WHENEVER THE FOUNDATIONS ARE SOLID (SURE), ALL HASTE IS IN VAIN
“Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste”, Is.28:16
All haste is bound to sin (I am distinguishing haste from being in a hurry. “Also, he that hasteth with his feet sinneth”. Prov.19:2). If it is a huge sin, just imagine how big will the sin be to any who has found solidness in the cornerstone, Jesus, yet still grows impatient and strives to be outside God’s will and time. Haste has its roots in unbelief, in unbelieving impatience, the autocracy of all times inside Christian communities. I will not talk about any of this, really, but will mention it to state that the Lord binds faith to hope for this reason, for to hope in biblical times and language was but to expect assuredly, to expect at any time: certain of its sure coming so one would be unbound to it to be fully able to do something else for God freely, and so one would go about his business without that care to push God into a corner that He should run harder than He may. It is just like a bride that knows that a genuine bridegroom will not tarry Himself away from His own wedding ever. She knows He will come, for He is faithful enough to do so and she, therefore, carries on being concerned about her own preparations rather than to find out whether He will come or not. People in haste seldom take care of their own responsibilities that well, thinking and believing others are too late and delayed and he needs to do somethings about it and become slack enough to leave his own work to do so - that very work God Himself has handed such to carry out to the end, whatever happens.
Have you ever waited for someone for anytime, that long and that short? Isn’t there the same sensations of emptiness whether you wait for long or for a short time? That means alone that the heart is what makes impatience and haste on others to grow within and never the delay. If you have and breed an impatient heart, all timingly things will always seem to have been delayed, somehow. Be more concerned about the kind of heart you breed and have, than of Jesus and how He does things for you. The kind of heart we may have is what makes us to sin or not, for “he that hasteth with his feet sinneth”. Prov.19:2. It doesn’t matter whether you work in hell or heaven – the heart you may have decides what you will do and the way you will think about anything whatsoever. There is no problem where people work, for the problem is always within themselves – deep from within, away from God or close tto Him.
But, if and when we have the proper heart by change and by the exercising of it in the bounds of holy living, in the Spirit I mean, then we may do away with that sense of emptiness which the waiting for our Lord creates in us, seeing His Spirit is the seal of His own holy presence. Any hasty person will seldom be fully prepared for the arriving of something as well since he hasn't been using his time for the preparation of a sure thing which will come indeed. So, if the Lord is with us, in us, for sure, there is a sure foundation for hope within which is able to do away with all sinful haste from the whole heart by removing useless cares and prompts, for we just know something - something which is there by impression and fire within us and which makes us turn our mind to something else we may do while we are waiting patiently. This enables us to go about our duties, those the “gone” Lord left in our hands to carry out faithfully within all realms and boundaries of holiness and unconcerned care.
All people know the Lord is surely coming, for even the wicked knows his fate of wrath is there, hidden in the unknown darkness of a future, sure death. So, there is a hopeful, fearful expectation of hell somehow, within such – somehow they know about it. But the unknown fear of it makes people live as if there is no other hope but sin, no pleasure but in cursing and drinking. This turns them frenetically careless and busy about things they wish and desire to have and to behold. This is because they hear not that message that is fully spelled out within them, for its foundation is nowhere to be found. That kind of lifeless living drives people to make haste and is able to create a certain pattern of living which will be able to hinder them after coming to God, which works against them all day long, until these stop and listen to the cry there is to wait on God alone. We read therefore, that, “To whom he said, this is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear”, Is.28:12. And because of all this and more, the Lord has prepared a sure foundation as to confound people, unholy people - Christians or not. He uses this word “because” in the verse before the one concerning the Foundations that is sure: “Because ye have said, (We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves)”, Is. 28:15 “Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste”, Is. 28:16.
So, there is something holy people should take to themselves from here: the fragrance and activeness of being able to wait upon the Lord implies ability to carry on with other duties innerly which are of greater importance and of greater management to God. Because they know their Lord is surely coming, these go about their daily businesses unhindered – the ones God has left as an heritage unto them to carry out all and alone, up until the time of His coming, which they know not when it shall be, but that it shall be - in due time if not soon (for it is not fair to hire somebody for fulltime service who does the work of another master in Holy grounds in Holy times and seasons). These are fully able to keep up the good work to the end because that is seen as what their business is all about and unless they become impatient and unbelieving from a point on. It is here that we read from the Lord’s own words: “Blessed is that servant, whom his Lord when he cometh, shall find so doing (working)”, Luke 12:43.
So, if and whenever your foundations are sure and holy, (of this you should make sure as quickly as you can), you may have just how to wait upon the Lord within you as well, even against all outward hope. There must be something in you that seals you in that hope. If not, your foundations will soon crumble under the first trial. There are people who can believe and there are those who cannot, because the fruit of faith is not in them, for sin and God do not abide together and it is nowhere to breed within. For that reason people believe not, for if God were there, faith would ever be as easy as breathing. Jesus states: “If you can believe…” Mark 9:23.
If it happens to be so then, if you are surely sealed with His Holy Spirit (for that kind of witness should seldom be your own, for we read that, “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God”, Rom 8:16), then you may believe it is the Lord that keeps your heart fully dressed with genuine faith and hope towards the right things alone and that it will never be so towards the wrong things at all if the Lord is preparing you and working in your inside. He is the one that has fully promised – He is the one too that strengthens the heart to its assuredness or to its fall, for He said that stone will cause many to fall as well due to what it is, 1 Peter 2:7,8. To know you will fall and to believe it because sin is your mate, is faith. Faith believes truthful things.
If your heart is cleansed then, if God has indeed promised something to you either personally, or though Scripture, (whether you like it or not), know then that you will not make haste, for it will be always fruitless and in vain if you do so. This faith that has been made the real thing, the foundation of the things not seen, seen and unseen things, through which all men of God received their testimony Heb.11:1,2, makes you turn down all things that do not look as coming from God then. We read that, “Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing; go ye out of the midst of her; be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the LORD. (12) For ye shall not go out with haste, nor go by flight: for the LORD will go before you; and the God of Israel will be your rearguard. (13) Behold, my servant shall deal prudently...”, Is.52:11-13 KJV. This happens because there is “in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation”. All haste shall be in vain then, for if a woman has been made pregnant under the blessing of the Lord, there is nothing she can do to either delay or hasten her conceiving time – but she knows her time is coming, for she carries something within her which tells her of it being so. Haste it, and there will be an abortion. You cannot delay it, either.
If your foundations are made sure then, by holy, Spirit living, you may go about your holy businesses fearless and without defeat, even when you loose on something, for such people care no more for their own houses but for the house of a Holy God from then on. These may not be the kind that says “The time is not come, the time that the LORD's house should be built”, for they will be found doing the right things at the right times, even under heavy criticism and gossip, Hag 1:2. “He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus”, Rev 22:20. Amen.
José Mateus
zemateus@msn.com