God on Schedule

Genesis 21:1-3

Spending forty years of my life in selling means my life was centered on schedules and appointments.  Schedules were of the utmost importance, because a man who could see you without one was almost always a person who could say no to what you were selling but could rarely say yes.  A salesperson wants to be calling on people who are busy people who live by appointments and schedules.  Otherwise you will not be the person who writes the business.  If schedules are important to humans, are they important to God?

Sometimes two things or two words seem to go together, words like appointments and promises, if a person puts you on their schedule, it is a promise that they will see you at the time of the appointment.  When God called Abram from Ur of the Chaldeans and his father’s house, He promised the following, “And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.” (Genesis 12:2)  As Abram is leaving Haran, with Sarai, Lot, and all of their possessions and the people they had acquired in Haran; they came to the land of Canaan and the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your off-springs I will give this land.” (Genesis 12:7)  And as we have written the Lord keeps making promises to Abram, who’s name he changed to Abraham and to Sarai.

In chapter 17:15,16, we have this promise, but still we have no schedule set by the one making the promise.  “And God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name.  I will bless her, and moreover, I will give you a son by her.  I will bless her, and she shall become nations, kings of people shall come from her.”  Abraham has a promise but not a schedule.   You may recall your dad saying, I am going to buy you a bike; so each day you wait for the bike, but it is not coming till dad tells you we are going to pick it out tomorrow after work.  You never doubted the promise, but it was a great day when dad let you know the schedule, that is where Abraham finds himself.

In verse 21, we get to see the schedule for Sarah to give birth to the promised son, and the Lord has already given the promised one a name, “God said, “No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac.  I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him.” (Genesis 17:19)  “But I will establish my covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this time next year.”  Now the promise has a name and a schedule, and it came about on time and on schedule, not man’s schedule, but God’s. 

What should we take away from this?  God keeps his own schedule, and God has made promises, that if we believe them, they will change our way of living.  The other thing to remember is that God knows us, as He knew Abraham, and that he understands we often  become impatient waiting for God’s schedule for His promises.  The only answer is to seek the Lord with all your heart and lean not to your own understanding, in all your ways to acknowledge Him and He will direct your path.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice