35Then Jesus said unto them, “Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you: for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth.36 While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light.” These things spake Jesus, and departed, and did hide himself from them.
In the Bible, light is mentioned in several books, but it marks the beginning in Genesis 1:3 when God said, “Let there be light.” This was more than just a physical light but the glory of God; it was the announcement of Jesus Christ, the Word, who was in the beginning and was with God. The light is also mentioned in the end of Revelation 22:5, “And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.” The scriptures end with the glory of God, which is why the Lord is the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End. Why is light so significant in scripture?
From the time of Moses when the tabernacle was built, God commanded in Exodus 27:20 and Leviticus 24:2 that the Israelites bring pure olive oil for the lamps of the candlesticks to burn continually. Even in Matthew 25, the 10 virgins were to have extra oil so that their lamps would not burn out, but only 5 were wise and came prepared expecting the return of the Bridegroom, who is Jesus. This lamp or light also represents the Holy Spirit, and Jesus was filled with the Spirit (the Spirit of wisdom) even as a child. When John the Baptist went to baptize Jesus, the scriptures show the physical manifestation of the Holy Spirit as a sign that would later come upon all believers. Jesus was empowered after His baptism in the Jordan River and was led into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan, but He also returned from the wilderness in the power of the Holy Spirit overcoming Satan through the Word of God and started His earthly ministry. It is by no coincidence that over a thousand years prior, Joshua (whose name means “The Lord Saves”) had led the Israelites across the Jordan as God parted the river to defeat the giants of the Promised Land and tear down the walls of Jericho by the blowing of trumpets on the 7th day.
King David said of the Lord in Psalm 18:28 and 2 Samuel 22:29 that the Lord is his lamp who lights his candle to bring light into the darkness. Psalm 119:105 says, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” Light is also interchangeable with wisdom as wisdom speaks out in Proverbs 1:23, “Turn you at my reproof (rebuke); behold, I will pour out my Spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you.” “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Psalm 111:10) and whoever lacks wisdom should ask God, who gives it liberally to all His children (James 1:5).
Jesus said that whoever obeys His commands is His disciple, and we are the light of the world; a city that is set on a hill that cannot be hidden. We are not to hide our light under a bushel but shine on a candlestick. We are to let our light shine before men so that they can see our good works and glorify our Father in heaven (Matthew 5:14-16). We are to be blameless and sincere, shining as lights in the world as we live in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation (Philippians 2:15). Zechariah the prophet saw in a vision the golden candlestick with the seven lamps, which is the Church, tended by two olive trees at each side. In the past during temple worship, it was the priests that filled the lampstands with the pure olive oil so that the candlesticks would always burn brightly, but in the prophetic vision God showed Zechariah was a new thing. It was no longer the priests who would be filling the lampstand with oil, but the Holy Spirit would come upon all believers of the gospel and would become the olive trees through the pure Word of God to fill our lamps with an unceasing supply of oil to keep our candlestick lit forever. The angel of the Lord explained to him, “Not by might nor by power but by my Spirit” (Zechariah 4:6). We can’t accomplish God’s will through human might or power but only by His Spirit. By His Spirit God supplies all our needs, removes all obstacles in our way and even makes our enemies submit to us so that His glory would be revealed to the ends of the earth. Let the Spirit of the Lord move upon our hearts to sing, to dance, to pray and do all things according to His good and perfect will.
Before Jesus ascended to heaven, He promised His disciples that He would send the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, to teach us all things and help us remember all that Jesus said (John 14:26), and He will baptize us with fire and anoint us with power to do all the things that Jesus has done and even greater things. Do you desire to receive this promise? Then you must ask. James 4:2 says that we do not receive because we do not ask God. If it is truly the desire of your heart to be empowered with the Holy Spirit and have godly wisdom, then the Father of lights, who is the giver of every good and perfect gift (James 1:17) will answer you and give generously.
