Not Meeting His Time Line

Isaiah 30:18

Do you recall your childhood?  I was always active from the time the sun came up till it went down.  We lived on a dead-end street with a circle, and it had two mesquite trees, one was the big tree and the other was the little tree, and all kinds of adventure happened in those trees.  We fought wars with the yanks, the Indians, bears, and other intruders.  I hope you understand that a warrior might ignore a command from the officer in charge if it took him away from the front line where Tommy Black and I were engaged in a bloody battle.  Did I describe the officer in charge, she looked a lot like my mother, she sounded like my mother and her Sargent Major who enforced the rules sounded and looked like my dad.  Often, in the heat of the battle of the little circle, I forgot it was an order and not a request to come home.  Sargent Major would remove me from the battle and though he loved me, would enforce the orders of the officer who had requested my involvement in pulling weeds, a job way below my role as protector of the little circle.  I do understand you may find this hard to believe, but when the Sargent Major was on other assignments, I would rebel and my rebellion caused him to punish me, and every time he would say son, I wish you would obey I do not enjoy doing this.

Do you recall Jesus giving dads this message: “Or which one of you, if his son asks him for 

bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, 

who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your 

Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!”  (Matthew 7:9-11 ESV)   

My dad was a man with clay feet, a man who did not always get it right, he wanted to bless me, 

but often my action of independent living, not obeying authority, caused him to punish me.  

As you read Isaiah 30:18, please ponder on this verse: “Therefore the LORD waits to be 

gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the LORD is a God 

of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him.”  (Isaiah 30:18 ESV)  My dad often did not 

seem just, what he called rebellion was, in my mind, not meeting his time line, but left to my 

own desires I would have never met his time line.  God is telling us, first and foremost, that 

His heart is to be gracious, His nature is to show mercy for He understands us fully, but He 

also is just, and justice requires repentance, a change of course, a will to obey.  

In that the people of God refused to listen to God, it brought about the hand of God in 

judgment, but God is clear in verse 18, He was waiting for His people to repent, and until 

they did so He could not turn His judgment into blessing.  We as a nation have seen the hand 

of God’s blessing, and now the question must be asked; will we who go by the name of Christ 

repent and see the face of God, or will we keep living independent lives, and see the hand of 

Judgment?

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice