Chakah

If you've been reading my blog since the beginning of the year, you know that I declared 2009 The Year of Hope. Since January, I've been digging into what biblical hope is. I've learned that hope is a confident expectation. I've learned that hope is knowing relief will arise. I've learned that our hope is found in Christ alone.

I also learned that to hope is to wait. Well, I thought I learned that. In actuality, though, I scratched the surface of the lesson in my brain but was not prepared to learn the lesson in my life.

I have to be honest. I think on a certain level, I thought that by casually studying hope, I might change rather quickly, or that something miraculously hopeful would pop up immediately. Like, in February. Oh me of little faith! I forgot that, most likely, God was going to ask me to wait patiently in hope as I let the truth seep down all the way to the depths of my heart.

And so my study on hope has turned into a study on waiting, although I know the two are one and the same. So I am waiting. And waiting...and waiting. Waiting for God to do a new thing. For him to answer a few very specific prayers. For him to refresh, to heal and restore. I'm waiting.

This brings us to Hebrew lesson #2.

We've already discussed QAVAH, one of the Hebrew words for WAIT that also means "to hope for, to look eagerly, to expect with intensity." But there are two other Hebrew words that are translated as "wait" in English - DANAM, which means "to become silent and still" (found in Psalm 37:7 - "Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him"), and CHAKAH, which means "to wait or to long for." Chakah expresses a burning desire, a longing for something you want desperately.

Chakah is found in the following verses:

Isaiah 30:18

"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!"

Note: Both "long" in the first line and "wait" in the last line are the Hebrew word chakah.

Psalm 33:20

"Our soul waits for the Lord;

he is our help and our shield."

Interesting. One type of waiting is leaning forward in anticipation and hope. Another type of waiting is just being quiet before the Lord. And a third type - chakah - is intrinsically tied with longing.

Beth Moore made an interesting note on this in our Esther Bible study two weeks ago. In referencing Isaiah 30:18, she commented, "It's not a wait without a longing; otherwise, it's just a passing of time." I've never thought about it that way, but isn't it true? They say a watched pot never boils, but that's not exactly the case. It eventually boils - it just feels like it takes 2 hours instead of 2 minutes! Such is the case with waiting in our lives.

The hope is found, though, in a key truth in that same verse, Isaiah 30:18. Because not only are we chakah'ing - God himself is chakah'ing too. Let that sink into your soul as you wait, as you long. The Lord above, sovereign over all creation, who "does whatever pleases him" (Ps 135:6), is also longing and waiting. And as Beth Moore said, "If He's waiting, then there's something that the waiting is for."

So, dear friend, as you wait on the Lord... waiting on him to hear your plea, crying out with a burning desire, longing for him to answer your prayer, begging him for that thing you want desperately, chakah'ing... remember that he's longing, too. His heart, in all its sovereign glory, is aching for the day when all will be restored and his plan will be revealed. He longs to comfort you, to show you compassion, to do the very thing you are praying like crazy that he will do. But if today is not the day, then there is a purpose for your waiting. Absolutely, without a shadow of a doubt.

Rest in hope... danam.

Lean forward with great, hopeful expectation... qavah.

And have hope that, in your deepest longing, the Lord is longing too. As you wait, remember that he knows the plans he has for you, and that they are plans to prosper you. To give you a hope and a future (Jer 29:11).

Have hope in your longing... chakah.