We know a great deal about the longsuffering of God, for many times He seems to delay working out various purposes until we become quite impatient. However, the sixteenth chapter of Deuteronomy presents another side of the picture. This is one of the two chapters which gives the list of the feasts, the other being the twenty-third chapter of Leviticus.
Observe the month of Abib, and keep the passover unto the Lord thy God; for in the month of Abib the Lord thy God brought thee forth out of Egypt by night. And thou shalt sacrifice the passover unto the Lord thy God, of the flock and the herd, in the place which the Lord shall choose, to cause his name to dwell there. Thou shalt eat no leavened bread with it; seven days shalt thou eat unleavened bread therewith, even the bread of affliction; for thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt in haste: that thou mayest remember the day when thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt all the days of thy life. Deuteronomy 16:1–3.
Notice the phrase in verse 3: thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt in haste. It was a speedy exit. Out they came! We might get the idea that they hurried because they were afraid the Egyptians would chase them or pursue after them. No, it was the Lord’s design that this was going to be a quick work. Romans 9:28 tells us that the Lord will do a quick work in the earth and cut it short in righteousness.
Before the Passover ever took place, the instructions were given: And thus shall ye eat it: with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste: it is the Lord’s Passover. For I will go through the land of Egypt in that night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord.Exodus 12:11, 12.
What would have happened if someone had said, “You don’t have to worry about that. I’m going to put on my pajamas and slippers and relax.” He would have been wearing his pajamas right into the wilderness! The Lord said, “You stand there girded, ready to go; your staff in your hand, your sandals on, ready for marching. Eat the lamb in haste.”
“Why can’t we eat it on the way?”
“Because you are going to be carrying all the jewels of Egypt with you. You can’t be bothered chewing on a piece of meat. So eat it now. Don’t leave any of it until morning either, because by the time the morning comes, you will be making the fastest march you have ever made, right out of Egypt.” When God says, “Move,” you move!
And it came to pass at midnight, that the Lord smote all the first-born in the land of Egypt, from the first-born of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the first-born of the captive that was in the dungeon; and all the first-born of cattle. And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt; for there was not a house where there was not one dead. And he called for Moses and Aaron by night, and said, Rise up, get you forth from among my people, both ye and the children of Israel; and go, serve the Lord, as ye have said. (notice: as you have said) Take both your flocks and your herds, as ye have said, and be gone; and bless me also. No compromise now. They were willing to have them leave. And the Egyptians were urgent upon the people, to send them out of the land in haste; for they said, We are all dead men. Exodus 12:29–33. Leave in haste. Hurry!
Sometimes you may feel that the Lord isn’t really too concerned, as though your prayers were trying to take hold of a reluctant God to make Him willing to do something for you. That is not it.
The Lord just has to take His time and do it in His own way, yet I am also very persuaded that God is not wanting to waste one day of my life or one day of your life. Your days are yielded into His hand. There is an economy about our Lord. After He had fed the five thousand, He said, “Gather up the fragments that nothing be wasted.” There were twelve baskets full of untouched fragments of loaves and fishes left over.
This shows that God has a sense of economy. He is not wasteful. He does not want to waste your life, putting you in a corner to sit there with the Lord’s dealing upon you, year after year after year, until it seems that you will never get started. Those people who say, “When will I be ready to go?” should look within their heart and find the answer. God is trying to do something in their heart, and if they only knew the truth, they would realize that they are not nearly as impatient as God is to get that job done. But when God moves, He moves in haste.
Genesis 41:14 tells about a young man who could have said in his heart, “God has forgotten all about me.” Joseph had done his best to get out of prison, yet he stayed there year after year. But the time finally came when … Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they brought him hastily out of the dungeon: and he shaved himself, and changed his raiment, and came in unto Pharaoh. Joseph literally erupted out of that dungeon, and before the sun had gone down he was sitting on the throne next to Pharaoh. God was less anxious than Joseph for him to be in that prison one second longer than necessary. The Psalmist says of Joseph: Until the time that his word came to pass, the word of the Lord tried him. Psalm 105:19. God fulfilled that word completely. God gave him a word and then put him in a dungeon with it, saying in effect, “Joseph, you are not going to get distracted now. You think about this. Let it work its work in you. When it is all ready, then we will spring you.” When God delivers, He delivers! When the time is ready, He brings deliverance.
