Articles
Why Not NOW!
We are ever cognizant of time. And the advances of modern technology have made us even more time-senstive. Take just a moment and count how many clocks are in the room you are currently in. If you are in a bedroom, you probably have a clock on your phone, on your nightstand, on your computer, maybe a watch or two. If you are in the kitchen, you probably have five or six within reach including the microwave, oven, refrigerator, coffee maker, and whatever other appliances are there. If you are at the office, or in any building really, there are clocks on walls, on desks, in the elevator, etc. etc. etc.
At any given point in our lives, particularly if we find ourselves in a developed society, we are surrounded by multitudinous clocks. It is really over-the-top when you think about it. A recent study by Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers verifies this uber-interest in using technology to check the time. Most of us I think would admit that our interest in time lends itself to an unhealthy obsession.
One aspect of this issue is our demand for immediacy. We live in what many sociologists call a "microwave-generation" or "microwave-society." We don't just want things now, we expect them yesterday; and anyone who doesn't meet up to the task is ignorant, slow, or useless. And we would be foolish to think that this has no spiritual overtone.
Consider this...
When you pray, when do you expect results? If those results don't amount to precisely what you wanted, how do you react? What kind of timetable do you give to God to work in? Well naturally, when we try and look at it objectively, I think we understand the point. Our demand for immediacy and our projection of our own devised timetable onto God is ludicrous.
God is neither subject to our schedule, nor to the abstract concept of time itself. He exists in eternity and while it may be said that He, as we understand it, operates within what we identify as time, that does not mean He is submissive to it. He will answer our prayers and requests when He answers them and He will do it in full justice and righteousness.
Consider the formulation of Israel. Did Abraham and Sarah receive their son in their own timetable? What of Isaac and Rebekah? What of Jacob and Rachel? After over 200 years, God's promise of a nation amounted to a piddly 70 people! That's it! Did you think that aligned with the patriarch's expectations? But when they went to Egypt, and God kept them there for over 400 years, what was their number? The Law tells us 600,000 foot soldiers (Numbers 11:21). That means a reasonable estimate would be in the couple million range. In 600 years, God accomplished His purpose! And it wasn't for another 1,400 years that He would bring Jesus into the world at what the Bible calls "the fullness of the times" (i.e. when God wanted it to happen - Galatians 4:4).
"But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day." (2 Peter 3:8)
