God’s Idler 3

 Why did God order His servant to be idle for three and a half years?

Did He not have anything else for Him to do that He had to condemn him into idleness and obscurity? Or had He given up on His servant?

We of course know that God does not operate that way.

He therefore had to have a very important reason to put such a visible prophet as Elijah on that idle list for that long. And we know that it was related to the assignment He had for him after that long idling time.

With hindsight we now know that He was preparing Elijah for probably the most momentous chapter of his life. He therefore needed all his spiritual muscles to be at their peak before he was released from that idleness.

Allow me to use a verse we love to quote.

But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. (Isaiah 40:31)

What is waiting?

For the most part real waiting can be equated with idling.

What can you be doing when you are waiting for an important call from the owner of a company that has employed you? What will you be doing when you are waiting for a someone to pick you up for a very important meeting? What will you be doing when you are waiting for milk to boil?

And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately. (Luke 12:36)

Idling is that time between receiving two major orders from our Lord and King.

It is a difficult time, a time that for most looks completely and unreasonably insane.

It is a time when the best of our friends will desert us because we are convincingly out of our spiritual connection. We may have deserted the faith according to them.

But it is even more difficult for the ones who are idling.

Imagine Elijah in Jezebel’s hood, since that is where Sidon was! Do you think it was easy for him to ‘settle’ there?

If Jonah had issues taking God’s message to a heathen nation, what do you think Elijah might have felt when he was ordered to go idling in a heathen nation, especially the nation that had produced the greatest fuel for the idolatry of his nation? What do you think he felt when ordered to stay with a heathen widow?

What did he think his friends and ministry partners would feel if they got to learn where he had gone?

I say this as someone who had to deal with such orders at least thrice in my ministry (I probably am in one such season now).

But they were not as radical as Elijah’s was. And they were direct ministry opportunities. Only that they were screamingly outside the norm. Of course, they rubbed my mentors and believers we were in fellowship with the wrong way.

But Elijah’s was not a ministry opportunity. It was a simple order to idle in a heathen nation with a heathen woman.

Elijah’s idling was a time to wait on and for God.

It was a time to know God in an entirely new way. It was a time to experience God beyond the narrow confines of the faith he had had all his life

For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him. (Isaiah 64:4)

That is what Elijah was doing.

And that is what all who are on God’s idle list are doing.

So, before throwing those stones; before calling that press conference; before calling that church board meeting; before calling that prayer meeting, please establish whether you are dealing with a rebel or God’s precious servant.

Otherwise, you will be like Job’s three friends who, though they were right with their theology, were completely off concerning God’s servant.

You will avert judgment on your person if you prayerfully engaged that idler or rebel because you might in your zeal seal your damnation.

God deals personally and directly with every person He created. He does not have supervisors or brokers to His revelation, and especially on the orders He issues to His servants.

He therefore will order His servants to do eccentric things for His purpose, even if those things are completely outside logic, without consulting any of us or even informing us that He will be doing so.

Among those things is idling for His glory.

We might use spiritual terms like waiting upon the Lord but I doubt any of us would have called Elijah’s idling waiting upon the Lord, especially knowing that it was in a heathen nation in the same house with a heathen woman, a woman without a husband for that case.

Why am I writing this?

It is very easy to use my experience to judge someone else’s servant. It is very easy to use my doctrinal position to judge somebody else’s obedience. And it is very easy to use my convictions to pour contempt on someone else’s convictions.

And in nothing is this most pronounced than on a believer waiting upon the Lord, or what I am calling idling on God’s orders. No wonder the rewards for the same are beyond mind boggling as we have seen in the verse above.

Am I saying we should never seek to intervene when we think or suspect someone is wrong?

Of course not.

But it is wise to seek to understand someone’s standing with God and especially the orders they are dealing with. And this because God will never consult us when He is giving orders to any of His servants, even if those servants are our children, biological, spiritual or otherwise.

Listen to them before talking about them. Allow him to pour his heart to you before seeking to intervene in his situation. And you should listen to understand instead of looking for evidence to correct him.

Will we give God the chance to idle any of His servants without forcing them to work for the same God who has ordered them to idle? Will we shut up when we hear of someone sharing their weird testimony just because it does not fit into our well pressed experiences.