2 It is not good to have zeal without knowledge, (Knowledge can safeguard us)
nor to be HASTY and miss the way. Proverbs 19
I was impacted by the word, Haste or Hastiness, as I read this morning.
Some definitions of Hastiness – the ACT OF DOING OR SAYING THINGS IN A HURRY WITHOUT NECESSARY CARE OR THOUGHT.
DONE WITH EXCESSIVE OR CARELESS SPEED.
Similar words, Rashly, Impetuously, Impulsively.
Another thought might be, Knee-jerk reaction – react in a very predictable way without thinking.
TAKE TIME FOR ALL THINGS: GREAT HASTE MAKES GREAT WASTE. Benjamin Franklin (One of America’s founding fathers)
A further damning reference in Proverbs says that even the fool has less chance of falling than someone who speaks in haste.
20 Do you see someone who speaks in haste?
There is more hope for a fool than for them. Proverbs 29:20
Two Biblical examples of haste and its consequences was Israel’s treaty with the Gibeonites, who tricked them. Israel didn’t seek God but believed the evidence of their own eyes, which was false. They made a treaty with people whom God wanted removed from the land, so that Israel would not be influenced by the worship of idols. Things that appear harmless to us may in fact carry the seeds of great devastation and pain, or Great Waste as Ben Franklin declared.
15 Then Joshua made a treaty of peace with them to let them live, and the leaders of the assembly ratified it by oath.
16 Three days after they made the treaty with the Gibeonites, the Israelites heard that they were neighbours, living near them. Joshua 9
A further Biblical example of acting ourselves without God’s mandate is the birth of Ishmael. God had promised Abraham and Sarah a son, but they didn’t conceive. Sarah then gave Hagar, her maid, to Abraham to bear him a son and that action has caused their descendants great trouble to this day. They didn’t wait on the fulfilment of God’s promise and they’ve experienced great pain down the centuries for this one impetuous act. Genesis 16 & 21
The Bible speaks of Jeremiah the prophet, ‘Ten days later the word of the Lord came to him’. Meanwhile, the prophet and the people had to wait. Jeremiah 42:7
We live in a very different world to our ancestors, everything has been accelerated by cars, planes and computers. We live in an ‘age of rushing’, but we can’t sacrifice speed of action over taking time to consider things before God. I believe the words of Benjamin Franklin are more relevant now than ever.
TAKE TIME FOR ALL THINGS: GREAT HASTE MAKES GREAT WASTE.
May the Lord bless and keep you today. Immanuel, God is with us.