The Test of Time
The Test of Time
Do you grow impatient with God’s timing? God’s timing is usually different from our timing because He is looking at the bigger picture; He has a purpose in that timing. I believe waiting on God’s timing can be a real test of faith. When I was writing my bible study titled In the Beginning: Genesis 1-11, my eyes were opened to the proportionate difference in God’s timing and our own.
At the time of Noah, in Genesis chapter 6, there had been an enormous turning away from the Lord. In fact, the Lord grieved He had created man. Evil, corruption, and violence filled the earth. The only righteous man on earth was Noah. Can you imagine? Can you imagine being the only person in the world that loved the Lord? First of all, I can’t imagine how lonely that was for Noah and how disappointing that was for God.
Jesus speaks to his inner circle in John 15:14-15 and tells them “You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything I learned from my Father I have made known to you.”
Noah was the Lord’s friend because Noah made it a point to obey the Lord’s commands. And because he did this, as John 15 reveals, the Lord would tell Noah His business. The Lord had plans to destroy the entire inhabitants of earth with a world wide flood because there seemed to be no hope of its salvation.
At that time, the earth was watered by streams. No one had ever seen rain because it did not exist. The Lord told the only righteous man on earth what He was going to do, how Noah should prepare for it, and when it would happen. The Lord commanded Noah to build an ark, gave him the exact dimensions, and said he had one hundred and twenty years to get it done.
God gave the people on earth one hundred and twenty years to turn back to him, yet no one listened. Jesus speaks to His disciples in Matthew 24 telling them that the Second Coming will look similar to the days of Noah. Life will sail along as normal while the population becomes more evil, more corrupt, more violent.
A common illustration comes to my mind when I think about how we, as a society, get to this point. It’s the illustration of the frog and the boiling pot of water. If you put a frog in a boiling pot of water, he will jump out because he is fearful and he knows he is in danger. If you put him in a cool pot of water and bring it to a slow boil, he won’t notice he’s in danger until he slowly boils to death. That is the same with evil. Evil can increase slowly until it reaches a degree of impending danger of God’s judgment.
Look at all the ways we have removed God from our way of life. He is no longer allowed in our schools. Nativity scenes have been removed from courthouse lawns, the Ten Commandments have been removed from our courtrooms, our bible teaching has become “politically correct” so we don’t offend anyone and the list goes on. Rarely do I hear sin addressed in Bible teaching. We have removed God and therefore, we have removed His hedge of protection. Each time we choose to remove God from our environment, we move further from Him and closer to His judgment.
Noah must have faced incredible ridicule. He was building a boat and warning people about a flood when no one knew what rain was. Furthermore, no one had the fear of God in them anymore. No one was listening, yet Noah continued to build because he knew God and he could trust God’s warning.
At the end of one hundred and twenty years, God commanded Noah to take two of every kind of creature, his wife, his three sons, and his sons’ wives and get on the ark. He told Noah he would bring rain upon the earth for forty days and forty nights.
So here is where I had an amazing revelation about God’s timing. If I had been Noah, I would have assumed that after forty days, my life would return to normal. I would get off the boat, put my feet in the sand, watch the animals disembark, and enjoy the fact that it was all over.
But this was not the case for Noah. The rain lasted 40 days. However, the devastation was enormous and the flood waters would not recede for another 331 days. From the time the first rain drop fell, it was over a year before Noah and his family would get off that boat. The carnage, the smell of rotten bodies and carcasses would fill the air. It was a reminder to Noah and his somewhat “lukewarm” family that God’s timing is very different from our own. Also, God’s judgment is far more devastating than we could ever imagine.
At first, Noah must have wondered how God could put up with such evil in the world before bringing it to an end. The Lord is patient because He does not want anyone to perish but come to repentance and salvation. (2 Peter 3:1-10). So, sometimes God’s timing is waiting on change.
Noah must have also wondered how long he would be stuck on the ark. It took 331 days after the flood before they would even disembark. If I had been Noah, I wonder how I would have felt looking at all that water and carnage for over a year. I might have wondered if I ever would get to stand on dry land again.
The devastation and carnage must have made an incredible impression on Noah’s family. They were never said to be righteous before the flood but I bet they had the “fear” of God instilled in them that year! When they disembarked, the world was different. The animals were wild. Man could eat animals and the animals could eat man. God’s beautiful landscape had changed for ever. God’s weather had changed forever. The earth had been cleansed of all the evil and now it was a new world, a new life, a new environment, and a fresh new beginning. Sometimes, God’s timing is to give us a new perspective.
Generally speaking, our world has lost its fear of God. It is time for us to listen. It is time for us to know His Word. It is time for us to repent of all the ways we have slowly moved away from His commands. If we don’t, we could be facing catastrophic consequences that will last far longer than we might anticipate.
“If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
2 Chronicles 7:14
I don’t know about you but I believe our nation has been moving away from God for quite some time now. We need the fear of God back in our hearts and obey His Word, otherwise, He will demonstrate His power and authority to us as He did in the days of Noah.
On a personal note of application, if God’s timing has been different from what you expected, then He is probably waiting for change or wanting to reveal something to you.
Are you in a situation where God’s timing is different from what you thought it would be? I would love to hear from you! You can email me at janicebobanistcm@gmail.com. I hope this message spoke to you and caused you to pause and ponder!
Blessings!
Janice Bobanis
