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WAITING FOR WONDER
the base for some of Israel IV and site for much more
Rev. Dr. Robert E. Donaldson
Published by World Wide Web Witness Inc.
August 2009
ISBN 978-0-9806 750-5-4
PREFACE
Wonder and work, witness and do not wander. For the preacher: Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel; for the worker, Work for the Night is Coming in which No Man can Work! (John 9:4, I Corinthians 9:16).
In the meantime, what is the attitude of heart, the mind-set in the Christian ? One of the chief elements is this: WAIT. It is no use doing what one I know did recently, saying, 'I give up!' That was sad, like a flower saying, I will bloom no more! Patience ? as one other declared, God must do more. I cannot wait, or some such words.
Waiting simply is not an option.
It is a necessity.
You must wait for the grass to grow again after drought, for love to form and formulate itself, for truth to be grasped by the investigating mind. To rip up the grass to see if it is well established is nothing to the point. Wait for it.
In spiritual things, as a Christian, the word is WAIT, and in Psalm 27 you see this repeated in with emphasis:
"Wait on the LORD; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart.
Wait, I say, on the LORD!"
In His time, He sanctifies in this, in that, reveals promontories to be extended, islands to coalesce, personality trends to be corrected, jutting points to the made smoother, weak inlets to be fortified with protective shoals, delicate formations to be junked for solid rock, principles to be formed and formulated in the heart, scriptures to be understood and applied, obedience to be wrought with self-discipline, and mistaken ideas to be dumped without decorum.
The Lord is WONDERFUL evoking WONDER. All His ways are righteousness and justice, truth and peace of heart, and all His paths are wise. As you know Him, Wonderful is His name (cf. Judges 13:18, Isaiah 9:6-7). Wonderful are His dealings. Just to give the tone of triumph, creation is the start for man; redemption is the consummation; eternal life is the dynamic and eternity is the outcome. In this volume, these things with some of the current movements as the last phases finish, occupy us; and with this, some of the lustrous passages in Isaiah 49:55, as the power surge leading to the end of the Age lets their light show up His splendour, with increasing urgency to a dulled generation.
Wonder is His way, and living with Him may involve discipline, correction, and it does, cleansing and purging, purification and courage, loss and sacrifice, endurance and patience, but as you WAIT ON THE LORD, you see and find wonders this world knows nothing of: for its way does not merely diverge. It is entirely different. It is too damp to light, and no flame is in it, but that of destruction and passion, and when this dies down, a lingering twilight with a cousin, darkness to come.
In Him is no change, and they who wait upon Him will never be ashamed, for in His light they see light, and life in Him never ceases to provide wonder, to culminate in eternal companionship.
WAIT on the Lord, for this is the way. In spirit be patient under tribulation, giving nothing to the enemy to satisfy his least desire, countenancing no dishonour to the Lord, not reacting to provocation but responding to what is detrimental to the truth of Christ, not seeking convenience but in conviction seeking the glory of God, not exempting oneself from the commandments, like those wanting to be slim and gourmandising instead, regretting what they leave undone and do, alike.
WAIT WITH EXPECTATION, for they will never be ashamed who wait upon Him (Romans 10:11), nor will need arise in a blather of talk, or a welter of action, to rush intemperately; for He gives more grace to the lowly (James 4:6). Grace is the way to His face; waiting is the way to heed from His heart; waiting with expectation is the way to finding, for faith is the culmination of call as it is the beginning of knowledge, and in His knowledge - that is, in simply knowing Him, there is the wonder that MUST come because He IS wonderful!
In this volume, the wonder of waiting, the waiting for wonder, the wonder you gain when you wait, this is part of the theme. The source of it is the Lord, the crux of it is His heart, so gracious and noble, so peaceable and faithful, so grand in vision and so apt in power; it is His wisdom, so unfolding in mercy and resolute in understanding; His plan, so acute in wit and so sure in fulfilment: yes Himself, so loving in disposition, disposing of nothing that may be won, and winning all that may be found!
You don't have to invent wonder, though you may transmit something of His as He enables: it is there already. It is found, like gold in a mine, in Him (cf. Job 28).
Wait for it; wait for Him; for not only is His wonder within (Colossians 1:27, Luke 17:21), since the kingdom of heaven in in your midst, in your heart's relationship with Him whose way IS heavenly, a haven and a path for holiness (I Thessalonians 5:23), but it is also wrought in deeds. As Paul declares in I Corinthians 14:16: "For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." Again, he declares in I Corinthians 4:20: "For the kingdom of God is not in word but in power."
Thus it is not a poetic exercise, though exuberant poetry flows from it; it is a work of power. Words are not empty, but portents of operational power. There is nothing asthenic, nothing spiritually anorexic nor is there any inanition here; for the empty is full, the lame is made strong and the word of healing of mind, spirit and body, has no inhibition. If He chooses to allow a disease for a time, then so be it.
There are those like Paul who find this is the very pathway of effective service (II Corinthians 12:6ff.), one of the most notable here, after due and persistent prayer, being patient and even ardent acceptance of trial and challenge - "If I must boast, I will boast in the things which concern my infirmities," for nothing is lightly done by the Almighty....... and with Paul, his infirmity was for a very specific and personal purpose.
