With the changes that have recently taken place in our lives, one that has stood above the rest is not seeing my brothers and sisters in Christ on a weekly basis. The truth is most of us have not appreciated the blessing of communing with our Lord regularly until now. What I miss most is what the Church has been doing since it was established (Acts 2:41-42). How we long to return to God and one another! Part of God’s plan for the Church was for us to encourage one another when we meet (1 Thess. 5:11-13). Though we are not meeting physically currently, we can still encourage one another in different ways. Take heart that we are not the first to be in this position. In fact, God’s people spent a majority of their time longing to return as well.
While in Egypt, Israel longed for God like we could never understand. They were in bondage; unable to enjoy the freedoms we are blessed with (Ex. 2:23-25). They certainly were not allowed to worship God as He desired while in Egypt. Moses was sent to Pharaoh so that the Israelites could go into the desert and sacrifice to the Lord (Ex. 5:3). They were not allowed to worship God, but instead were given more work by Pharaoh (Ex. 5:8b-9). Later on, Pharaoh desired to compromise with Moses. Pharaoh would allow them to worship in Egypt, but would not allow them to go into the wilderness. This compromise was not acceptable to God and therefore was turned down; Israel was still unable to worship (Ex. 8:25-27). We long to open these doors once again, but could you imagine the longing these Israelites must have had for God? How blessed we are!
The Psalms are full of writers who were longing for God (Ps. 42:1-2; 63:1; 73:25; 119:20; 119:81; 143:6-7). It is fair to say this is a continuous theme throughout. One Psalmist in particular highlighted his unrelenting desire to return to worship God with his people (Ps. 122). David sought to worship God (vs. 1-3) and to be with his people in Jerusalem (vs. 4-9). In the Old Covenant, the Jews were commanded to meet together only three times a year for festivals (Ex. 34:23; Deut. 16:16). The synagogues were not established till Israel was taken into captivity, meaning there were no weekly assemblies during the time of David. The three times a year that David went to the house of the Lord were special to him! Now that we are unable to worship God on a weekly basis, when things return to normal, will they be special to us?
During Israel’s time in the promise land, they did not long for God as they ought to. They instead worshiped idols and false gods (Judg. 2:11-14; 2 Kgs. 17:10-23). All the way up to their exile and Jerusalem’s destruction, Israel forsook God (Jer. 44:1-22). Yet, when God allowed the Israelites to return from exile, they longed to serve Him (Ezra 6:19-22; 7:10; 8:21-23; 10:1-ff). When Nehemiah brought another wave of exiles back to Jerusalem, they showed a new dedication to keeping God’s Law that their forefathers never did (Neh. 8:1-12). They longed to keep God’s word, how about you?
These are certainly unprecedented times we are currently in, but take heart that we are not the first to long for normalcy to return. The Israelites in Egypt, David, and the exiled Jews longed for God. They were unable to meet for a time but when the opportunity arose, they appreciated the time they had with God and each other even more. Will you have a new appreciation for God and His people when the Church gathers again? It is my prayer that this short time away from one another will magnify the importance of the Church coming together when we are able (Heb. 10:24-25).
–Brandon Foresha
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