God Means What He SaysRomans 9:9 ~ For the word of promise is this, "According to this season I will come, and a son will be born to Sarah."
While reading Romans 9 today this thought occurred to me - God's promises are specific. He doesn't need to be vague or general (for His word to come to pass), and there is no cause to think maybe He meant something less than what He said.
He told Abraham that he would have a son. Naturally one would presume that meant that God would overcome (supernaturally) the barrenness of his wife, Sarah, and that of his already-existing marital union he would have a son. And surely that's what Abraham thought... Until several years (13? 25? I forget) passed on... And still no son.
Then Sarah gets the idea (but note, Abraham doesn't object!) that maybe God REALLY meant that Abraham would have a son by some other means than Sarah. (I mean, surely God would've done it by now if He'd intended to, right?) Maybe, after all, God was just telling Abraham the future of what would happen, and not promising to overcome some impossible obstacle. So... Enter Hagar and Ishmael.
But God came back later, not acknowledging Ishmael or Abraham's attempt to fulfill God's promises, and says, "Abraham, you're going to have a son-- Through Sarah." Abe must've thought, "OOOOooohh... So God really DID mean what I thought He meant all those years ago! (Doh!)"
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In this we see God didn't say one thing (that would have had an obvious interpretation by those to whom He spoke), yet mean something else. He is not trying to confuse people.
It is true that He is entirely above and beyond us-- However He has chosen to make known His plans to us (some of them anyway). And we have no reason to think that what He said should be interpreted any other way than it originally would have been by those to whom He first spoke.
We see this happening centuries ago, even while the N.T. was still being penned-- People were trying to "reinterpret" what Jesus had said... It was said that Jesus would return "in like manner as He'd ascended" (that is, bodily, in the clouds). Surely what the hearers understood that to mean was that He would return, bodily from the clouds to the earth.
Yet people started coming up with bizarre ideas about Jesus not coming back, or because it didn't happen when they expected it to, that He was going to come back "spiritually" rather than bodily... Or that it had some figurative meaning.
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We get ourselves into a lot of trouble because of our expectations of what God ought to do. We expect God to do things within a certain span of time, and if/when He doesn't (which is very often the case), we draw false conclusions. And then we carry out faulty plans of action based on our false conclusions-- Even up to forming a worldview and/or theological concept based on such false conclusions.
We decide that God either isn't real, or that He isn't interested in or concerned with us, or that He doesn't relate to us personally-- Or that He doesn't mean what He said, because that isn't our experience. Then we become either forlorn in attitude, hopeless and discouraged, or we start to go out and "make things happen" on our own and disregard seeking Him all together.
Perhaps though-- And almost certainly indeed-- God intentionally waits for that certain point in time (which only He knows)... That point we have either consciously or unconsciously set in our minds, by which time God "should have done" this-or-that (if He truly cared about us)... He waits for this point, and then (to our utter and intense dismay), lets it PASS.
And He lets more and more time pass from that point-- Because, of course, we have set up NEW points and timeframes. And He lets, one-by-one, those new timeframes and points fade into the distant past, leaving us (seemingly) broken, confused, and in despair.
Perhaps it is that He does this to test and to grow our faith. Will we abandon Him if we don't get our way? Will we, as Satan accused Job, curse God to His face? Or will we (like Job) say, "Though He slay me, yet shall I praise Him," and, "Naked I came... Naked I shall go... Blessed be the name of the Lord"?
This is not to say that God purposely withholds every near and dear thing from us to prove our faith. But it is to say that if it seems there is some sizable delay in His performing His word, in His answering prayer... That it is NOT because He is not faithful... It is NOT because you haven't performed well enough to earn His blessing... It is NOT because He really didn't mean what He said in His word...
But it MAY be that He is waiting for your expectations to die-- So that He gets all glory, and you remember that He is high above you, and answers to none-- Though He has chosen to become the servant of all.
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So take heart dear sister, dear brother-- For the promise shall not delay-- Though it does (seemingly) delay, wait for it-- For it will surely come... HE will surely come. :)
Note - Though God is perfectly able to speak in prophetic visions and such to His children, I am not only speaking of this (for these we have little way of standing firmly upon). But we have His word that He hears us when we pray... That the fervent prayer of the righteous avails much... That the prayer of faith will heal the sick... That if we seek first His kingdom and His righteousness He will add all things necessary for this life unto us... And that if we ask anything in His name (according to His nature) He will give it. ♥ ♥ ♥
