Online Bible Studies : Study #1 : Silent Night

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#3:

Wait on the Lord to Respond
What the Word says about waiting on the Lord

"Now all Judah, with their little ones, their wives, and their children, stood before the LORD." 2 CHRONICLES 20:13

Why even mention that the people "stood before the Lord"?

Looking at 2 Chronicles 20:13, the author makes a specific point to establish the fact that the people of Judah stood still and waited on God for an answer to their desperate prayer for deliverance. Clearly, there's a reason why such a statement is included — which gives us another opportunity to dig deeper in the Scriptures and learn something new.

What was it like for the people of Judah to stand and wait for the Lord to respond, especially with an imposing enemy advancing against them? What does it really mean to wait on God? Let's take a quick look with PC Study Bible...

In verse 13, "stood" means much more than that...

I started my study by opening my Interlinear Bible , which gave me an easy-to-use, word-by-word breakdown of the entire verse, showing the original Hebrew word, the English equivalent, the Strong's number, and the correct Hebrew pronunciation. Clicking on the Strong's number for "stood" revealed the Hebrew word `amad, meaning "to abide, confirm, continue, dwell, remain, stay, tarry"...What a difference!

How PC Study Bible helped this portion of my study:

Wherever you see this icon, click it to view a screen shot from PC Study Bible of the item described.

	I used my Interlinear Bible for a word-by-word original language breakdown of the verse and easy access to Strong's definitions for every word.
	I searched through PC Study Bible's exhaustive concordances to find related passages on "waiting on the Lord".
	As I found the Scriptures I wanted, I used PC Study Bible's Appendable Clipboard to copy them as a group into Microsoft Word® so that I could easily print them out as a Bible study handout.

You can see that with just a few easy clicks, I gained a much more complete picture of the scene in 2 Chronicles 20:13. It's obvious from the Hebrew definition that the people of Judah weren't simply "hanging out" for a few minutes to see if the Lord would respond. They were absolutely determined not to leave that place until God showed up and told them precisely what to do!

Be encouraged...you're not the only who's had to wait for God...

To finish up this portion of my study, I wanted to find some encouraging Scriptures to "hang onto" during times when my peace is challenged and it feels like God's a long way off. So, I turned to PC Study Bible's exhaustive concordances . With a couple clicks, I was able to pull up five powerful passages from the New King James translation containing the phrase "wait on the Lord". Here's what I found:

REFERENCE	VERSE (NKJV)
Psalm 27:14	"Wait on the LORD; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the LORD!"
Psalm 37:9	" For evildoers shall be cut off; But those who wait on the LORD, They shall inherit the earth."
Psalm 37:34	"Wait on the LORD, And keep His way, And He shall exalt you to inherit the land; When the wicked are cut off, you shall see it."
Isaiah 8:17	"And I will wait on the LORD, Who hides His face from the house of Jacob; And I will hope in Him."
Isaiah 40:31	"But those who wait on the LORD shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint."

And lastly, using PC Study Bible's Appendable Clipboard , I copied each verse above to the clipboard, then pasted all five of them at once into my word processor for printing as a Bible study handout!

As you can see, from start to finish, PC Study Bible made every part of my Bible study so much easier — and a hundred times more comprehensive!

Thanks for joining us!

Thank you so much for coming along with us on this month's Bible study. Our prayer is that this series of free studies would help enrich your own study of God's Word, as well as ignite in you a greater passion to dig deeper every time you open the Bible.

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