In the eighteenth chapter of Luke the parable of the importunate widow appealing to the unjust judge reveals a truth that we often miss. She persisted and persisted until finally the answer came and he said, “I’ll avenge her lest with her continual coming she weary me.” The Lord applied the lesson in the parable to prayer when He said, And shall not God avenge his elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. … Luke 18:7, 8. Notice two things: He bears long with them because they need something worked in their own lives; but the minute it is there, He moves in speedily and does the work He has promised to do.
We must yield to the plan of God. Sometimes it takes time, but when the count is finally down and it is time to move, we see that the Lord was the one who was impatient—not us. He is more anxious for us to be delivered than we are to be delivered. He is more concerned about us walking in our prophecies than we are. He is more anxious about the new churches than their pastors are. Our anxiety is under restraint, because we are being submissive to the Lord. The Lord has a plan and a purpose for us, and as soon as He has worked all things after the counsel of His own will, He will make haste to get the job done. We just cannot sit here waiting for something to happen. We must get ready. We must get our loins girded, our staff in our hand, our sandals on our feet. The Lord stir our spirits and put within us an expectation.
The Lord is not looking at our enthusiasm and commending us for it. The Lord has placed this enthusiasm and this eagerness in us. We must be aware that we are not normally this eager. God has said, “Get with it now. No more indifference, no more lukewarmness!” The Lord is putting it in our hearts. We may think that we are all fired up with zeal, but that is because our hearts are beating with God’s heart. We are in tune with what God has in mind. It is the Lord who is anxious to make a quick work in the earth and cut it short in righteousness. The Lord is anxious to raise up Joel’s army, the sons and daughters who will prophesy.
Whatever the Lord wants, let us make haste to do it, because we must be determined to walk with the Lord through the whole process. There must be something within our hearts that is like a burning fire shut up in our bones. We say, “Who started that fire?” The Lord started that fire. The Spirit of the Lord within us is like a fire shut up in our bones. We did not generate it. God did. We just submitted to the Lord lighting the match. God has some sort of timetable in working out certain things.
But Thou, O Lord, wilt abide forever; and Thy memorial name unto all generations. Thou wilt arise, and have mercy upon Zion; for it is time to have pity upon her, yea, the set time is come. Psalm 102:12, 13. A lot of these things are like a time bomb. The day has arrived for you to get with it, to go some place and explode!
The sixtieth chapter of Isaiah speaks about the day of the Lord, but it also contains some beautiful promises concerning the Kingdom. Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For, behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. And nations shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising. Isaiah 60:1–3.
Two things are taking place: darkness, gross darkness, is on the earth, and the glorious remnant, the true Israel of God, is coming forth with His glory and the light of the Lord upon them. This chapter speaks also about all the abundance, even the material wealth that shall come to the remnant. Because the Lord, through His remnant, is destined to do a quick work in the earth, the Lord will pour in the money that will go into publications, into apostolic companies, into young prophets and prophetesses walking through the land and taking it in the name of the Lord. Not that they will go in style, but this work will be done quickly. Satan battles every enterprise that comes forth that would bless the remnant. We curse that in the name of the Lord. God will loose businesses which are dedicated to release the money that will finance the living word as it goes forth. The gospel of the Kingdom will be preached in all the world for a witness and a sign.
Whereas thou hast been forsaken and hated, so that no man passed through thee, I will make thee an eternal excellency, a joy of many generations. Thou shalt also suck the milk of the nations, and shalt suck the breast of kings; and thou shalt know that I, the Lord, am thy Saviour, and thy Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob. For brass I will bring gold, and for iron I will bring silver, and for wood brass, and for stones iron. I will also make thy officers peace, and thine exactors righteousness.
Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, desolation nor destruction within thy borders; but thou shalt call thy walls Salvation, and thy gates Praise. The sun shall be no more thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but the Lord will be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory. Thy sun shall no more go down, neither shall thy moon withdraw itself; for the Lord will be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended.
Thy people also shall be all righteous; they shall inherit the land for ever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified. The little one shall become a thousand, and the small one a strong nation: I, the Lord, will hasten it in its time. Isaiah 60:15–22.
