In the waiting God draws near.

My righteousness draws near,

my salvation has gone out,

and my arms will judge the peoples;

the coastlands hope for me,

and for my arm they wait.

Isaiah 51:5

As God’s people wait for Him, the experience is NOT that God grows distant in the waiting. Rather, God comes NEAR as we wait. This short section of Isaiah 51 shows us how God promises to draw near as His people hope in Him and wait for His will to be done in their lives.

There is in this passage first a call to pay attention. It is issued to the Jews as God promises that in their return from exile there would come a time (I believe this particular prophecy is clearly fulfilled in a future kingdom of Christ) when the land of Israel would be light to all the nations of the earth. God will rule, with Israel at the center of a new kind of world, one where justice and a perfect planetary order exists (Isaiah 51:4).

With that kind of future in view, God’s people were then called to trust Him as they waited for it to happen. We are still called to do so. In the meantime, in the gospel, in the redeeming work of Jesus, God’s righteousness is very near. He is not far away. Christ has come. God’s salvation has arrived. The kingdom is still around the corner, but SALVATION IS NOW HERE! The gospel has gone out and continues to be the good news this world desperately needs. Jesus died for our sins and rose from the dead to reconcile us with God forever in eternal life. This is our happiness. This is our “near” experience with God as we still wait for a bright future that absolutely will come to be. It is certain. God is near as we wait. 

All the waiting I do now is in anticipation of this greater future hope. Eschatology isn’t about charts, graphs, or news headlines forced upon the biblical text. It is instead about all our hopes, all our pains, all our grieving over what is wrong in this world, finding complete fulfillment in Jesus, Who is not only Savior and Lord, but coming Sovereign of all the earth! He will reign as He is ever and always near now to save us!

Lord,

In my present waiting may I hold my hope out in the beauty and the comfort of this much bigger picture of Your coming Kingdom. You are near now and Your rule is here now as I wait. You are near in the experience of my salvation. You are also my only expectation!

Amen