Don’t become a runaway railcar that could eventually lead to a collision course off the train tracks. Instead, allow the locomotive of the Holy Spirit to be your engine, to be your power and your guide to take you where you need to go. Interestingly, the train comes from the Latin word trahere, which means “to pull” or “to draw”. As John 6:44 says, “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.” May you reach for the oil of God’s Word daily that you may be filled to the rim so that your lamp will shine ever so brightly, and you will be found faithful when Jesus returns. The light of the Holy Spirit illuminates in the darkness; He illuminates our minds giving us clear vision and direction to see beyond the eyes of our flesh and to see and understand the things of God. Just as the light was at the beginning and will be at the end, God’s glory will never leave us nor forsake those who love Him and obey His commands. All blessing and honor and glory and power be to our God forever and ever, Amen!
God is a holy God, and He has established laws and commandments for our good. God is omniscient, and He sees the past, present and future. He knows the final outcome of humanity. If He did not put these laws in place, all creation would probably be destroyed by now if not sooner. God’s laws bring about order and keeps our conscience from allowing sin to rule over us. Will we fail? Yes, but because of God’s mercy and grace, He picks us back up from defeat and gives us plenty of chances to overcome the sin. We are living in a time where history has come full circle and repeated the sins of our forefathers. We are at the point of the Tower of Babel, of the flood, of Sodom and Gomorrah, of judgment. We live in an age of complete rebellion against God with constant compromise and complacency left and right. God is speaking to His children today and calling out, “If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”
What does it mean to be humble? To be humble is acknowledging Jesus as your King, realizing that you cannot do anything on your own, and submitting yourself completely to the will of God and His commandments. Numbers 12:3 says that Moses was very humble, the most humble among anyone on the earth during his time. Because he humbled himself, he was able to lead an entire nation through God’s direction. (Keep in mind that the people were complaining for 40 years in the desert) I think that would drive anyone insane. Moses did not consider himself greater than anyone else, but he depended on the Lord and tried his best to be God’s representative. Those who humble themselves under the mighty hand of God, He will exalt you at the proper time (1 Peter 5:6). It also says in verse 15 that He will open His eyes and His ears will be attentive to our prayers. That is why it says that the prayers of a righteous man are powerful and effective (James 5:16). The righteous know the will of God and pray according to His truth.
God designed our bodies with a conscience to know right from wrong, good from evil. When our conscience is tainted, we stop feeling sorry for our sins and our sense of good and evil becomes distorted. As we draw closer to God and deepen our relationship with Him and allow Him to search our hearts, He gives us godly sorrow that produces repentance (2 Cor 7:10). Repentance is confessing our sin, turning 180o away from it and choosing to obey God’s commands.
Verse 16 says that God has “sanctified this house, that My name may be there forever; and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually.” This speaks of Solomon’s temple dedicated to the Lord, but when we apply it to the present, God’s temple is not a physical building but our bodies. The Holy Spirit makes His residence in our body when we receive salvation, and for this reason we must keep it pure and holy. Those who keep themselves clean, “will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the Master of the house, ready for every good work” (2 Tim 2:21). 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 says that our body is not our own and we were bought with a price, and to glorify God with our bodies. God is a jealous God, and He will not tolerate idols in our lives. That is the same as cheating or being unfaithful to God. If we choose to become friends with the world, then God will become our enemy (James 4:4). We cannot serve two masters. We will either “love the one and hate the other or be devoted to the one and despise the other” (Matt 6:24). Today we must choose for ourselves whom we will serve. Let us be like Joshua who said, “As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15).
God’s love is unconditional, but His blessings are contingent on our obedience to His will. For Solomon, if he continued to follow God and obey His commandments, then he would always have a successor to the throne from his family line as God promised his father David, and the people would be able to dwell in the land. However, we see from the Bible that spiritual and moral decay only increased because of idol worship and disobedience. Eventually God judged the nation of Israel, and they were taken away from their homeland.
