The Servants Knew

I was reading in John the other day and I had a question hit me. Why did those servants listen to Mary?

She wasn't the master of the house. Nobody told us she was the governor of the feast, and she wasn't the one carrying the trays. Yet she turned to a room full of servants and said, "Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it," and they did it. Now listen. I believe they listened because they had just watched her take a "not yet" and act like the yes was on its way.

Look at what she had been told. She said to Jesus, "They have no wine." And He said to her, "Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come." I'll be honest with you, that sounds hard. A lot of folks read it and hear a door slamming. They hear no. But He didn't say no. He said not yet. And I'm not guessing at what was in Mary's heart. I'm reading what she did next. A woman who heard a no would have gone home. Mary turned around and got the servants ready. That tells you what she heard.

You see, a no closes the matter. A not yet leaves it open. Most believers don't handle it that way. Let a little delay come, and they decide God has turned them down. They prayed and nothing moved, so they said, "Well, I guess that's not for me." Friend, did He say no, or did He say not yet? You may have taken a not yet and stamped it no, and sat down on the very day the wine was about to be made.

Let me put it like this. A farmer walks out of the house one morning and looks at the sky. There isn't a cloud over that field, not a one, but he has lived a long time and he knows what he's looking at. He calls his boy and says, "Put that feed under the shed." The boy looks up and says, "Is it going to rain?" And the farmer says, "Not yet. But son, move the feed." The boy can stand there arguing with a clear sky, or he can move the feed. The farmer isn't talking about what's up there now. He's talking about what's coming. The boy who moves the feed on a dry morning is the one with dry feed when the rain comes.

Mary talked like that farmer. Nothing had changed in that house. The wine was still gone, but she had heard a not yet, and a not yet means something is coming. So she said to the servants, "Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it." Notice she didn't say "if." She said "whatsoever." She got them ready for a yes that hadn't been spoken.

Why would she hear it that way? Because she knew Him. She knew that when Jesus said something, He meant just what He said. Some of us hear more in God's words than He ever said, and then we wonder why we lost heart.

Those servants weren't in a comfortable spot either. In that culture, running out of wine at a wedding was a shame on the household, and the ones handling the supply were standing close to the problem. So when Jesus said, "Fill the waterpots with water," think how that sounded. There's no wine, and He wants water. Somebody said, "Well, they were servants, they just did what they were told." Maybe so. But a servant knows what happens when a job goes wrong, and it's usually the servant who hears about it.

Yet John says, "And they filled them up to the brim." Not half. To the brim. A man doesn't fill a pot to the brim on a word he doesn't believe. I believe something had settled in those men when they watched a woman get a not yet and refuse to fall apart over it.

Now here's what I want you to see. The governor of the feast tasted the water that was made wine, and John says he "knew not whence it was." He had the position and the good seat, and he still didn't know where it came from. Then John adds, "but the servants which drew the water knew." Look at that. Not the guests, and not the man in charge. The ones who obeyed during the not yet were the ones who found out. They had carried that water and seen what went into those pots. Everybody else got the benefit of the miracle, but those men got the knowledge of it.

There's something you only learn by obeying in the not yet. You can hear preaching about God's faithfulness, and thank God for it. You can read about it, and thank God for that too. But the man who moved on His word when the pots were full of plain water knows something the man in the good seat will never know. He knows where the wine came from. And he knows it because he was standing there when it was still a not yet.

The not yet isn't dead time. That's what I want somebody to get hold of. It's the time when God is getting ready to speak, and the question is whether you'll still be standing there when He does. Mary was still standing there. Those servants were still standing there. And when He spoke, the wine came, and it found them ready.

Now let me be fair with you. At Cana the not yet didn't last long. Jesus spoke, and the wine came right then. Some of you have waited a good deal longer than that, and I won't tell you it's the same wait. But look at what Mary did. She didn't ask how long. She got ready. You brought Him the need. You said what Mary said, in your own words, "They have no wine." Don't turn a not yet into a never. Don't let a delay talk you out of what you know about Him.

Keep your ears turned toward Him. Keep your pots where you can get to them. When He speaks, and He will speak, whatever He says, do it. Fill it to the brim. Don't wait to see the wine first. At Cana the wine came after the water.

What has He told you to do?

Do it.

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