TARRYING AT JERUSALEM

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jan 14, 1889

TARRYING AT JERUSALEM.

THERE was an interval of ten days between the ascension of our Lord and the descent of the promised Spirit upon the disciples who had been commanded to go from Olivet to Jerusalem there to await his coming. It was an interval of prayer, expectancy, hope deferred, and possibly almost despair; for our Lord had not told them that they must wait any given length of time, but only that they must "tarry until they were endued with power from on high." But there was special meaning and reason, as it seems to us, in thinking over the waiting time, why the Spirit tarried. That interval, if it was trying to their patience, was a time of deep spiritual education such as we all need; a time the like of which we all must sooner or later have, and have by experience; for the lessons to be learned in these times of waiting before the Lord, must be learned by experience, for the reason that they can be learned in no other way.

The interval between promise and fulfillment is not indeed always long, but it is usually longer than we would choose, and certainly in most cases much longer than is pleasant to our eager and impatient desire. Notwithstanding, we believe God always fulfills his promise just as soon as we are ready to receive his gift. It is difficult for us to realize the anxious intensity of feeling of those disciples as day after day passed, while they waited and prayed and talked of their absent Lord, recalling, bit by bit, all his sayings to them, and what they might mean, his wondrous life, his death, his resurrection, his sudden ascension out of their sight, his promise to come again, and in the mean time his promise to send to them, as the Father's gift, the Holy Ghost, for whom they were now waiting, without so much even as a sign of his coming. Their faith must have been put to a severe test. . . . Entirely apart from any discussion in respect of the descent of the Holy Ghost, we may at least learn two wholesome lessons: one with reference to prayer, and one as to the meaning of God's delays.

With reference to prayer we are taught of the three elements which enter into it. So far as these disciples were concerned, there were three things which entered into their prayer; and we believe these three things must be found in every prayer that is successful in bringing the desired answer.

First, they were certain of the thing desired, not because they had a feeling that their prayer would be answered, but because they had the word of their Lord that he would send the promise of the Father upon them "not many days hence." Doubtless they strengthened their wavering faith by thinking over and again the words of the Lord's promise. What did he mean by "tarry," "wait," and "not many days hence"? By these they corrected their expectation, and the more enduring ones strengthened and encouraged those who were more ready to faint. All true prayer deals much with the promise, and scans the terms of the promise and the general law of prayer closely, that the thing desired may be asked in accordance with his will.

Second, they were uncertain as to the time of the fulfillment of the promise. No doubt at first full of joyful praise, they went up to Jerusalem, not questioning but immediately the promise would be upon them. But as they continued to wait and pray and no sign of answer came, doubtless they began to remember that the Lord had not told them when, as to day and hour, he would fulfill the promise. There is no more important lesson for us to learn than this—that God has not put "times and seasons" into our hands, either as to the great events promised to the whole church or the minor things which personally affect us. It is a part of the "Thy will be done" to leave the time as well as the thing to God.

In addition to these two elements of certainty and uncertainty, there is the element of steadfast, continuous prayer. This unwearying waiting and pleading draws out our whole heart to God. "Men ought always to pray and not to faint." So said our Lord; but some men say: "If you are sure of the thing, why 'continue in prayer'?" Others say: "In the midst of so many uncertainties, why not make your prayer once and then leave the whole matter to God to answer in his own good time?" These waiting and praying disciples have by their successful praying and waiting refuted both of these equally unscriptural and dangerous teachings on the subject of prayer. "I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them." "When ye shall search for me with all your hearts ye shall find me." Thus must we pray—with a promise in our mouth, with patient waiting, and with continuous, unwearying petition.

The second lesson has to do with the reflex educating power of prayer. The delay in sending the Spirit was to teach them how absolutely they were dependent upon the faithfulness of Him who had gone up from them. Had they received the promise at once they would have missed that education which came to them through their anxious waiting, and which can only come after the heart has been strained and torn by anxiety, in connection with a close look into God's word. Power or any other gift that is had immediately for the asking, or the mere taking, is apt not to be appreciated, and would soon produce self-sufficiency. This delay, also, had a salutary tendency to correct and regulate that human restlessness that chafes at any postponement of human desires.

Doubtless they were filled with an intense eagerness to start out on their new commission

of preaching and testifying concerning Jesus and the resurrection and the gospel message attached thereto; but now they are learning that God is not in such a hurry as they are. God always works surely, but not always quickly.

Again they were to learn, and so are we, that God's promises are wheels within wheels. They did not know how important it was that that promise should be fulfilled on the feast day, when vast multitudes of strangers from every part of the world would be there to hear the first gospel sermon and carry it away with them, to be re-delivered over the whole face of the world. We do not know how much the affairs of others depend on our own; how the desired fulfillment of our prayers may affect others. No real prayer was ever purely selfish, and no answer to prayer was ever meant to be consumed alone upon our own selves.—Independent.