God has not changed in how He deals with His people when they allow sin to go unchecked. America has received decades of blessings, but as soon as we started turning away from God’s laws, we subjected ourselves to His judgments. America is in a spiritual crisis now, and God’s judgment is coming. The only way to stop the judgment is for His people to humble themselves, pray and turn away from their sin. Only then will God heal our land. There is no time for indecision, and God will no longer tolerate compromise or complacency. We cannot be satisfied as we are, but we must strive to do God’s will no matter what the cost. If we are constantly calculating the cost and analyzing what we can or can’t do, we can never serve the Lord. You either give God your all or nothing. We are to deny ourselves, pick up our cross and follow Jesus (Matt 16:24). He has called His people to be ambassadors, representatives of Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior, to be “a chosen people, a holy nation, a royal priesthood” (1 Pet 2:9), appointed by Him and not by men. He doesn’t need hired hands who will abandon His sheep, but shepherds who fear Him and are willing to lay down their lives for them (John 10:11-13). The pleasures of this world are momentary, but “to live is Christ and to die is to gain” eternity (Phil 1:21). Our home is not on earth, but in heaven. Therefore, let us fix our eyes on Jesus, who is the author and finisher of our faith (Heb 12:2), and complete the work which He started. When Jesus returns to take us home, let us be the ones to whom He says, “Well done, good and faithful servant!” (Matt 25:23)
How does God think of us? He said in 1 Peter 2:9 “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” The Great I AM, the King of kings has called us a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and His own special people. He also calls us “a special treasure (Deut 7:6), precious and honored in His sight (Isa 43:4). What an honor and privilege to know that we who were once sinners, who were adopted as His sons and daughters, who were grafted into the vine, are His special people, His elect; we have become royal blood!
However, with this identity, we are called to a stricter standard since we live in this world but are not of this world. God said we must be holy for He is holy (1 Peter 1:15), and “not to conform to the pattern of this world” (Romans 12:2). The verse “Be holy for I am holy” appears in the Bible 9 times and the word “Holy” appears over 1000 times. This goes to show you how important holiness is to God. Some Christians seem to have a distorted belief that we can live any way we want since we are saved, but because God is holy and righteous, our conduct in this world must represent Him. Even unbelievers hold us to a higher standard, and they immediately call us out on offenses or mistakes. In 1 Peter 2:12, He said that “by our good works which they observe, (they) will glorify God in the day of visitation.” We live under the constant scrutiny of this world, and they will be quick to point out our faults. Therefore, we must be careful how we act at all times so that we do not give man a reason to discredit God.
We certainly can’t achieve perfection while on Earth, but how can we even begin to try to be holy? The first step and the final way is to be in the Word because Jesus is the Word and will help us in our time of need as we gain a heart of wisdom and understanding. In Proverbs 7:1, He said, “Keep my words and treasure my commands within you. Keep my commands and live, and my law as the apple of your eye. Bind them on your fingers; write them on the tablet of your heart.” A similar verse is in Deuteronomy 6:5-9 “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on our hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”
What are frontlets? Frontlets are decorative bands or ornaments worn on the forehead. Wearing frontlets on our forehead is symbolic of regarding God’s law as foremost in our minds. The mind and the eyes work together to help us make wise choices that are pleasing to God. Our brain must work together with our body to do what is right. Only then can we be effective ambassadors of God’s holiness and righteousness. Our lifestyle must revolve around God’s word all day and every day. We should be the first one to recognize our own sins and be quick to confess them and ask for forgiveness from God and from each other.
This all leads us back to my main verse in Jeremiah 29:11-13. God’s promise for us is to make us prosper and not harm us. His intent is to give us peace and not to be destroyed by evil. This verse came at a time when the Israelites were held captive by the Assyrians, and their own land was destroyed as an act of God’s judgment and discipline for His people. God wanted them to prosper in Babylon until He sent them back to their homeland. God also has promised to bless us with a future and a hope of His glorious kingdom when we will be joined together with Him in eternity. The holiness that we strive for moves God’s heart. When we call upon Him, presenting our petitions, He will listen. When we seek Him with all our heart, we will find Him. God will gladly answer us according to His good and perfect will. He said, “Call to me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty (inaccessible) things, which you do not know. (Jeremiah 33:3) What an awesome promise! Mighty means inaccessible in this context. What is inaccessible to man, God alone will give us access to what He has in His storehouse, in His armory, in His mind. The trouble with man is that we think too small and our vision is limited. However, we serve a mighty God, who has infinite resources that is available to us when we ask with the right heart. Remember who you are: You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own special people, and God has great plans for you to prosper. So proclaim His praises wherever you go, and give thanks to Him for He is good and His love endures forever!
