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This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says: \u201cIn repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it. You said, \u2018No, we will flee on horses.\u2019 Therefore, you will flee! You said, \u2018We will ride off on swift horses.\u2019 Therefore, your pursuers will be swift!\u2019 (Isaiah 30:15-16).

We return to this passage from Isaiah. The reflections I offered last Thursday went in a different direction then I had anticipated. I\u2019d like to flesh out some of my original thoughts. These will follow up nicely on Pastor Anthony\u2019s reflections on Friday, creating an unintended book end around the weekend. There is a fancier literary term for such things. If you are interested, you can google it.

Our theme for Lent has been hope. Our text implies that hope produces patience. You may recall that I referenced several situations in the Bible in which God\u2019s people had to wait for him to act. Whether it was waiting for a promised child, or rescue from enemies, waiting was the key. Abraham and David are probably the best-known examples of this kind of waiting.

Think about David waiting for the crown and the throne. Samuel had anointed him as the next king of Israel. Soon after, he had access to the current king and several stories are told in which David has opportunity to kill him. But he declines, insisting that God must give him the throne; he will not take it.

While David waited, he tended sheep, ran errands for his dad, played the harp for king Saul, fought as a soldier in Israel\u2019s army and killed a giant. Instead of scheming to get the throne, David put his hand to the tasks in front of him.

God is reminding Israel of David in our text for today. Israel is called to step back and let God do his thing. But instead, she kept running around, trying to do the God stuff herself. It was a mess.

Waiting for God is not a passive activity. Its active. David worked. We ought to as well. The Bible regularly blesses our daily labour. Waiting for God as we work helps us remember that wealth creation is a God-given ability and command. It is part of our creational task which God gave us in the beginning.

Waiting on God also helps us avoid the temptation to depend on our wealth and hoard it. Instead, it gives us the freedom to share our resources as Paul says, \u201cAnyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need\u201d (Eph. 4:28).

The New Testament command to give generously and with a grateful heart means that we should not be asking "How much should I give?" but rather "How much do I need to keep?"

But this kind of life is only possible when our hope is in the Lord. As Pastor Anthony said on Friday, it\u2019s a gift that God gives. It\u2019s a gift we need to desire and reading the stories of God rescuing his people whets our appetite for it.