22 May. Continuing our study of God. God is on time. I suppose I alluded to this in a previous post about His being eternal. But this 'subtheme' is important to our living out life with Him in these days. He is never late. Some of the best biblical characters made serious mistakes thinking that their timing was better than the Lord's timing. Most notable of those is Abraham, father of the faith.
Seems Abraham had a promise from God when he was 75 years old. God told Abram He would make him as numerous as the stars of the sky and the sands on the seashore. Wow, that's a lot of progeny. And Abe was 76, then 77, and on and on....up to 86 years old. Then he kept mulling the promise in his head and so did his wife Sara.
Sara couldn't wait any longer and suggested Abraham take care of the situation by sleeping with her personal assistant Hagar. The child she would bear (think surrogacy) would take care of the heir problem which was looking gloomy.
Neither Sarah nor Abe was patient, and Ishmael was born a few months later, and he and his descendants have been the cause of much trouble in the Middle East to this day.
God is not patient as the world counts patience, but He is on a different timeline to be sure. Peter wrote this, "The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance." (2 Peter 3.9)
God's love and patience is causing Him to delay His own sending of Messiah to the earth, SO THAT those who do not yet profess Him as Messiah and Lord will have time to do so. That's awesome, eh?
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