Is God Procrastinating?

Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).

Galatians 4:4–5 ESV

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

The fullness of time- the ripeness of time… the delivery date of time.

Genesis…in the king james version, it says that enmity will come between the serpent’s seed and Eve’s seed. Why does it use the term “seed”? Because of how Jesus would be conceived… every other person is conceived from seed of the father. Jesus was virgin born, his seed was from the holy spirit.... fand that makes him Mary’s seed.

When did God do this?

At the perfect moment… At just the right time.

So why, if God said this in Genesis 3 did he wait almost 4000 years to fulfil it? Why the wait?

Why not just rush into the Garden of Eden and settle it for good? Drop His Son Jesus into the garden, and the whole mess owuld be over with in a flash.

Why wait? The perfect time had to come.

So why did He not come before Abraham and Sarah? Or before Joseph and Egypt and the time in Egypt? Why not come before Moses had to lead the people out in the Exodus?

Why not come before the time of the Kings, or the time of the disperson into Babylon?

And think about the verse this morning from Isaiah 7:14

Isaiah 7:14 ESV

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

This verse occurs 700 years b3efore Jesus comes on the scene. Why no big hurry, God? Why are you waiting?

God promised, all the way back in Genesis 3:16, to send a Messiah… so why hasn’t it happened?

And even if you are just a surface student of the Bible, you know that the Jews were looking for this Messiah on every level. Where was he?

And why was He waiting?

It sometimes takes years to see the “why” behind our “waiting” on God. The 2020 vision that comes from the passing of time is incredible, but the wait in between is unbearable.

Because we only hear silence. When we expect to see or hear God’s voice or hand at work- He seemingly is silent. And when we hear nothing, we often interpret that as absence- God’s absence.

Meanwhile, 20 minutes or 20 years down the line we look back and we clearly see God’s purpose in the wait… but in the middle of it all, it can feel like abandonment.

And so, the 700 years from Isaiah 7:14 to Jesus really didn’t make sense until the day Jesus was born- but even then, few understood or recognized the significance of His birth.

In that 700 years, 300 of those years are addressed in the Old testament record. But the other 400 are known as the silent years- when God didn’t speak at all- the intertestamental period- and when it seemed like no one heard from God. At all.

Did you ever think about what the time was when Jesus arrived? Why was that particular moment in time considered to be the “best time”?

First, because the Roman Empire had come into being, just after the macedonian and persian empire of Alexander the Great. That empire introduced a common language across the known world- the language of greek.

It was during this time that the Old Testament was also translated into the Greek language for the first time… around 270 BC.

A new way of learning had set in- instead of just listeneing to a teacher, students began to ask questions.... the Socratic method.

in 63 BC peace came over the world when the Romans conquered the greeks… and a season of global peace arrived ( the world as they knew it.)

And finally, an item called the Diaspora took place. The Jews were dispersed over the Roman empire.

So lets do the math on alll of that. In the 400 years that God was silent, everyone could understand the Bible, read tje Bible, ask questions on the Bible, and the message of this coming Messiah (God’s answer to all of the questions) was being shared by people (Jews) who were being dispersed across the known world....

And so we see, that while god’s people waited on God, God was at work in the world. They just didn’t see it.

I am not a video gamer. You know, these people that play computer games all day long. A few years ago I bought an xbox so my grandkids would play me, but I still can’t play… Easton does, I just watch. but I’ve always been fascinated with 2 types of computer games- submarines and airplanes. At one time I had a submarine game I liked… but it’s now out of date. And I always wanted to buy Microsoft’s Flight simulator.

but the problem with both of these is time. Not just the time it takes for me to play them, but the time doing nothing in them. In the submarine game, you spend a great deal of time just driving around underwater hopeing you find an enemy ship or sub. And I read an article about Flight Simulator this week that said that once you’re in the air there’s nothing challenging about flying level- it’s down right boring.

So they put this thing called time compression into the programs… it compresses time… it moves you to the next event faster than in reality you would get there. Becasse you really should be working anyway!

Wouldn’t it be nice if we had time compression for us? If we had the ability to get to what we are waiting for right now?

You see, we wait on God and we think we’ve failed, we’ve sinned, God doesn’t care, etc.,

And we are not alone, a lot of people think this way and have thought this way.

What was Moses thinking during the 40 years he ran from Egypt?

What was Jonah thinking in the belly of that whale?

What was Job thinking when he lost it all? And his friends nagged him?

What about the woman with the issue of blood for 12 years or the man who couldn’t see or… you get it.

Everyone has waited on God at some time or another.

And I hope you see from scriptue that God’s silence is not his absence and your waiting is not his abandonment.

And just because he hasn’t does not mean he won’t. There’s something going on in the wait.

There’s maturity in Moses over those 40 years.

There’s discipline in Jonah in the belly of that whale.

There’s faith growing in that woman with th issue of blood for 12 years.

And when we wait on God, perhaps it is because He’s actually waiting on us. Everyone in the Bible that has waited on God has grown themselves before God did something for them.

And it seems that Maybe God wants to do something in us befgore he does something for us.

Maybe he’s dealing with that imperfection in your life, that sin, that desire, that tongue, that impatience, that addiction, that sin.

