God Longs for You

Yet the LORD longs to be gracious to you; He rises to show you compassion. For the LORD is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him!
Isaiah 30:18

One thing I find interesting in this verse is that the Hebrew word translated longs is used twice.

The Lord longs.

Blessed are all who wait for Him.

The word is best translated as wait. However, this is more than a patient, non-activity of waiting for something to happen. In this context it has an emotional component. God longs to favor His people who long for Him.

And then we have the beatitude: Blessed are all who wait (long) for Him.

The Hebrew for blessed is a word which speaks of the blessed circumstance of the person who is waiting. It is a non-theological word that essentially means happy, or fortunate. Some speak of it as a state which is enviable. The Septuagint for Isaiah 30:18 uses a word that is famously found in the Sermon on the Mount’s beatitudes (Matthew 5:3-11). That section begins with this:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.\” (Matthew 5:3)

Those who longingly wait upon the Lord (who is longingly waiting to show favor) are in a happy place because the display of His favor is going to happen. What might this look like? Here are the following few verses:

O people in Zion, inhabitant in Jerusalem, you will weep no longer. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when He hears it, He will answer you. Although the Lord has given you bread of privation and water of oppression, He, your Teacher will no longer hide Himself, but your eyes will behold your Teacher. Your ears will hear a word behind you, “This is the way, walk in it,” whenever you turn to the right or to the left. (Isaiah 30:19–21)

This section describes the blessed state of a) no more weeping, b) answers to prayer because of favor, c) personal and corporate guidance.

Let’s long for the One who is longing to show us favor. Let’s expect Him to answer.

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Also, David wrote a book about God’s love for the Jewish People called, For the Sake of the Fathers

And a book on Leadership

Check out David’s new worship album, Looking for a City