Future Planning and Patience

I’m going to start my Holy Week writings early because I’m tired of politics. We had illness sweep through the house this week, the power went out night before last, I’m sleep-deprived, and I need this even if y’all don’t.

12 As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him. 13 Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. 14 But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. 15 As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. 16 And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Ge 15:12–16). (2016). Crossway Bibles.

This is the story of God making his covenant with Abraham. We’ll get to the rest of it on Monday. But just spend a moment on that.

Here’s the God of all creation telling his chosen, from whom he’ll build his people, that those people are going to have to stay enslaved for 400 years waiting out the Amorites.

Before it even happened, God had it planned out and had His reasons for it. He let the Israelites suffer in Egypt until the iniquity of the Amorites was complete. In so doing, He was balancing His justice. The Amorites were a pagan, idolatrous people, but they had not piled up their sins so much for God to punish them. He let them have their way for four hundred years and then let the Israelites be His instrument of punishment on them. Remember, most times, for the Amorites then and the God-haters of today, they have what appears to be a better life than you because God is letting them have their fill of the world as a bit of mercy. This really will be the best they have it for all of eternity.

Also see here that God is the God of the Amorities, ruling over them and punishing them, even though they don’t recognize Him. See here as well that God allows His own people a time of suffering, in part to avoid their corruption from people like the Amorites, but then delivers them into great blessings. In fact, He let the Amorites build up cities and wealth and, like with the Egyptians, handed it over to His people. He takes care of His own.

You and I may be in a season of wondering what God is doing and why He isn’t answering our prayers or why He is making us wait. But understand He’s got a plan for you. He’s on His timetable, not your timetable. Sometimes you want out of the situation you are in or on to the next best thing. And sometimes you have to keep waiting until God is ready to deliver to you the land of milk and honey.

Patience and perseverance can be hard but are less hard when you understand God is working even if you don’t see it. Put your trust in Him. The story of the resurrection is a story that does not begin in the New Testament, but in Genesis 3:15 in the first book of the Bible. Your story began and will continue in eternity. This is just temporary and even here, in the temporary, you can’t see the next chapter, but it is coming. So too is the King.