his God, he rested in his own ability.

            But Isaac is also a good example of waiting for the promise. We find in the rest of the passage that Isaac moves away from Gerar because of conflicts with the Philistines over water-rights. And everywhere Isaac goes, he seems to run into conflict with the Philistines. He digs a well in one location, and Philistines come and claim it. He digs in another and they claim it, too. Finally, he discovers a well in Rehoboth where the Philistines do not bother him. At that moment, he praises God for having provided room for them in the land. There are two things that I want you to notice about what Isaac does here.

            First, in spite of his past failings, Isaac does everything in his power to live peaceably with the Philistines. Could Isaac have drawn up battle lines and waged holy war? Sure. But God had not told him to do that. He had told him to wait, to sojourn. There would be a day when God would fulfill his promise by giving this land to the descendants of Isaac, but until then, Isaac was called to wait.

            Second, while Isaac waited, he dug wells. Now, that may seem like a really mundane fact. After all, he kind of needs a well to survive. But, in Scripture, wells are a redemptive symbol. The Garden of Eden is portrayed as this well of life with rivers flowing out of it. Hagar and Ishmael are saved, twice, by a well. Isaac’s wife was found by a well. Moses was delivered from the desert by a well. The people of Israel would later be delivered by water from a rock. Wells mattered, yes, because they quenched thirst, but also because they allowed the people of God to persist in the land. So, Isaac builds towards that future fulfillment of the promise by digging wells.

            Sadly, though, the descendants of Isaac did not wait upon the Lord. They were commanded to wait for God to bring the nations to them, and instead they made allegiances, intermarried, and absorbed the cultures and religions around them.

            All of that waiting they were supposed to be doing was looking forward to one offspring of Abraham who would come. Matthew starts his Gospel by saying “the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham.” Galatians 3:14 says that in Christ the blessings of Abraham have come to the Gentiles. Jesus was the promised blessing to the world that Abraham and Isaac were supposed to be waiting for. Yet, John says in John 1:10-11 that he came to his own people, and they didn’t even recognize him. No one was waiting when Jesus came. Instead of a royal welcome, King Herod sent soldiers to find and kill the baby boy. Instead of an excited reception from the religious leaders, there were numerous plots to kill him. Yet, even with all of the faithlessness of the world bearing down on him, Jesus patiently waited. He waited for God’s plan rather than giving into the temptations of Satan. He gave no answer in his defense at his trial. He labored with the cross up the hill of crucifixion. And, he waited in the tomb for his righteous resurrection on the third day.

            In his resurrection, he defeated death and hell for all who believe in him. And yet, death and hell are still here. Death still seems to reign in this world. Sin still seems to hold sway over men. If Jesus is the completion of the promise of Abraham, why are we still dealing with all of this? You see, just like Abraham and Isaac were given a promise and then called to wait, so too, we have been given a promise of final resurrection, and in the meantime, we are told to wait.

            So, what do we do while we wait? Some Christians believe that we aren’t waiting, but rather we are bringing about the kingdom of God by our efforts. You hear a lot of Christians talk about how we are “building the kingdom” by reforming institutions and changing the culture. Yet, interestingly, you will not find one place in the New Testament where we are commanded to “build the kingdom”. There is no command to change the government structure or campaign for new laws or make the culture more Christian. What you do find are statements like this from Rom. 12:17-21: “Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all… Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

            Our calling as believers is to faithfully wait. We do that by living holy lives before outsiders, by living peaceably with all men, by using our gifts and talents to serve our fellow man, and by telling others of the love of Christ. In our faithful presence in this world, we show forth the glory of God as we patiently wait on him.