This consciousness, deepened as it must be when we enter, not the

presence of our elders, but the presence of 'The Ancient of Days', 'The Only

Wise God', is well expressed by the attitude of 'waiting'.

We wait in silence, we wait expectantly.  We wait -- for the One in

Whose presence we tarry, is great and wise, just and holy.  We do well

therefore to hear the injunction of the book of Ecclesiastes:

'Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready

to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools: for they consider not

that they do evil.  Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart

be hasty to utter anything before God: for God is in heaven, and thou

upon earth: therefore let thy words be few' (Eccles. 5:1,2).

Another salutary lesson is found in Isaiah 8.  It is a day of

declension, and departure from the living God.  The testimony is 'bound up',

the law is 'sealed', and 'the Lord hideth His face from the house of Jacob'.

Under conditions such as these, the prophet says:

'I will wait upon the Lord, that hideth His face from the house of

Jacob, and I will look for Him' (Isa. 8:17).

Again, in Habakkuk, in another day of darkness and despair, the prophet

learns the lesson of waiting:

'The vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall

speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will

surely come, it will not tarry ... the just shall live by his faith'

(Hab. 2:3,4).

The Lord's silence must not be misconstrued; it is

not indifference, it is not inertia.  He awaits His Own appointed time, and

the believer, if he would be in harmony with the Lord, will confidently wait

too.  We read in Daniel 12, in connection with prophetic visions: 'Blessed is

he that waiteth' (Dan. 12:12), and in Isaiah 64 the 'patience of hope'

reaches its fulfilment in the words of verse 4:

'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' (Isa. 64:4).

Waiting is essentially associated with hope:

'But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for

it' (Rom. 8:25).

We turn now to a word which means not only 'to wait', but 'to wait with

hope' (Hebrew yachal).

Job's use of this word in chapter 29 is particularly illuminating:

'Unto me men gave ear, and waited, and kept silence at my counsel.

After my words they spake not again; and my speech dropped upon them.

And they waited for me as for the rain' (Job 29:21 -23).