When you read Scriptures such as this one, you may think we are a thousand years away from its fulfillment. It may not be as far away as you think. Oh, how quickly it all could end. God is anxiously waiting to slam the doors on this age and open the doors of a new one. Let us be anxious for it, too. Even if it seems like a time of terror for a little while as God brings judgments on the earth, let’s say amen to it and let it come, because God is anxious to see the whole thing ended so He can establish the new—and so are we.
On the day the fire fell on Sodom and Gomorrah, I imagine it was a beautiful spring day, with the sun shining brightly and beautiful flowers blooming. The wicked people were walking through the streets, probably exclaiming over the lovely day and talking about their hangovers and the orgies of the night before. And then the city died with a rumble and a roar! We enjoy beautiful days, too, but I always have one eye peeled, observing other things that are taking place, such as earthquakes in divers places. Do not be deceived. The Lord could wrap this whole thing up in a hurry. The Lord will hasten it in its time.
When the prophecies of Matthew 24 were fulfilled, it was a rather deceptive hour, too. Few people remembered the word that the Lord had spoken less than forty years before: Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house. Matthew 24:17. They were told to flee. There was a temporary halt in the siege of Jerusalem, as the troops were evacuated for a short time to attend a funeral. When some of the Christians saw that, they rushed out of the city, obeying the prophecy. They hurried across the hills and were gone. They were hardly out of sight when the Roman legions came marching back. The people who had remained in the city thought they were safe, that the Roman armies would not return. They did not realize that so many would die in the coming siege that there would be no place left to put the crosses. God gives us that split moment and says, “Take it.” When God says, “Move,” we move. When God says, “It is coming,” it is coming, and the people who are prepared can move.
You may think you have a nice, long twenty-year program worked out for your life. Don’t be so sure. Things are moving too fast. Just look at the way God is working with people who are coming into this walk in the Spirit. A man who will open his heart can move in fast. He can prophesy even though he has been in the church only a short time. There is something alive. God has laid His hand on a remnant to do a quick work in the earth. In all this you can see the impatience of the Lord. Even though the book of Revelation talks about those who are partakers of the patience of Jesus, there comes that time when another element enters in, and that is the urgency of the Lord and His extreme efficiency. The battle is all over in that moment when He comes and slays the wicked one with the brightness of His coming. When He begins to move, there will be no long processes, but men will jump into another form of life. In a moment, in a twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, the hosts will begin to come forth in resurrection life. There will be a sequence of events that could actually begin any time. There is nothing to prevent it.
Are you ready? Do you feel something within your heart saying, “It can’t come too soon to suit me”? Think again! Are you really ready? Have you been submitting to the dealings of the Lord as much as you know how? Are you ready to say, “Lord, there may be a lot that has to be done in my heart, but I’ve been submitting to what You have been doing in my life and I’m ready for the next step.”
“Shall the Lord delay one moment beyond His time? Shalt thou say in thy heart, ‘Lo, I am not ready yet’? It is not you who shall be ready; it is the Lord who shall make you ready. This is the hour when thou shalt say unto the Lord, ‘Whenever it is Thy time, Father, I stand ready. My loins are girded; my sandals are upon my feet. I shall not stand with my pajamas on. I shall be ready to walk before Thee, Father, in a dead run. When Thou shalt call, I shall be ready to move in that which Thou shalt call me to perform.’ ”
“Thou shalt not be stubborn and rebellious in thy heart as was your father’s generation—a generation that did not prepare its heart. Thou shalt believe for the new day in which the children of the Kingdom shall come forth. Behold, the Lord hath prepared thy heart by His word. He has spoken the word unto thee that He may transform thy mind, that you may think the thoughts of the Kingdom of God, that you may even proclaim it, for out of the mouth of babes and sucklings does He proclaim it by His Spirit. Behold, thou shalt speak it forth. Thou shalt speak forth the expectancy that shall reign within thy heart. Thou shalt not hearken unto the mockers mocking. Thou shalt not listen to the scorner as he steps into the way, but behold, thou shalt be the people that shall see the deliverance of the Lord.”
“This is not an hour of limitation. This is not an hour that we would allow the oppression to come upon our spirit. Truly, if there is anything within thy spirit that is holding back, the Lord saith, ‘Look within thy heart.’ This is an hour when the Lord would search thy spirit and cause thee to have that aggressiveness. It is a time of no hesitation within thy spirit. It’s an hour when the people of the Lord shall move in His timetable.”