Waiting for Fulfillment

There's something profoundly unsettling about an unfinished story. Like a puzzle with a missing piece, or a book without its final chapter, we instinctively know when something essential is absent. We feel the incompleteness in our bones.

The book of Deuteronomy ends with precisely this feeling—a deliberate incompleteness that leaves us wanting more. As Moses takes his final breath and is buried in an undisclosed location, the narrator makes a startling observation: Joshua may be leading Israel forward, but he's not Moses. There has never been a prophet like Moses, "whom the Lord knew face to face."

This isn't an insult to Joshua. It's a signpost pointing toward something greater still to come.

The Weight of Waiting

Ancient Israel found themselves in a peculiar position. They stood on the eastern bank of the Jordan River, poised to enter the Promised Land, yet still outside of it. They had been given comprehensive instructions for life in the land, yet hadn't set foot in it. They had been promised a prophet like Moses who would speak with God face to face, yet he hadn't appeared.

The unfinished business was everywhere:

• No prophet like Moses had arisen
• The people weren't yet in the land
• They hadn't experienced rest from their enemies
• The full covenant blessings remained future promises
• Most significantly, their hearts remained uncircumcised

What were God's people to do in the meantime? How should they live in the tension between promise and fulfillment?

The answer is woven throughout Deuteronomy: wait well.

Waiting well meant living in **reverent remembrance**—constantly recalling God's faithfulness in bringing them out of Egypt, providing for them in the wilderness, and defeating their enemies. Memory became their anchor when circumstances felt uncertain.

Waiting well meant living in **faithful dependence**—recognizing they needed God's power to provide what they lacked and protect them from enemies they couldn't defeat on their own.

Waiting well meant living in **covenant obedience**—following the instructions Moses had given them, not to earn God's favor, but because they already had it. Their obedience was a response to grace, not a means to obtain it.

Waiting well meant living in **patient endurance**—knowing that suffering and difficulty would come, but trusting that God would use even hardship to shape them into His people.

Waiting well meant living in **hope-filled anticipation**—never losing sight of the promises still to come, the blessings not yet experienced, the ultimate fulfillment that lay ahead.

For generations, Israel waited. Through Joshua's leadership and the judges' failures. Through the rise and fall of kings. Through exile and return. Through centuries of prophetic silence.

And then, in the fullness of time, the Hero arrived.

The Apostle Paul captured it perfectly: "For all the promises of God find their yes in Him" (2 Corinthians 1:20). Every piece of unfinished business, every unfulfilled promise, every longing expectation—all of it converges in Jesus Christ.

He is the prophet like Moses, but greater—not merely speaking with God face to face, but revealing God's very face to us. When we see Jesus, we see God Himself.

He leads us into the true Promised Land—not a strip of territory between the Jordan River and Mediterranean Sea, but the kingdom of God that transforms all of creation.

He provides the rest that Israel never fully experienced—not merely peace from external enemies, but peace with God Himself through His sacrifice on the cross.

He accomplishes the heart transformation that Deuteronomy promised—giving us new hearts, eyes to see, and ears to hear through the new covenant sealed in His blood.

Our Unfinished Business

Here's the remarkable truth: we also live in a time of unfinished business. We're not waiting for the Messiah's first coming—that promise has been gloriously fulfilled. But we are waiting for His return.

We wait for the day when He will make all things new, when we'll receive glorified bodies untouched by sin's corruption, when we'll see God face to face in the fullness of His presence.

And so the call to wait well echoes across the centuries to us.

We wait in **reverent remembrance**—not just of God's deliverance from Egypt, but of His creative power, His covenant faithfulness throughout history, and especially of Christ's cross and resurrection. This is why we gather weekly around communion tables, remembering His sacrifice until He comes.

We wait in **faithful dependence**—recognizing we still need His power, His provision, His presence to guide us through this life.

We wait in **covenant obedience**—not to the old covenant given through Moses, but to the new covenant in Christ. We follow Jesus' commands, teaching others to observe all that He commanded.

We wait in **patient endurance**—knowing that suffering in this life is never wasted, that God uses it to conform us to Christ's image, that "he who endures to the end will be saved."

We wait in **hope-filled anticipation**—for the return of our Savior who will lead us in the final exodus to be His people in His presence forever.

The Question That Remains

Are you waiting well? Or have you grown impatient, assuming you have a better plan, expecting God to fulfill your desires on your timeline Do you see that Christ is the fulfillment of every promise, the solution to all unfinished business?

For those who belong to Him, who have trusted in His sacrifice and devoted themselves to following Him, the invitation is clear: align your life with faithful waiting. Live in the tension between "already" and "not yet" with confidence, obedience, and joyful expectation.

But for those who don't yet know Him, who have never confessed their sin and received His forgiveness, the warning is equally clear: you're not waiting for a Savior's return. You're waiting for a Judge.

The good news is that today—right now—you can turn from self-righteous pursuits and legalistic striving. You can confess your sin, ask for His grace and mercy, and receive the forgiveness that comes only through Christ.

Because God's unfinished business is finished in Christ, His people do well to wait well on Him.

The story isn't over yet. The final chapter is still being written. But we know the Author, and we know how it ends—with every promise fulfilled, every tear wiped away, and the full presence of God dwelling with His people forever.

Until that day, we wait well.