Many births take place in hospitals and quite a few homebirths take place with the help of a nurse midwife. However, my birth by no means was considered typical. I was born in a little farm village, in Young Kwang, South Korea. In those days, life was very poor in the rural farmlands, and the economy was still recovering from the Korean War. Meals were prepared by kindling a fire on the earthen floors of a detached kitchen and most homes only had one room with grass-thatched roofs and mud walls. Vehicles were scarce and hospitals were too far away. My mom had carried me for nine months with less than optimal nutrition, while still having to work in the fields to earn a living. On the morning of September 30, 1973, my mom was finishing up her household chores for she knew she would not be able to work on them for several days. All through the morning hours, she had been busy washing all the laundry by hand and struggling to hang them to dry on the clothesline between contractions that were increasing in intensity. Just as she hung the last piece of clothing, she knew that the baby in her womb was aching to come out at any moment. She slowly made her way into our one-bedroom house laying the floor blanket down and getting ready to deliver me. Unlike most deliveries, no one was present to help. No midwife, just my mom and me. My dad had actually rushed to his older brother’s house where my grandmother was residing to get assistance for the delivery, but he did not return home in time. As the labor pains increased, my mom was ready to push me out into the world. She pushed and pushed with all her might until I was born, and just from the sheer exhaustion of her small frame, my mom passed out after she heard my cry. My mom shared the story of my birth when I was in high school, but I would never understand the full impact of this experience until I had children of my own. Even then, the miracle of my birth did not strike me as extraordinary until recently.
Lately, as I have been reading Genesis, two key verses touched my heart. In Genesis 18:14 it says, “Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the time appointed I will return unto thee, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.” Then in Genesis 21:1-2, God fulfills his promise to Sarah, and it says, “And the Lord visited Sarah as He had said, and the Lord did unto Sarah as He had spoken. For Sarah conceived, and bare Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him.” First of all, it’s a miracle that Sarah, who was well past the time of child-bearing years, was able to conceive a baby and be able to carry him to term. Second, God knew how difficult labor and delivery would be, especially at 90 years old, and He revisited Sarah when it was time for her to give birth to Isaac. The word “visit” in this context actually means to aid or assist. God gave Sarah the ability to sustain the agonizing pain and hardship of labor and delivery, and He helped her to birth Isaac into the world. How wonderful is that! I have read Genesis so many times, and never did those verses impact me until this day.
Now let’s go back to the story of my birth. During an evening of quiet meditation on September 9th, God revealed His side of my birth story. I was reading Matthew 2:23, “And he (Joseph) came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene.” I will explain the significance of this verse later, but all of a sudden, God showed me that He visited my mom when she was in labor. The angel of Lord was present and came to my mother’s aid to help her birth a precious little girl. He strengthened her to bear the agonizing pain and sustained her with every push until I could take my first breath. The Lord held us both in His hands for however long until my dad could arrive. We were never alone! When I think about all the tragic things that could happen during labor and delivery even in the most optimal circumstances, I am in awe of what God did for us. I praise God for I am fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14), that God knew me even before I was conceived. The God of Abraham who caused Sarah to have a baby at age 90 is the same God who visited my parents when I was conceived, and He revisited my mom when I was born. He brought me into this world with a great plan in mind.
