Monday, November 30: Psalm 79:10-13
Some days it is easy to lose hope. I have prayed for a friend to find healing from cancer, and she did not live. I have a friend whose daughter was injured in a car accident and her whole church prayed for healing, but it did not happen. COVID-19 has brought sickness and death. A survey of ministers concluded that at least fifty-percent of churches may close their doors forever because of it. We do not always understand the ways God works or the things he allows, but we read in our Bible that “all things work together for good.” In this passage, the Hebrews’ pagan neighbors taunted them with the question “Where is their God?” (v. 10). They saw no evidence that God was present in their time of need when Jerusalem was destroyed. Then the nation was defeated and taken captive. The Hebrews themselves complained to God to act in their behalf.
For hundreds of years the Hebrew people kept looking for a Messiah, hoping for a deliverer—a savior from God. God let them suffer the consequences of their sins against Him. When . . . “ the set time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman . . . to redeem them” (Gal. 4:4-5). The King James translation says, “In the fulness of time” God sent his son.
God is in control of time. He is eternal. For him, a thousand years or a day are the same. His timing is always right. So, we can conclude that Christ came at the right time, a time when all things were ready for his coming. John opens his gospel with these words, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God . . . the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” This is what we celebrate at the Advent season. He is the reason we have hope.
Lynda Pence