“Wait for It!”  Video clips tease us to “wait for it,” assuring us it will be worth it.  Most times it’s not.  But even if it were, we do not wait.  We are so impatient.  If the cat in the video takes more than 5 seconds to notice the cucumber, boredom kicks in and we move on.  Nowhere is the impatience of modern people more evident than our viewing habits.   We stream because we can binge whole seasons in an evening.  The thought of waiting a week for the next episode is incomprehensible, so 1970s. And if the tell-tale, tail-chasing buffering icon appears we move on to other entertainments.

The only thing moving to the next thing faster than a man with the remote, is that same man scrolling social media.  Our attention span and our patience is moving asymptotically close to zero.  We hate to wait.  Online, at traffic lights, in the checkout line, we want what we want when we want it.  And the ‘when’ is always ‘now.’  When we are forced to wait, impatience possesses us.  We become unhinged, pitch a fit, and rage.   Like the Apostle Paul we, “desire to do what is right, but cannot carry it out. For [we] do not do the good we want, but the evil we do not want is what we keep on doing.”

We say patience is a virtue. And good things come to those who wait.  We know that patience is a fruit of the Spirit and growing self-control indicative of sanctification, yet we struggle to exercise either.   This is part of the war Paul talks about between our sinful and holy desires.  The Psalmists exhort us repeatedly to ‘wait upon the Lord.’  But we rarely pray for patience to do so.  And impatience and self-control reap disastrous consequences.  Especially when our impatience is with who God.  Who he is and what He is doing, or perhaps not doing. 

The story of the golden calf in Exodus 32 is a shocking story of impatience and apostasy.   God has finished giving Moses instructions about the design, ministry, and provision of the Tabernacle.  God’s glorious tent was to be the great visible sign of his abiding presence and redemptive promises among the people.  But while Moses is receiving instructions for ordaining Aaron as a High Priest, Aaron is at the foot of the mountain leading the people into the most unbelievable apostasy imaginable.  An apostasy fueled by the people’s impatience with God, with God’s chosen leaders, with God’s timing, with God’s promises and with God’s way of being seen.

In a stunning failure of obedience, the people demand an idol.  And in an even more stunning failure of pastoral care and leadership, Aaron gives the people what they demand not what they need.   What should have been Moses’ glorious return with tablets in hand, written by the finger of God, becomes a moment of fear, anger, wrath, and judgement.   Yet unlike Aaron, Moses addresses the apostasy of the people with remarkable love and faith, interceding for them with the Lord, intervening in their idolatry, and interposing for them in God’s judgement.   God hears Moses’ prayer and relents from his fierce anger and in his response to the stunning sin of the people and its future priest, Moses points us to the even more amazing grace of Christ as our true High Priest and only Mediator.

Are you impatient with God? With his actions or inaction? With his timing? With his word or his silence? Has impatience caused you to move on seeking direction, provision, satisfaction somewhere else?  Have you become jaded to spiritual authority?  Or uncertain of God’s goodness? Have you given up ‘waiting on the Lord?’  Join us as we examine Exodus 32 and consider the dangers of failing to wait upon the Lord.   We meet on the square in Pottsville, right next to historic Potts’ Inn at 10:30 am for worship.  Get directions here or contact us for more info.  Or join us on Facebook Live @PottsvilleARP or YouTube.