Because my mom was a believer, she initially gave me the Christian name, Eun-na, which means the grace of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, which was why Matthew 2:23 is so meaningful to me. However, my dad, who was not a Christian at the time, later changed it to a family name Eun-Young when he registered my birth. Even though my name was changed, God did not forsake me, and His hand would guide me throughout my life until I met Jesus Christ at the age of 21 and receive Him as my Lord and Savior. The name change may have signified the hardships and tragedies that I faced during the course of my life, but unknowingly, His grace was upon me and the emptiness that I felt in my heart only gave me a deeper longing to draw nearer to God. In college, I decided to go by the name Ellen for easier pronunciation, and years later when I searched for the meaning, I found that it means “light”. Nothing happens by coincidence. Even before I got saved, the light of Jesus Christ entered my heart, causing me to thirst for the living water, and before I knew it, I became a lighthouse for the Lord, shining His light wherever I go. In the times of my life when I thought I would drown in despair, God was with me. When the painful fires of turmoil and brokenness tried to devour me, He covered me in the cleft of His Rock.
God is El Roi, the God who sees me. Why is this so significant? This is because no person leaves God’s sight. He knows you so intimately even better than you know yourself; He knows your innermost parts, the secret places of your heart. If He cares for the birds, how much more He cares for His people. I got to experience this firsthand when I recently saw a hummingbird fly right into a closed sliding glass door, and it fell to the ground in shock. If left in that state, the hummingbird would have died, but God gave me the opportunity to pray for its healing, and immediately He answered so that the bird could fly again as if it never hit the glass. Even more than this bird, God cares for every human life. God loves you and has promised that He will never leave you nor forsake you, and He will be with you both now and forevermore. God is faithful to His promises, and He does not change even though you change your heart all the time. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He is trustworthy and so very good to you. He does not punish you for your sins as you deserve because of His great mercy, and He removes your transgressions as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:10-12). Your life is not your own; you were bought with a great price – a life for a life. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). The shed blood of Jesus Christ has washed away all your sins, and He has covered you in His own righteousness that you may freely enter the throne room of God. Nothing can separate you from the love of God. Jesus laid down His life for you, He is the Beginning and the End, the Perfect and Holy Word, the third person of the Trinity. Jesus is the only Way, the Truth, and the Life, and no one can come to the Father except through Him.
Today, if you hear His voice, will you stop planning the course of your own life and allow God to direct your steps? Today, if you hear His voice, will your stop gravitating to the things you want, and allow God to give you what you really need? Today, if you do not know Jesus Christ as your personal Savior or if you need to rededicate your life to Him, will you run into His open arms? He is waiting for you to come; He will restore and save you. Today, He gives you eternal life. The Great I Am says, “You are mine!”
35Then Jesus said unto them, “Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you: for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth.36 While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light.” These things spake Jesus, and departed, and did hide himself from them.
In the Bible, light is mentioned in several books, but it marks the beginning in Genesis 1:3 when God said, “Let there be light.” This was more than just a physical light but the glory of God; it was the announcement of Jesus Christ, the Word, who was in the beginning and was with God. The light is also mentioned in the end of Revelation 22:5, “And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.” The scriptures end with the glory of God, which is why the Lord is the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End. Why is light so significant in scripture?
From the time of Moses when the tabernacle was built, God commanded in Exodus 27:20 and Leviticus 24:2 that the Israelites bring pure olive oil for the lamps of the candlesticks to burn continually. Even in Matthew 25, the 10 virgins were to have extra oil so that their lamps would not burn out, but only 5 were wise and came prepared expecting the return of the Bridegroom, who is Jesus. This lamp or light also represents the Holy Spirit, and Jesus was filled with the Spirit (the Spirit of wisdom) even as a child. When John the Baptist went to baptize Jesus, the scriptures show the physical manifestation of the Holy Spirit as a sign that would later come upon all believers. Jesus was empowered after His baptism in the Jordan River and was led into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan, but He also returned from the wilderness in the power of the Holy Spirit overcoming Satan through the Word of God and started His earthly ministry. It is by no coincidence that over a thousand years prior, Joshua (whose name means “The Lord Saves”) had led the Israelites across the Jordan as God parted the river to defeat the giants of the Promised Land and tear down the walls of Jericho by the blowing of trumpets on the 7th day.
