HEBREW WORD STUDY – APPROPRIATE MOMENT IECHAKEH יחכה Yod Cheth Kap Hei

Isaiah 30:18: “And therefore will the LORD wait, that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you: for the LORD [is] a God of judgment: blessed [are] all they that wait for him.

About ten chapters from the above study verse the writer again uses the word wait and in that context, it is us waiting on the Lord. In Isaiah 30:18 it is God waiting upon us. What we need to note is that there are two different words used for wait. The word for wait in 30:41 is the word qarav, they that wait upon the Lord will renew their strength. When we hear the word wait we think one of two things. Sitting back watching, looking and just having a general expectation for something to happen or for someone to appear. The second thing might be someone performing a service, waiting upon you, serving you as a waiter or waitress. However, neither one is qarav, waiting to have our strength renewed. Qarav is a word for making rope. Binding tiny strands of fabric together very tightly to make a rope that will not break.

In Isaiah 30:18 there is a different word which is rendered as wait and that is iechakeh which is more what we think of when we hear the word wait, but a little more specific. It is used for waiting in an ambush. Waiting for an appropriate time or moment to make an appearance.

What the prophet is saying is that God will wait for just the right and appropriate time to be gracious to us. The word gracious is chanan which means to show favor. It also means establishing a firm beginning, to strengthen. So God waits to show His favor or to strengthen us so as to establish a firm beginning. He waits for the finish to establish a beginning. Sounds crazy? No? Well, let me share with you the fine print in your Salvation contract:

II Corinthians 4:7-10 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. (8) [We are] troubled on every side, yet not distressed; [we are] perplexed, but not in despair; ⁽9) persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;(10) Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.

What that is saying is that God has given us many promises but as time presses on and we does not deliver on these promises we begin to fret. We have trouble on every side, but if we remain confident in God we will not be distressed. We may find ourselves perplexed over why God hasn’t come through but our faith keeps us from despair. We will be persecuted but never forsaken, struck down but we will not be destroyed. Why? Verse 10 basically says that we must die to ourselves before the life of Jesus is manifested.

You see we want it both ways. We also still depend upon ourselves and manifest the life of Jesus. But that is not the fair exchange. We want all the goodies that come with Jesus dying for us but we forget, fair is fair. He died for us we must die for Him. In our case, it is not a physical death we die but dying of our selfish desires so that the life of Jesus may be manifested.

We get into a situation and yeah, we are going to trust God but we are also going to trust in our bank account, our savings, our friends, insurance policies and all the safety nets we put out there. Sometimes God has to remove all our safety nets where there is nothing left to depend upon but only God.

We may have emptied our savings account, maxed out our credit cards, cashed in our 401K, borrowed from family and friends and still the banker is at the door with the sheriff. We have no resources left, the furniture is on the truck and we have resigned ourselves to sleeping under a viaduct at night and standing on a street corner with an empty McDonald’s cup asking strangers for extra change. When just as the driver of the furniture truck turns on the engine, God says to him: “Ok, you can put it back now.” I mean that is cruel and barbaric. It’s hard on your heart. But sometimes God ichakeh,waits until that appropriate time, when He has stripped us of all our trust in ourselves so that He can demonstrate that our trust in is God alone.

I had a guy on my disability bus who is an ex-Marine who fought in Viet Nam and was wounded. As I drove him to the VA Hospital he told me how he went through boot camp and thought the instructors were trying to kill him. Once in Viet Nam he realized his instructors were not trying to kill him they were trying to keep him from being killed. He was pushed to his very limits and then pushed further and because of that he survived the combat of Viet Nam.

God is not being cruel and barbaric when He waits or ichakeh for that proper moment. He is preparing you so when you face cruel and barbaric treatment you will depend 100% on Him.