The Long Wait. (Or Waiting for God to do Something.)

Around 4 years ago, God told my sister to prepare for a disaster of some kind. She was to buy equipment to survive in the mountains. For two years she bought these things from Amazon and was finally ready. She expected something to happen very soon, so did I. She was very impatient and wondered why God was taking so long to fulfill his words. She has now learned patience and is waiting on Him.

All this time, I’ve been reminded of how God made promises to many people in the Bible, but they had to wait for many years for their appearance.

Noah was told to build a boat. God told him the exact measurements and wood that he must use. Noah did this, but it took 120 years for him to finish. All the while, he preached to the people and warned them, but none believed him, and in the end only he and his family went into the ark and were saved.

God promised Abraham he would give him a son, but God waited for 20 years until his wife Sarah conceived. During that time of waiting, Abraham sinned and took matters into his own hands and took his wife’s slave, Hagar, and had a son, Ishmael, by her. This caused great heartache to all concerned. But God was with Hagar and Ishmael and helped them when they were forced to leave Abraham’s camp.

Moses was told he would rescue the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. He killed one Egyptian and was forced to flee for his life to the desert. There he lived for 40 years as a shepherd. He was humbled and close to God and now was ready for God to use him.

The Israelites were in the desert for forty years because they didn’t trust in God to help them fight for the land in Caanan. God waited until a new generation arose who would trust him to help them.

David was anointed King of Israel when he was very young. Saul was king at the time and he was jealous of David and tried to kill him. David fled and lived in the caves and mountains for around 20 years until he was finally crowned King of Israel.

The prophet Daniel was taken prisoner from Jerusalem, castrated and brought into King Nebuchadnezzar’s palace. He was taught the laws and ways of the Babylonians and given a job. He was exiled there for 70 years, when Cyrus defeated the Babylonians. God had made a promise that Cyrus would let the Jews go back to Jerusalem and rebuild it. Cyrus read the promise written years before and he obeyed God and did that.

After Jesus was crucified, arose from the dead and went back to heaven, many believers thought he would return right away. None of them knew it would be many years before his return. Perhaps some of the disciples knew this though.

In the 1980s, I noticed the rise of Christians getting deeply involved in politics. I knew from reading the book of Revelation, the end times would be when politics and religion would unite to persecute people in the Western nations. I thought Jesus might be returning very soon. Well, it’s been around 40 years and he hasn’t, but politics and religion are now hand in hand in the Republican Party. Christians have protested against gay people and made a fuss about everything they don’t like.

One thing I know for sure, none of the early Christians, nor Jesus himself, would have ever protested against the Romans or the Greeks. They told the people who joined their churches not to live as the Romans and Greeks lived. They told them of the love, mercy and forgiveness of God and how to live a noble life. The Apostle Paul even said he would have nothing to do with judging those who weren’t Christians. That was up to God.

Some of the year spans in this article might be off and few years, but I am 74 now and don’t feel like checking everything. May the Lord bless you with his light and presence.

 

Why Did God Send A Flood?

I've heard some people say they think it was awful for God to send a flood and kill all those people. I've heard the same about Sodom too. I've always accepted God's judgement on those people because I know he is wise, loving and just.  Personally, I wouldn't want to live next door to Sodom and I doubt you would either if you read the story. (It isn't about gay people; it's about rape and murder.)

As I was reading Genesis along with a Bible Commentary, I found out there are those who say it may be that God foresaw the inhabitants of the world killing each other off; that their death was inevitable. The original Hebrew could mean that.

The Bible says, "Then God said to Noah, "The end of all flesh has come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence because of them; and behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth."

Pulpit Commentary

"...while a third, that the end spoken of is the issue to which the moral corruption of the world was inevitably tending (Keil, Lange), does not materially differ from the first."

"has come before me" ...is in the contemplation of my mind as an event soon to be realized" (Murphy), with perhaps a glance at the circumstance that man s ruin had not been sought by God, but, as it were, had thrust itself upon his notice as a thing that could no longer be delayed.

There was one man on earth who was not evil and violent: Noah. If God had not intervened, perhaps the violent people of the earth would have killed him and his family and then each other.

"The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time."

Genesis 6:5

Thank God we cannot say that of the world today. There are many people filled with the Spirit of God yet in the world; there are many people who have not given themselves over to evil completely.

I do see this similarity between now and Noah's day: violence. Violence is filling the world more and more, or at least it seems so. But there is also something new: global warming. The Bible speaks of days of immense heat. Are we going to destroy ourselves as the antedeluvians were going to destroy themselves through violence?

This is written about in Isaiah:


 The earth mourns and withers, the world fades and withers, the exalted of the people of the earth fade away. The earth is also polluted by its inhabitants, for they transgressed laws, violated statutes, broke the everlasting covenant. Therefore, a curse devours the earth, and those who live in it are held guilty. Therefore, the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men are left.   Isaiah 24:4-6

"Lift up your eyes to the sky, Then look to the earth beneath; For the sky will vanish like smoke, And the earth will wear out like a garment And its inhabitants will die in like manner; But My salvation will be forever, And My righteousness will not wane." 

Isaiah 5:16

"The fourth angel poured out his bowl upon the sun, 

and it was given to it to scorch men with fire."   Rev.16:8

One of the last plagues on earth is the sun burning people. God won't be doing it to us, it will be the result of losing the layers above the earth that protect us. It will be the result of the sin of polluting the earth.

What did Jesus say about this time:

"For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will. Unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short."   Matthew 24:21,22

"And the nations were enraged, and Your wrath came, and the time came for the dead to be judged, and the time to reward Your bond-servants the prophets and the saints and those who fear Your name, the small and the great, and to destroy those who destroy the earth.   Rev. 11:18

"Of old You founded the earth, And the heavens are the work of Your hands.

Even they will perish, but You endure; And all of them will wear out like a garment; Like clothing You will change them and they will be changed.   Psalm 102:25

We are now destroying the entire world with our pollution. Our only hope is in God, who will change our hearts into a heart like his: forgiving, loving, giving and compassionate. Our only hope for a new life in heaven is to give our life to Him who made us and died for us. 

“Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. 

And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory.  

And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.   Mathew 24:30,31

We may die before Jesus comes for us; or we may be alive when he comes to save us from a dying planet. We don't know, but we can know him who knows everything and trust him as he leads us. We can find peace and shelter under the shadow of his wings.