He’s working in you to make you in the image of Christ… so don’t waste it. wait but let Him work,

I want you to look at 2 Peter 3.9 for a minute

2 Peter 3:9 ESV

The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

What if the God we are waiting on is actually waiting on us?

When You Want To Lose Patience With God, Find His Purpose Instead.

When Moses killed the Egyptian, there was youthful impulsiveness in the moment and also in Moses. That youthful impulsiveness needed tamed if God was going to prepare Moses for the task of leading God’s people out of bondage in Egypt. And apparently it was going to take 40 years for that to happen.

Moses as a young man would have been not only unbelievable to PHaroah- He would have been suspect by the Hebrews as well.

So God grew Him.

As Moses tended his father in laws livestock for 40 years, I’d like to think He dreamed of one day returning to his friends- but he couldn’t. And so that freedom he should have experienced could have easily become his own bondage as he sought to figure out what was happening to him.

And I’d like to think that one day he realized that God’s purpose was not to alienate him from those he loved but rather to mature him to know how to love them in the best way. And that was to lead them out of bondage.

You may ask why 40 years? Well, it was the right time- the pregnant time- the perfect time.

When Jonah disobeyed God and didn’t Go to Nineveh as God had told him to- He needed to learn that choices have consequences. He needed to know that the first requisite to serving God was not only listening- but obeying God.

And so God disciplined Jonah.

And the three days in the belly of a whale was what it took to learn discipline.

The three days that passed, I am sure Jonah tried to escape the whales prison. But he couldn’t. And so he learned discipline in that time. He learned what it meant to not be able to escape what he thought was the worst thing that had probably ever happened to him. And so he waited for some of that time , I’m sure, to die. But God had a better plan- And that meant living an obedient disciplined life instead of an undisciplined and disobedient life.

God says that discipline is love- so I wonder how long after he left the whale’s belly it took him to know that God disciplined Him because He loved him. But, it all took time. But I’ll bet it was at the right time- the perfect time- when Jonah was ready to realize it.

And that women with the issue of blood for 12 years-Jesus said her “faith” made her whole… why didn’t it heal her on the first day or the first week or the first month or the first year? Perhaps it is because in the 12th year she had matured her faith in God enough to know He was the only one who could heal her.

And during that time what do you suppose happened to her? I’ll bet she went from doctor to doctor to doctor. She tried new diets, new ideas, and different remedies- all to no avail.

At some point in the 12 years, I guess relatively late in those 12 years- she realized that she couldn’t find the remedy anywhere- and her only hope should have been her first hope- God. So she waited on Him, and it was precisely at the perfect time that Jesus walked through her town and she reached for him.

As you wait for what you are waiting on- what is God trying to do in you? Is it to mature you enough to be able to love perfectly those God has created you to love? Is God working His purpose in your life in this time?

As you wait and anticipate God in your seeming captivity. The captivity that not only holds you back, it holds you prisoner. Is God working in that? Are you trying so hard to get out of that prison you’ve failed to know the purpose of why you were placed there? Could it be that God wants you to be disciplined enough to recognize the value that comes from being obedient to Him first?

As you seek God in your situation, has it seemed like an eternity? And you’ve tried everything else but Him? You’ve gone to friends, to self help books, to clubs and hobbies to try to find the answer but nothings changed? Have you reached the end of your rope to the point that as you let go you can trust that God will catch you- even though you haven’t seen or heard from Him for 12 years? Could it be that during this long season of silence God has been building in your life the faith you need to let go of the rope because you know that in spite of His silence you can trust that He’s there and will catch you?

Is God’s purpose in all of this to teach you deeper faith in the one you’ve never really met but know is there anyway?

And it’s now the perfect, most pregnant time- to realize His purpose in your life?

What is it for you? I’ve never known a person who isn’t waiting on God to do something. What are you waiting on God to do? Perhaps you need to grow, or learn, or trust, or maybe it’s something else.

Could it be that you’ve waited long enough and the time has come to realize that the God you are waiting on is actually waiting on you?

Maybe God is waiting, patiently and with certainty- that the reason you are here is not wasted with waiting for no reason- but rather the reason you are here is His very reason for waiting on you to come to this moment- and to realize His purpose is about you.

That’s why, when Isaiah said, in Isaiah 7:14

Isaiah 7:14 ESV

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

You see the sign was given because the time had come. God’s purpose could be revealed in the person of His son Jesus Christ.

The time had come for God not to remove our problems but to step into them with us. God with us. Immanuel.

And it was the perfect time. The pregnant time. For Jesus.

God’s purpose in sending Jesus was not to give us an example. it was not to give us a leader.

God’s purpose was to give us a savior.

Read Matthew 1.20-25 one more time.

Matthew 1:20–25 ESV

But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us). When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.

Joseph resolved to divorce Mary- Joseph went to bed one night and by morning God had revealed his purposes to Joseph.

Mary was visited by an angel- And God took 9 months to fulfil His perfect work in her. Jesus.

And Israel waited 700 years to see “God with them”.

And Adam and Eve, representative of all of humanity, could never have understood 4000 years of waiting for the one that God promised in Genesis 3.16, but that’s how long it took for God’s purpose to come at just the perfect, pregnant time.

Is God Procrastinating?

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When You Want To Lose Patience With God, Find His Purpose Instead.