Further, since HE was crucified to gain salvation, there are those who suffer to show it (Colossians 1:24, Philippians 1:29). Nevertheless, His word of power can and frequently does heal, with an abundance of ability, like that of an athlete showing minimal elements to Primary School children. When once the need arises, as at the Exodus, as at the return of Israel to its land, there is no limit. Indeed, what He says of it shows just such an approach, as you see in Micah 7:15 and Revelation 19. NOTHING is too hard for Him, and THEREFORE He is a constant source of wonder. He is also the God who alone does wonders, great wonders (Psalm 72:18, 136:4). He who trusts in Him through His eternal word, Jesus Christ, will not be moved (Psalm 62:1,6).
This, His power, is not only in creation but in regeneration, adoption, propagation of His truth, fulfilment of His word, the provision of wit when one is under fire (Luke 21:15). It is found in the divine dynamic as He uses each member of His body, with glorious originality and total conformity to His word (Romans 12, I Corinthians 12, Ephesians 4); and as He supports those more lonely in testimony, as was Tyndale at times, as was Elijah (I Kings 19:1-18).
Fear Him, for He is fearsome like a vast fire on a glorious hearth in mid-Winter when one comes home from intense cold, from an expedition afar. It is good to fear God, for this fear is clean without alloy, a purifying delight in His awesome grandeur and splendid majesty, intense knowledge and divine perfection, immensity of love, with a joyful exuberance of delight in His spiritual security and strength (I Peter 1:1-8); not with craven uncertainty but elevating delight and self-abasing realism. He, the Rock, is entirely certain and so are those who wait on His faithfulness, knowing that what He says so often is just what He does, that He who has begun a good work in you will not cease with it half done (Philippians 1:6); for a work without faith is NOT EVEN BEGUN, and one with it, resulting in regeneration (I John 3:9, 5:11-12) will end only when the consummation of promise becomes the appearance before the eyes (I Corinthians 13:11-12).
This volume, while from it is taken much of Israel IV, a specialised repository, is by no means limited to a study of the Bible and Israel, though this becomes one major feature in it. Its first chapters deal with Stephen, a figure in the Book of Acts, and what follows from Chapter 4 to 8, moves in many biblical passages in a theme which includes the majesty, justice, retorts, rest, peace, discipline, watchful words and clear-cut testimonies on the character and nature of God, which whether in this or that aspect, forms in its glory, the object of this volume. It looks into the flow of Isaiah 49-55 and in the Appendix collates and inspects some of the thundering waterfalls of testimony to His truth.
CONTENTS
PART I
STEPHEN
STEPHEN Part I
Signs and Wonders through Stephen
The Glowing Martyr
STEPHEN Part 2
Stephen,
Centrifugal from Himself,
Centred in Christ
... the life-giving death
STEPHEN Part 3
Stephen,
Centrifugal from Himself,
Centred in Christ
STEPHEN'S FLAMING SPEECH
AND PETITION FOR PARDON FOR HIS PERSECUTORS
PART II
ISRAEL and
The TWO-EDGED SWORD
FOR and AGAINST
and its setting in sin and salvation
INTRODUCTION and
DISQUISITION from the BIBLE - JeremiahSECTION I
Recently, there occurred the publication of ISRAEL III, Faith, Fishbones, Fiascos and the Faithfulness of the Lord, A Contemporary Inspection and Collection in the Inextinguishable Light of the Bible.
This is intended to participate as a sequel to that volume, like the following Chapters. Special and concentrated attention is given to actual, numerous verses in the Bible concerning the plus and the minus, the hope and the hindrance, Jew and Gentile, and the divine approach to it all, and especially to the Gentile attitude to Israel. With this there is realism: none is exalted, but all are set as given in the Word of the Lord, the Bible.
DISQUISITION FROM THE BIBLE -
SECTION II
Overview and
Isaiah 51:22-23
with 49:23ff.
DISQUISITION FROM THE BIBLE -
SECTION III
Isaiah 54:17, 10:5-21
DISQUISITION FROM THE BIBLE -
SECTION IV
Jeremiah 30:15-16, 48:28-36, 51:9,49-50,56,
Ezekiel 35:11-15, 36:5,22-29, 37:24.
for Practical Application of Lessons
and the Reception of the Redeemer
DISQUISITION FROM THE BIBLE -
SECTION V
Zechariah 2:7 merging to 2:11., 12:2,
Micah 7:15ff.,
Obadiah
DISQUISITION FROM THE BIBLE -
SECTION VI
Zephaniah 2:8-10, 3:2,15,18-19.
For more on the theme of Chapters 4-9, see
Israel IV, Chapter 10.
PART III
THE POINT AND PURPOSE OF WAITING
WAITING FOR THINGS MOST WONDERFUL
Studies in Isaiah 49-55 with Expectations of Wonder to Come
Just as it has come!
WAITING FOR HIM WHO IS MOST WONDERFUL
THE END, THE CALL, THE COMING, THE RESPONSE
IN THE DAY OF JESUS CHRIST (Philippians 1:6)
WHY WE HAVE TO WAIT
STRATEGICALLY SPEAKING:INDEED, THE VERY LOVE THAT DOES NOT FORCE,
DOES NOT RUSHSome excerpts from one's own works in this Appendix have been substantially revised,
enlarged or adjusted for our present purpose