God's Timetable

Southeast Christian Church

Apr 20, 2023

We read in Genesis that Joseph struggled with waiting for God’s will to take shape and for things to start to move in a direction that made sense. In the same way, a lot of us struggle with waiting on God and his timetable. As we continue to read Joseph's story in Genesis, we see that Joseph is going to have to wait a long time for God's will to unfold in some different ways. But Joseph's great-grandfather had shown Joseph how south things can go when you try to do God's will your own way.

God had promised Joseph's great-grandfather, Abraham, that he was going be a father of the great nation. Genesis 15:5 says, “He took him [Abraham] outside and said, ‘Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.’ Then he said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be.’” Abraham and his wife Sarah had been unable to have children to this point and were very old. Yet, it was God's will that he was going to start this nation, and, out of this nation, 42 generations later, his son Jesus would be born. God chooses the elderly barren couple to accomplish his will through them. God's will almost never unfolds our way or a way we would expect.

In Genesis 16, Abraham’s wife Sarah decides God needs a little bit of help to speed things along. She's going to do God's will, but she's going to try to do it her way. She decides that her husband should sleep with someone younger for God’s will to unfold. So, she wants God's will, but on her timetable. Abraham sleeps with Sarah's maid servant Hagar. She conceives gives birth to a son named Ishmael, but then Sarah conceives as well, because that was God's promise. Sarah gives birth to a son named Isaac. Ishmael would become the father of Arab nations, whereas Jacob would become the father of Jewish nations. Now, for more than 4,000 years, they have waged war against one another.

When we want God's will, but we want to do it our way, things get messy. The waiting can be the hardest part of following God's will for many of us.

Reflection/Discussion Question: When have you attempted to "help" God when his timetable was not looking like you thought it would?

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