King David said of the Lord in Psalm 18:28 and 2 Samuel 22:29 that the Lord is his lamp who lights his candle to bring light into the darkness. Psalm 119:105 says, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” Light is also interchangeable with wisdom as wisdom speaks out in Proverbs 1:23, “Turn you at my reproof (rebuke); behold, I will pour out my Spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you.” “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Psalm 111:10) and whoever lacks wisdom should ask God, who gives it liberally to all His children (James 1:5).
Jesus said that whoever obeys His commands is His disciple, and we are the light of the world; a city that is set on a hill that cannot be hidden. We are not to hide our light under a bushel but shine on a candlestick. We are to let our light shine before men so that they can see our good works and glorify our Father in heaven (Matthew 5:14-16). We are to be blameless and sincere, shining as lights in the world as we live in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation (Philippians 2:15). Zechariah the prophet saw in a vision the golden candlestick with the seven lamps, which is the Church, tended by two olive trees at each side. In the past during temple worship, it was the priests that filled the lampstands with the pure olive oil so that the candlesticks would always burn brightly, but in the prophetic vision God showed Zechariah was a new thing. It was no longer the priests who would be filling the lampstand with oil, but the Holy Spirit would come upon all believers of the gospel and would become the olive trees through the pure Word of God to fill our lamps with an unceasing supply of oil to keep our candlestick lit forever. The angel of the Lord explained to him, “Not by might nor by power but by my Spirit” (Zechariah 4:6). We can’t accomplish God’s will through human might or power but only by His Spirit. By His Spirit God supplies all our needs, removes all obstacles in our way and even makes our enemies submit to us so that His glory would be revealed to the ends of the earth. Let the Spirit of the Lord move upon our hearts to sing, to dance, to pray and do all things according to His good and perfect will.
Before Jesus ascended to heaven, He promised His disciples that He would send the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, to teach us all things and help us remember all that Jesus said (John 14:26), and He will baptize us with fire and anoint us with power to do all the things that Jesus has done and even greater things. Do you desire to receive this promise? Then you must ask. James 4:2 says that we do not receive because we do not ask God. If it is truly the desire of your heart to be empowered with the Holy Spirit and have godly wisdom, then the Father of lights, who is the giver of every good and perfect gift (James 1:17) will answer you and give generously.
Don’t become a runaway railcar that could eventually lead to a collision course off the train tracks. Instead, allow the locomotive of the Holy Spirit to be your engine, to be your power and your guide to take you where you need to go. Interestingly, the train comes from the Latin word trahere, which means “to pull” or “to draw”. As John 6:44 says, “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.” May you reach for the oil of God’s Word daily that you may be filled to the rim so that your lamp will shine ever so brightly, and you will be found faithful when Jesus returns. The light of the Holy Spirit illuminates in the darkness; He illuminates our minds giving us clear vision and direction to see beyond the eyes of our flesh and to see and understand the things of God. Just as the light was at the beginning and will be at the end, God’s glory will never leave us nor forsake those who love Him and obey His commands. All blessing and honor and glory and power be to our God forever and ever, Amen!
10 For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.11 And as they heard these things, He added and spake a parable, because He was nigh to Jerusalem, and because they thought that the kingdom of God should immediately appear.12 He said therefore, “A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return.13 And he called his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, ‘Occupy till I come.’”
In the background for this passage in Luke 19, Jesus dines with Zacchaeus at his home among other tax collectors, Pharisees, and the disciples, who really believed that Jesus was going to take His throne in Jerusalem in the time of their generation, especially since He gained so much popularity among the people. However, Jesus tells them a parable of a nobleman and his servants to clarify His eternal purpose. The nobleman is Jesus, who goes to a far country, which is heaven, to receive His kingdom from God, which is the remnant of Israel and the Church. Then He will return to meet the believers in the air being caught up in the clouds at the last trumpet call, and afterwards, Jesus with all His saints will return to judge the earth. Finally, in the millennial kingdom, Jesus will establish His throne after the new heaven and new earth are created, and He will reign forevermore.
