And Be There
Today, while scrolling through my Facebook memories, this post from John Parsons of Hebrew for Christians, stood out among the rest. It was originally shared by John on 24 January 2022, but I shared it as a memory last year saying, "This concept of "Waiting on the LORD" has been placed in my heart." Interesting since this year (2025) my #oneword is "wait". Considering this, I took the time to reread his post.
It is easy enough to hurry past words of Scripture without slowing down to reflect on what is being said. For instance, in our Torah portion for this week (i.e., Mishpatim) we read: “The LORD said to Moses, "Come up to me on the mountain and wait there, that I may give you the tablets of stone with the law and the commandment, which I have written for their instruction” (Exod. 24:12). The Hebrew words veheyei sham (וֶהְיֵה־שָׁם), usually translated as “and wait there,” can also be translated as “and be there.” But why -- if every jot and tittle of Torah is indeed significant (Matt. 5:18) -- does the text say “come up to the mountain” and then add the superfluous phrase “and be there”? The sages answer that God is asking Moses to be present, be awake, and to be utterly focused – "with all your heart, soul, and might.” This teaches us that to receive God’s revelation, we need to show up – “to be there” – earnestly seeking his heart...I'm certainly glad I did because the Holy Spirit is speaking to me. This concept of "waiting" for me, is tied very closely to the concept prayer. The LORD first spoke to my heart about this through Isaiah 62:6-7 NLT where it says, "O Jerusalem, I have posted watchmen on your walls; they will pray day and night, continually. Take no rest, all you who pray to the LORD. Give the LORD no rest until he completes his work, until he makes Jerusalem the pride of the earth."
From here we're going to have to do a lot of back tracking so that you can understand the relevance of all of this to my life.
If you've done much Bible study and/or reading, you'll understand where I'm coming from here, because it's very common to start out in one place in Scripture only to find yourself flipping all throughout Scripture to various other places due to cross references. The same is true here. I came to this verse in Isaiah, from Ezekiel chapter 3. I found myself in Ezekiel because of 1 Kings 19:7 that says “Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you”
I was at this verse because of a book I picked up while perusing the book section at my local Mardel's. I was looking for something that would speak to my heart during this particular season of my life. This season has been difficult for me for two reasons. The first, is a difficult medical condition that has left me literally starving for the past 18 months. The second, is because nothing quite jolts you awake in your Spiritual life, like the very real scenario that you could be dead in less than 5 years. And when you've been living "asleep" Spiritually for the last decade you suddenly realize you failed your children during some very important years and now they're young adults and you no longer have much authority or sway when it comes to any advice or influence. Especially when it comes to Spiritual matters in todays' culture. So my heavy Momma heart found the following book seemed to ✓ all the right boxes, 'Midnight Mercies: Walking with God through Depression in Motherhood'
When the author was writing about Elijah's bout of depression in 1 Kings 19, verse 7 grabbed my attention big time because it deals with eating and well, that's something that is very difficult and involved because of my intestinal dysmotility and gastroparesis. I've found through this entire ordeal that anytime I come across the concept of food, hunger and eating, in Scripture, the LORD uses it to speak to me. It has such a deeper meaning now. So when I read, "Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you." I felt the Holy Spirit impress upon my spirit once more, how God's word is my food and without it, this life He's chosen me to live, will feel overwhelming. Like it's just "too much for me". And He's not wrong.
Looking for cross-references dealing with "watchmen", I ended up in Isaiah 62 where I read about the importance of prayer in verses 6-7 "O Jerusalem, I have posted watchmen o your walls; they will pray day and night, continually. Take no rest, all you who pray to the LORD. Give the LORD no rest until he completes his work, until he makes Jerusalem the pride of the earth." Earnest, sincere, continual prayer, which I had stopped doing out of discouragement. I had been praying but nothing seemed to be happening. Not in regard to my health or in the Spiritual life of my husband and children. So I quit. The LORD is always so good to continue to encourage me, though. Micah 7:8 says "Rejoice not over me, O my enemy; when I fall, I shall rise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD will be a light to me." I had fallen into the darkness of depression, discouragement and despair but God shined His light on my heart through His Word. I began praying again. And still, even now, there's no visible change. So in determined faith, I chose the word "wait" to cling to as a reminder that unchanged circumstances are not an indication that God isn't working. He's just working in His time and all I need to do to live out my faith, is to remember we don't walk by sight.
So now that you're up to speed let's go back to the beginning, where today, I came across the post in my Facebook memories from Hebrew for Christians:
It is easy enough to hurry past words of Scripture without slowing down to reflect on what is being said. For instance, in our Torah portion for this week (i.e., Mishpatim) we read: “The LORD said to Moses, "Come up to me on the mountain and wait there, that I may give you the tablets of stone with the law and the commandment, which I have written for their instruction” (Exod. 24:12). The Hebrew words veheyei sham (וֶהְיֵה־שָׁם), usually translated as “and wait there,” can also be translated as “and be there.” But why -- if every jot and tittle of Torah is indeed significant (Matt. 5:18) -- does the text say “come up to the mountain” and then add the superfluous phrase “and be there”? The sages answer that God is asking Moses to be present, be awake, and to be utterly focused – "with all your heart, soul, and might.” This teaches us that to receive God’s revelation, we need to show up – “to be there” – earnestly seeking his heart...
