Reopening

In last week’s post the phrase, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7) was the topic of discussion. This week we’ll consider the “pause.” There are many times in Scripture when everything seemed to be paused. There was the time in Genesis 7-8 when Noah and crew where shut into the Ark; that pause lasted a year even though the rain lasted only forty days (see Genesis 7:11 and 8:13). Another example is the nation of Israel wandering the desert for forty years (see Deuteronomy 8:2). Also, Elijah was given a short respite in a cave after the incident with the four hundred prophets of Baal (see 1 Kings 19). There are many other examples as well. These pauses come between rather memorable events. Let me mention one more that occurs in the New Testament. It took place one particular year in that time between the Feast of Firstfruits and Shavuot; you might know these as Resurrection Sunday and Pentecost. During the fifty days between Jesus’ glorious Resurrection and the Spirit being poured out on all believers, the followers of Christ were in the “pause.”

Now don’t confuse what I am calling the “pause” with some divine time-out; it is not God our Father putting us in the corner as some superficial correction. No, the pause is generally more of a divinely given time of reflection. There are variables and this is not some new revelation given to me as a pattern of how things always go. The last seven weeks, however, got me thinking about it. At times over the past weeks it felt like I’d been put on shelf, at times like I’ve been exactly where God wanted me, and times when I was somewhere in the middle. It caused me to do some soul searching and I came to this idea of the pause.

Getting back to Jesus’ followers in the period between His Resurrection and the Spirit’s coming, we know that Jesus was with them several times during the first forty days (see Acts 1:3). Then Jesus ascended and His followers remained in Jerusalem on a pause until the events of the Day of Pentecost burst upon them. Now those are two significant events; I would boldly say the two most significant events in human history: God the Son dying on the Cross to pay our sin debt and then rising again followed fifty days later by the pouring out of God the Holy Spirit on all who believe. So what were the disciples doing for that fifty days in between, and particularly the ten days after Jesus ascended? The Bible tells us a little bit about it, but not much. You can read John 20-21 and Acts 1-2 if you’d like to know those few details. We know from John 21:3 that Peter didn’t really know what to do so he went fishing and the others went with him. We know that with Jesus ascended, they remained together in “prayer and supplication” (Acts 1:14). Beyond that, we don’t know what they did day to day for that period.

Let’s consider then what God may have been doing in them, based upon some things that I believe He is doing now with those who believe; things that seem to be evident from pauses in the situations of other believers in Scripture, particularly Israel in the wilderness. First, there is cleansing or purifying that can occur. The Israelites in Exodus-Deuteronomy were in a pause between leaving Egypt, crossing the Red Sea, and gathering before God at Mt Sinai with the other end being entry into the Promised Land under Joshua. During that time, God was changing how they thought and lived. Having spent their lives as slaves in a very pagan and polytheistic environment, they needed their entire understanding of how to live as God’s people corrected. They struggled greatly with this, not trusting Him enough to enter the Promised Land, with lust, with pride, with idolatry and all kinds of sin. The forty years in the desert served several purposes and one of them was to purify their way of thinking and living.

Second, the pause in the wilderness was a time when the nation of Israel learned to trust God. As already mentioned, they didn’t trust Him to take them into the Promised Land the first time (see Numbers 14). Besides that blatant episode of distrust in God, their lack of trust was evident in the way they argued with Moses multiple times about returning to Egypt where they “had it so good” with the slavery and paganism and all. At the Red Sea they argued, “Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness” (Exodus 14:12).

Third, the pause in the wilderness was a time when the nation of Israel needed to learn to be content with what God was doing. They complained often against God and His servant Moses. They complained about all kinds of things and seemed content with nothing. Discontentment with what God is doing always leads to trouble. You and I do not know better than God does and when we ignore, argue, or fight against what He is doing it is sin and sin leads to heartbreak and/or hard-heartedness.

There are certainly more lessons to learn from this and similar accounts but these are some of big lessons considering the Spirit’s teaching through the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 10:6-11 in reference to Israel’s time between Egypt and the Promised Land, “Now these things became our examples, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted. And do not become idolaters as were some of them. As it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.” Nor let us commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and in one day twenty-three thousand fell; nor let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed by serpents; nor complain, as some of them also complained, and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.”

I believe some of these lessons were being learned by the disciples of Christ also; remember that in that time of pause between the Resurrection and Pentecost, there were about 120 believers gathered together, not just the Eleven (Acts 1:15). Their way of thinking was being corrected and purified with a new understanding of the revelation of Christ on this side of the Cross, they needed to learn to trust God in increasing ways, and they needed to learn to be content with what God was doing. Things were radically different with Jesus ascended instead of with them all the time and things were about to become even more radically different when the Holy Spirit indwelt them. During that forty, and particularly the last ten days before Pentecost, they were in a pause. It must have felt like they were in limbo, on a shelf, at times. There must have been times when they knew they were exactly where God wanted them. There must have been many times somewhere between those two.

I feel like I am in a pause, like all of us are. Yes, I know the stay-at-home orders and the on-going restrictions, and the return to normal (whatever that is going to be) is due to covid19. Let me assure you, that God is still sovereign over all things, still on the Throne, and still moving in the hearts, minds and lives of His people. So, as we head toward reopening, however and whenever that will be, are you learning what God is trying to teach you right now? He is trying to teach you something.

Maybe your lesson right now is to yield to Him in new ways in order to purify some things about your habits or desires. Maybe your lesson is about trusting Him completely. Maybe your lesson is about being content. Maybe it is something else or a combination of things. We are in a pause with a very affluent time behind us when, let’s face it, many in the Church took much for granted and perhaps had become like some of the churches in Revelation 2-3, having lost our first love, compromising with sin or being lukewarm, and a time when something else is going to happen. I don’t know what comes next, but we need to be ready for almost anything. It could be Jesus’ Return, persecution, more prosperity with all of its temptations; I don’t know. The only way to be ready for reopening and whatever that brings is to take advantage of this pause and trust that God is doing something in us, preparing us. Don’t ignore or fight against Him, yield and draw near by reading Scripture, praying, keeping in contact with other believers and worshipping God alone.

Grace and Peace,

Pastor Mark