I know. The title sounds like a Kung Fu special move. Well, it’s not.
First, watch this to get in the mood:
I’ve noticed the Lord God, being the God that He is has a certain ‘style’. It seems somewhat disrespectful to say the Lord has ‘style’ but I can’t think of a better way to explain it. He does certain things a certain way more than once in the Bible and one of them in particular caught my attention.
I was reading about brother Joseph who ended up in the slammer for a really long time for trying to do the right thing. I mean, he avoided being trapped in adultery (or even the appearance of it) by fleeing the scene and ended up getting imprisoned for a false accusation. Not cool at all.
But the drama continued. One day the ol’ Baker, Cup Bearer and the Candlestick Maker (ok the last guy wasn’t there) show up in jail. Brother Joe correctly interprets their dreams and the Cup Bearer is free to go and promised to promote Joseph to Pharaoh. No dice. The Cupster forgets. And Joseph gets the joy of spending yet more time in the slammer for the same crime he didn’t commit. Very, very uncool.
I was thinking about how much bitterness towards God could have filled his heart and about how many hours he must have spent in sadness and depression over his never-ending jail sentence.
But then it happened. He was probably sitting there zoned out staring at the wall thinking about how much he wished he could get out of his hopeless life when it happened (underline added):
Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they brought him hastily out of the dungeon: and he shaved [himself], and changed his raiment, and came in unto Pharaoh. (Genesis 41:14)
I picture the episode looking somewhat like this:
The servants of Pharaoh storm in, yell for him, find him, drag him full speed upstairs, throw him in the bathtub, drag him while he’s still buttoning up his last button and toss him in front of Pharaoh where he promptly interprets his dream and becomes Pharaoh’s right hand man. Just like that. Boom. Done.
Real slow…
SLOW
then a lot of quick..
QUICK
But that wasn’t the only example of the STQ style.
Right after Joseph we see it again when the entire Hebrew Krew get stuck in Egypt as slaves for over 60 years. This is real slow if you were wondering.
SLOW
Then, Moses shows up out of nowhere and over the course of a relative blink of an eye this happens:
And thus shall ye eat it; [with] your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste: it [is] the LORD’S passover. (Exodus 12:11)
Not even time to pack a lunch or shut off the gas valve or turn down the hot water tank and the Lord has them driven out of slavery and out of the land of slavery.
QUICK
Get my point? That’s the STQ style.
I have not done an in depth study on this, but what I expect to find out in my own life and through the experience of others is that the ‘slow times’ make us aware that the fast thing is from the Lord. Perhaps if the slow wasn’t slow enough, we wouldn’t appreciate the fast deliverance? I’m not sure.
But what I do know is that the Lord definitely has the STQ style…
Please reply in the comments to add more biblical examples of the STQ style.