In John 14:2-3, Jesus told His disciples that He was going to His Father’s house to prepare a place for us, the beautiful mansions for us to dwell, and He promised to return where He would receive us to Himself that where He is, we may be there also. The preparing of these mansions has been in the works for a couple thousand years. However, while we are waiting for Jesus to come back, we are to occupy ourselves. The Greek word for occupy is “pragmateuomai”, which is an ancient mercantile term for trading. It means: to make gain, to do business or to busy oneself. Figuratively, it means to bear much fruit. It can also mean to give a good account, to administrate, to manage profitably the capital at your disposal. If we are to occupy ourselves, then how are we to keep busy. When Jesus was a boy and went to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover, he remained there to teach at the temple after the Passover while Mary, Joseph and the rest of the family and relatives journeyed back to their homes. When Mary and Joseph could not find Jesus anywhere among their kin, they looked for him in Jerusalem and when they found Him, they asked why He made them anxiously search for Him. Jesus replied to them, “Didn’t you know that I must be about my Father’s business?” (Luke 2:49) We too, as we occupy ourselves waiting for the return of our Lord, must be doing our Father’s business. Matthew Henry’s commentary explains it this way: we are to preach the gospel, establish the church for Christ in the world, bring the nations to the obedience of faith, and build them up in it. Those whom God has called to do His business, He has also equipped. The Lord has given us the Holy Spirit, who has empowered us to do His work. 1 Corinthians 1: 5 tells us that in everything we are enriched in all speech and in all knowledge. 1 Corinthians 12:7 says, “the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit all.” Also, 2 Corinthians 9:8 says, “God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work. Furthermore, Philippians 1:6 says, “Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will finish it until the day of Jesus Christ.” While we are waiting, we are to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. James 1 also tells us that we must endure trials of all kinds because the testing of our faith produces patience so that we will be perfect and complete not lacking anything. If for any reason we are lacking wisdom, we are to ask God in faith, believing that He will generously give to us according to our petitions.
While we are going about our Father’s business, it’s hard not to be afraid. Knowing this beforehand, Jesus gave us promises…words to comfort us. He said in John 14:27, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you; not as the world gives do I give unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Jesus said in John 16:33, “These things I have spoken unto you that in me you might have peace. In the world you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” When things get too hard, Jesus said in Matthew 11:28, “Come to me all you that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest for your souls.”
The road for the Christian is difficult and narrow and very few find it, but at the same time, it is very exciting and brings us life and great joy in serving our God. Although we may be afraid at times, we are not alone. Jesus, our Savior, sits at the right hand of God interceding for us daily (Romans 8:34). Just as God said to the nation of Israel, He has promised to us that He will never leave us nor forsake us; He will uphold us with His righteous right hand (Isaiah 41:10). God has also promised that “neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39). “In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us” (Romans 8:37). Therefore, let us keep our guard up, putting on the full armor of God spoken of in Ephesians 6, to be prepared for the enemy’s attacks at any moment because he prowls around like a lion seeking whom he may devour. And let us occupy ourselves as we go about our Father’s business that Jesus may find us faithful when He returns.
28 “Has thou not known? Has thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? There is no searching of His understanding. 29 He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might He increaseth strength. 30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: 31 But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”
What does it mean to wait upon the Lord? In verse 31, the Hebrew word for “wait” is qavah. Qavah means to wait actively with anticipation, hopefully watching for God to act. There are 3 verbs in the active waiting: mount up, run and walk. An example of this waiting can be compared to a woman who is in her last 2 weeks of pregnancy before she goes into labor. The soon-to-be mother actively gets ready for the birth of her baby and enters into what’s called the nesting syndrome. She gets all the baby linens, blankets and clothing all washed and put away. She stocks up all the toiletries, diapers, wipes and bottles. She also makes sure that the last touches to the baby’s room is complete including furniture, decorations, toys, and other necessities. Finally, she makes sure that the baby car seat is right by the door along with her suitcase for her hospital stay. This is active waiting – because the mother knows her baby is coming any day, she waits with hopeful anticipation. In Isaiah 66:9, the Lord makes this same comparison to waiting: “Shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to bring forth? saith the LORD: shall I cause to bring forth, and shut the womb? saith thy God.”