It’s interesting after reading this wisdom from John Parsons (H4C) my mind settled on “be awake” because isn’t it when Jesus went “up to the mountain” on the Mount of Olives according to the Gospel of Luke (22:39) that he found his disciples asleep when he had asked them to pray? In the Gospel of Mark (14:34) we read that Jesus says, “My soul is consumed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch.” and in Matthew (26:38) He says, “My soul is consumed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with Me.”
"Keep watch." Before now, right this moment, I always read that thinking they were literally supposed to be on guard watching for who knows what. Knowing the rest of the story, maybe I thought they were supposed to be on the lookout for Roman soldiers who were coming. But that's not what Jesus was asking of them. When you look up the word in the Greek its the word "grēgoreite" which means (a) I am awake (in the night), watch, (b) I am watchful, on the alert, vigilant. From egeiro; to keep awake.
Like John Parsons said in his commentary on Exodus, Jesus was asking his disciples to be present with Him. Whenever we keep reading, we see that Jesus stepped away just a few feet, a "stone's throw" according to Luke, before falling to His knees and praying to the Father. When He returns to His friends He finds them asleep and admonishes them telling them why they need to "keep watch", adding the exhortation to also pray saying in Mark 14:38 "Watch and pray so that you will not enter into temptation. For the spirit is willing, but the body is weak.” I found Luke's version even more interesting (22:45-46) "When Jesus rose from prayer and returned to the disciples, He found them asleep, exhausted from sorrow. “Why are you sleeping?” He asked. “Get up and pray so that you will not enter into temptation.” They were asleep due to exhaustion from sorrow. I can relate to that so much. Any time I've experienced a lot of emotional turmoil that leads to despair, an instant heaviness comes over me and I'd give anything to go to sleep. It's almost impossible to stay awake. And the devil knows it this. And Jesus knows this too. That's why we tells us to pray. Pray for the spiritual fortitude to stay awake, to keep praying, continually, day and night. Because you know who else is working continually day and night? Satan. Revelation 12:10 says "the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night". Satan accuses us before our God day and night but Hebrews 4:16 tells us we too have access to God and we can approach Him because of grace, "with confidence so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." And we do this through prayer!
Going back to Matthew 26:38 notice Jesus says "Stay here and keep watch with Me" and reading the verse in Exodus 24 that brought this story to mind, God tells Moses “Come up to me on the mountain. Stay there, and I will give you the tablets of stone on which I have inscribed the instructions and commands so you can teach the people.”
Now I want to focus on "stay here" because of something I read yesterday while doing some study of my word "wait", which in the Hebrew is "qavah". Another blogger made the connection between waiting and the word "linger" saying,
But to linger is a contented way to wait. We linger over the last few drops of coffee with a friend–waiting just a few more minutes before we have to part. We linger in the sunshine at the beach–waiting a moment longer before going back to the noise of the world.
God invites us to view a season of waiting as a time to linger in His presence. Time to hang out with Him a few more hours. Time to linger in His love and peace.
At my women's Bible study at church we're reading Priscilla Shirer's book 'FerVent' and on page 37 when she wants us to deliberately slow down and take in a specific verse she says for us to read it one more time...
"Slowly. Deliberately. Like how you'd sip a glass of sweet tea on a blazing hot summer day, wanting the refreshment to last."
Sounds a lot like lingering, doesn't it? And that word "refreshment" reminds me of what Peter says in Acts 3:19-20 "Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord". We're refreshed when we linger in the presence of the Lord.
When looking at all of this with a wide-angle lens I'm seeing this: As the mother of my children, and the only believer in my household, I'm called to be their watchmen. As their watchmen, it's my job to point them to safety in Christ. The Lord is the one and only refuge against the enemy. And the enemy is in full on attack mode. To find ways to teach them and to pray for opportunities to do so. As a watchman, I am to rely on God, through continual prayer. He is faithful. Keep praying for Him to free them from the deceptive lies of the enemy. When I feel the heavy, sleep inducing, despair of what my eyes see, I also need to see it for what it is: the enemy's whisper in my ear to trust what my eyes see more than what my God has said. Anne of Green Gables is a favorite of mine. And in the series I used to watch on TV with my grandmother, Marilla Cuthbert would say to Anne ,"To despair is to turn your back on God". So whenever I feel that familiar sorrowful exhaustion coming on me, instead of giving up I need to see it as a sign to turn my face to God in prayer. Through prayer and reading His word, I am able to sit in His presence and let His light flood my eyes. Otherwise this journey and the temptation to stop praying and speaking the truth will be too much for me. God's Word says, "Don't you wives realize that your husband's might be saved because of you?" (1 Cor 7:16) and “The LORD your God will change your heart and the hearts of all your descendants, so that you will love him with all your heart and soul and so you may live!" (Deut 30:6).
My prayer for my huband and children is this: "I pray for you constantly, asking God, the glorious Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to give you spiritual wisdom and insight so that you might grow in your knowledge of God. I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope he has given to those he called—his holy people who are his rich and glorious inheritance. I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms. Now he is far above any ruler or authority or power or leader or anything else—not only in this world but also in the world to come."(Ephesians 1:15-21)
It's my prayer that as I climb the mountain of faith, through prayer and reading of His Word, I will sit in His presence more and more and that the following will be said of me:
"It is clear that you are a letter from Christ...written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts." 2 Cor 3:3
Thank you for your enduring patience, Father, as we continue to pray for new hearts, seeing eyes and hearing ears and for you to set the captives free. Thank you that you have given us you our one and only true HOPE. In Jesus name, amen.
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