Why Am I Still Waiting? (Deuteronomy 7:22)

 

The LORD your God will clear away these nations before you little by little. You may not make an end of them at once, lest the wild beasts grow too numerous for you. [Deuteronomy 7:22, ESV]

When God puts something on my heart, I feel a desire to see that thing come to fruition. We all have desires, but when God gives us a desire, it is far more intense than our human desires. When we spend time with God, when we lay our lives down at His Feet, when we surrender to Him, the Holy Spirit will sanctify us, He will prepare us for God’s plan, and He will put in our hearts the desires that God has for us.

Some desires are for the near future, while other desires will not come to pass until a while later. When I was going through a period of waiting on the Lord, I remember feeling so frustrated. I was not upset with God, I was just frustrated with the amount of time that was passing, and how many opportunities seemed to be missed because of my waiting. I would ask other Christians to help me understand what I should do. I read my Bible more than ever, I prayed more than ever, I read articles about faith, and I spent a lot of time thinking. My frustration was made even worse whenever people told me that I needed to get rid of some sin in my life, or I had some kind of issue that was holding me back. I had already done away with everything that the Holy Spirit told me to get rid of, and I had been living a totally different lifestyle. Of course, I sin all the time. I am a man, and I will always fall short of the glory of God. That being said, I had nothing in my life that would have prevented God from working in me. What was I supposed to do?

As I previously mentioned, one of the things that I had noticed in myself was the way I was reading my Bible a lot more. I felt like I should reread the Old Testament again, so I did just that. When I reached Deuteronomy, I could not stop reading. Many people talk about how the Old Testament has a lot of boring parts, such as the book of Numbers (an opinion that I absolutely disagree with), but I was hearing more from God through my reading of Deuteronomy than I had heard from Him in a long time. I read the majority of the book in one day, and I went to bed with a ton of things on my mind. Deuteronomy 7, 8, and 9 were the chapters that the Holy Spirit used to speak to me (He spoke throughout the book, but especially through those chapters).

What did the Holy Spirit say to me? Well, to understand what He said, we must understand the context of the chapters in question. Chapters 5 and 6 of Deuteronomy had explained how the Israelites were given the Ten Commandments, following God telling the Israelites to leave Horeb, and defeating King Sihon and King Og. I am condensing the first few chapters because it would take me a long time to explain everything, and the majority of the first chapters are irrelevant to this essay.

Chapter 7 is about how the Israelites were God’s chosen people. God gives them some more rules to follow, then He tells them about the victories that will come if the Israelites love God and keep His commandments. God addresses the concern of the Israelites regarding the size of their enemies (I will write a separate essay about this) by reminding them of all the things that He had done for them. God tells the Israelites that they should not be afraid, since God is with them, and He will deliver their enemies into their hand.

This brings us to the verse that this essay is about.

The LORD your God will clear away these nations before you little by little.

God tells the Israelites that the many victories that He had promised to them would not happen at once. God told the Israelites that the victories that He had promised would happen one at a time, little by little. How come God did not give Israel everything at the same time?

You may not make an end of them at once, lest the wild beasts grow too numerous for you.

God tells the Israelites that they may not defeat all of their enemies at once, so that the “wild beasts” do not grow to be too numerous for them. What does this mean? God had promised the Israelites victory over many nations, and the nations in question had been occupying a lot of land. The land that the Israelites would be given when they defeated the nations that controlled these lands, respectively, the Israelites would need to deal with all the animals. These animals (referred to as “wild beasts”) would reproduce to the point where they would be too numerous for the Israelites to deal with. In order to prevent the Israelites from being overpowered by said beasts, God would give the Israelites one victory at a time.

As humans, we often look at the immediate consequences of our actions, but not the long-term effects. God, on the other hand, knows all. God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. God sees all, God knows all, and God is everywhere. God knows what is best, and He knows when it should be so. We tend to think that we can handle more than we are able to, but God knows better than we do.

This verse explained to me why I was still waiting for God to bring about the things that He had spoken to my heart. This verse explained to me why I was still waiting.

When I was at my lowest, I remember being shown a glimpse of my future. It was something that God showed me in order to encourage me, to get me to seek Him, and to get me to trust in Him. God knew what He was doing (He knows all), and it worked. For several months, I purged my life of the things that were separating me from God, I leaned into Him, studied His Word, prayed without ceasing, and waited for Him. Eventually, I felt a really awful feeling in my heart. It was the feeling of being stuck. I could not go back, I could not go to the right hand or to the left, so I was “stuck” on the path that God had led me down.

It was during this time that I began to reread the Old Testament, which brought me to the verse that I have written about today. The verse jumped out at me, and I was able to understand what God was speaking to me.

I was waiting because I could not handle everything at once. Looking back on those months, I can absolutely understand why I needed to wait more. I went from struggling to keep up with my college classes, to writing essays for my website, appearing on podcasts, working in several ministries, working a job, writing my testimony in my personal journal, studying my Bible, keeping up with the people that I have been telling about Christ, and doing well in my classes for the first time in a while. I am not bragging, I am trying to explain how much God had planned for me, and how I have only been able to handle all of it because of how God gave me what He had promised to give me.

I was given one thing, and I would have to figure out how to manage that thing and keep up with what I had already been given. When I had figured out how to handle what God had given me, He would give me another thing. When I figured out how to use that thing, He gave me another thing. This continued for a while. Some things would only take a few days to learn how to handle, while others took months. I am still waiting on some things that God has told me that He will do, but the number of things that I am still waiting for is very small.

In conclusion, if God gave us everything at once, they would overwhelm us. There is a responsibility that comes with the things that God gives us. When we know what God commands us to do, we will be judged more harshly when we do not obey Him. Before I had started my website back up, I knew that there was something that God was planning for me, I did not know what it was, but I knew that it would impact more than my life. I knew that there would be people that I would have the opportunity to share the Gospel with, and that by giving up on what God had been preparing me for, I would be punished. I would not only be punished for giving up, I would be punished for not sharing Christ with the people that God would have brought to me, and those people may never get saved.

I am not some superhero. I am just a man, and I have many, many weaknesses. I should not be able to do all that God has given me the strength to do, but I rejoice in my weakness. My weakness means that God’s work in me will be a more powerful testimony than it would be if I was already a strong man. I do not think that I am the only person who can reach the people that God has put on my heart, but I would rather be safe than sorry. There is a difference between God’s plan, and God’s will. God’s plan will happen, God’s will may not. God’s will does not include sin, nor does it include people never accepting Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. God’s will is that none shall perish, yet most people do. God could do everything by Himself, but He chooses to work through people. By saying “yes” to God, you will see Him work in your life like never before.

If you are waiting for God to do something, do not lose hope. Look at where you began your journey, look at what God has already done, and look toward the future with joy and excitement. Humble yourself before the Lord, thank Him for all that He has done, thank Him for who He is, and make the conscious effort to serve the Lord while you wait for what He has spoken to you. Do not give up. God is always faithful.

I do not know who you are, but there is a reason why you are reading this. Before I wrote this, I prayed and asked God to show me what to write about, and this verse was what came to mind. I believe that God put this verse on my heart for a specific person. I hope you are encouraged. God sees you, He loves you, and He has not forgotten about you. He is working, even when you cannot see it. Rejoice in the Lord!