Many people in our generation seem to think that waiting is a waste of time and according to an article in 2018 from digitalinformationworld.com, the average human attention span is now shorter than a goldfish, who have an attention span of 9 seconds. When smartphones hit the market in the year 2000, people had a 12 second attention span, but today it is 8 seconds or possibly even less. Pretty sad! Because of the over-saturated digital world with a constant hunger for new and more stimuli, people just cannot pay attention anymore. As a result, humans have become increasingly forgetful and are losing the capacity to focus on details since we only catch glimpses and skim through vast quantities of information, and only getting the general idea of things. Sometimes we only focus on headlines, and that’s as far as we’ll go.
With such a short attention span waiting seems impossible, so how can we overcome this dilemma? Certainly, timing yourself out of all digital devices from time to time each day or week will help significantly, but we must also not rely on our own strength. Our God is El Shaddai, the All-Sufficient One. El Shaddai occurs 7 times in the Old Testament, and it is first mentioned when God speaks to Abraham in Genesis 17:1. The Lord said, “I AM the Almighty God (El Shaddai); walk before me and be thou perfect.” When Abraham and Sarah, were 85 and 75 years old, they resorted to their own plans, leaning on their own understanding and strength by having Hagar become Abraham’s concubine. She gave birth to Ishmael, who was a “wild donkey of a man”. In essence, he was out of control and very difficult to raise. Finally, 13 years later at the age of 99, God spoke to Abraham again, who realized the error of his ways. This time God does three amazing things. First, God makes an everlasting covenant with Abraham; second, He names their promised miracle son, Isaac; and third, God gives the time of when His promise will be fulfilled. That saying, “Good things come to those who wait” was this moment for Abraham. After all the waiting, God spoke, and it was far more than what Abraham could have ever dreamed or asked for. We can learn from Abraham’s mistake that no matter how hard we try, we cannot make God’s pans go faster than He intended. Those who do not wait on the Lord and depend on their own strength, will “be weary and will utterly fall”, as it says in Isaiah 40:30.
Our Sovereign and All-sufficient God gives us power so that we do not faint, and He gives strength to those who have none. The God who gave Abraham a son at the age of 100 is the same God we serve today. The God who raised Jesus from the dead and seated Him at the Father’s right hand, is the same God who renews our strength so that we can run tirelessly. We must not be sufficient in our own abilities because God wants to do so much more than what we could ever do on our own. As the apostle Paul said in Philippians 3:3-8, that we who worship God in the spirit should rejoice in Christ Jesus having no confidence in the flesh. All the things we have gained, we should count it all as loss compared to the excellency of knowing Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore, let us live by faith and not by sight because God will not fail us. He is true to His word, and He said that His grace is sufficient for us because His power is made perfect in our weakness. Let us mount up on eagle’s wings, soaring upward toward God, and He will be our wind to keep us above the storm no matter how dark or violent it is. Let us walk with perseverance day by day in the straight path of the Lord so that we do not faint. God does speak, and He not only speaks to us once but over and over again by His grace until we hear Him; He may speak with a warning, give a direction or comfort us with an encouragement (Job 33:14-26). Where once we were wasting away like dead men, God gave a ransom in our place and renewed us with the strength of a youth, turning our mourning into joy because His righteousness shined forth (Psalm 37:4-7). And now, “the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day (Proverbs 4:18).”
Let us listen to the advice of King David from Psalm 27:14, “Wait on the Lord and be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart; wait, I say, on the Lord.” Also in Psalm 62:5-8, David sang, “My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from Him. He only is my rock and my salvation: He is my defense; I shall not be moved. In God is my salvation and my glory: the Rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God. Trust in Him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before Him: God is a refuge for us.” Let us actively wait for the Lord because as He promised in Revelation 22:12, He is coming soon, and His reward is with Him, and He will give according to what we have done in preparation for His return. 2 Peter 3:9 also tells us that our God is not slow concerning His promise as some men understand slackness, but He is long-suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Let us remember this principle: God is never late nor is He early, but He is always on time.