I clearly do not understand God’s timing. His ways so often include that which I cannot see or take into consideration. It’s no wonder that when we pray to God, asking for His provision, the timeline doesn’t always match up with what we would like it to be. God, who sees and orchestrates all – and is faithful to keep all of His promises – is not inactive, but is working in the most intertwined of circumstances.
I caught just a glimpse of this today in my reading from the book of Genesis. God is promising Abram that he will become a father of many great nations. God is sharing with Abram that he will no longer be called Abram, but Abraham. Abraham gets what few of us do, explicit information about his future from God. God spells it out for Abraham, just to be clear that He is the One providing.
God tells Abraham, you will have a son, not Ishmael, but a son, Isaac. Sarah will give birth to him in a year’s time. Kings will come through him. A great nation will come through him. God tells Abraham that his offspring will become slaves in a foreign land for 400 years, but will then be given the land of Canaan as their own.
Can you imagine? It’s as if God mapped it all out so that His plan could be spread through Abraham’s children. So that they would be prepared. To erase the doubts that God had left them or abandoned them that would inevitably arise when they became slaves.
Perhaps the reason that God doesn’t often reveal our futures in such detail is that even with the knowledge provided to us, is easily doubted. We don’t wait well. We get distracted from the big picture and plan and focus more on our current circumstances and desires.
Why did God say to His chosen and beloved Abraham, “You can be sure that your descendants will be strangers in a foreign land, where they will be oppressed as slaves for 400 years”? (Genesis 15:13) Even this was a part of the blessing and prospering of the chosen. It may not have felt this way – especially during the years of slavery, but it certainly was.
“But I will punish the nation that enslaves them, and in the end they will come away with great wealth… After four generations your descendants will return to this land, for the sins of the Amorites do not yet warrant their destruction.” (Genesis 15:14, 16)
God had some major things He wanted to accomplish through this plan.
God wanted to show that He writes the future and that His words and promises can be trusted. Hence the specific timeline.
God wanted to bless His people with resources as they would enter into the promised land. God meant to achieve this by redistributing the great wealth of Egypt into the hands of His chosen as they would make their exodus from Egypt some 400 years later.
God wanted to wait to destroy the Amorites. It was not their time yet. Perhaps there were still those who served and followed the One true God there. But God knew that in 400 years time, all that would remain of the Amorites would be evil.
God wanted to build up the faith and covenant with His chosen. He wanted to develop and grow them in number and in dependence upon Him.
God’s timing is not a consistent match for what we want it to be, but it is always better. It is always right. Always complete. God was not acting too soon, or too late.
Friend, may we never lose sight of the fact that God’s plan for us is always good. May the time frame not be something that discourages us, but rather drives us closer into the arms of One who can be trusted with every tiny detail of our lives.
Blessings!