They Who Wait For Him

Jacob read these words of Isaiah to his people about the house of Israel: “And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers; they shall bow down to thee with their faces towards the earth, and lick up the dust of thy feet; and thou shalt know that I am the Lord; for they shall not be ashamed that wait for me…. Wherefore, they that fight against Zion and the covenant people of the Lord shall lick up the dust of their feet; and the people of the Lord shall not be ashamed. For the people of the Lord are they who wait for him; for they still wait for the coming of the Messiah” (2 Nephi 6:7, 13). There are surely many ways that we might define who the people of the Lord are, such as those who keep His commandments or those who covenant with Him or those who have faith in Him. But here the prophet defined the Lord’s people as those who wait for Him. One meaning of this is surely to wait for His physical coming, which the house of Israel did before He came in the meridian of time and which we do now again as we prepare for His Second Coming. We wait for His return. But Isaiah’s words can remind us that the Lord’s people today will wait for Him to manifest Himself in their own lives. In a world dominated by speed and instant gratification, in spiritual matters we sometimes must wait upon the Lord, hoping for His arm to be revealed as we patiently put our trust in Him. When we did, Isaiah’s promise is that we will not be ashamed.  

            During the summer our kids have certain jobs they have to do before they get their screen time, and we have told them that they all need to be done before any of them can watch their shows. Yesterday one child was done when others still had to finish, and I told him that he had to wait for the reward he was expecting. He was quite upset at that prospect and had great difficulty accepting that he would have to wait for something he had already “earned.” Thinking about that attitude, I believe that perhaps we are sometimes like that in spiritual matters: we do those things we think we are supposed to and then we except this or that blessing to come immediately. But sometimes we need to wait, which, like my son, we may not like very much. Several other passages from the Old Testament encourage us, though, to wait upon Him no matter what happens. The psalmist wrote, “Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord” (Psalm 27:14). As we wait, He strengthens us to continue. The psalmist also said, “I wait for the Lord, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope” (Psalm 130:5). When blessings that we seek do not come, we can wait upon Him with hope, knowing that His promises are sure. Michah put it this way: “Therefore I will look unto the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation: my God will hear me” (Micah 7:7). That should be our attitude as we seek blessings from Him: we keep watching for Him, waiting for Him, and speaking to Him knowing that He will hear. Isaiah also wrote, “And therefore will the Lord wait, that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you: for the Lord is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for him” (Isaiah 30:18). Interestingly, he mentioned here that the Lord Himself waits in order to be gracious to us. We will be blessed if we wait for Him, trusting that when He waits, He knows what He is doing. Our attitude should be as described in these other words of Isaiah: “And I will wait upon the Lord, that hideth his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him" (Isaiah 8:17). Even when we might feel that He is hiding His face from us, we can wait upon Him and look for Him, continuing to keep our covenants and follow His commandments no matter how long it takes for the blessings we seek to arrive.