{"id":34172,"date":"2014-03-12T04:00:52","date_gmt":"2014-03-12T11:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/?p=34172"},"modified":"2015-10-24T16:24:58","modified_gmt":"2015-10-24T23:24:58","slug":"why-did-god-wait-to-send-jesus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/why-did-god-wait-to-send-jesus\/","title":{"rendered":"Why did God wait thousands of years to send Jesus?"},"content":{"rendered":"
I have been working my way through dozens of Bible and theology questions<\/a> which people have submitted through that “ask a question” area in the sidebar. Here is one about why God delayed to send Jesus.<\/p>\n Why did God wait so long to send Jesus?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n I have answered similar questions before regarding the apparent “delays” in God’s timetable. For example, we have previously considered the question, “Why did Jesus wait three days to rise from the dead?<\/a>” and “Why is Jesus waiting so long before He comes again?<\/a>” Obviously, those questions are different than this particular question, but the answers are similar, which is why I reference them here.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n As with many of the Bible and Theology questions I answer, I find it helpful to step back a little bit and get the big picture for this question.<\/p>\n The question is not just about why God waited so long to send Jesus, but about all the seeming delays in the redemptive plan of God. That is, why does God “wait” to do anything?<\/p>\n I mean, if we pray for something, and God knows He is going to give us what we prayed for, why does He sometimes make us wait weeks, months, or even years before granting the request?<\/p>\n There are, of course, a thousand possible answers to this question. Maybe God’s apparent delay had something to do with God’s perfect timing. Maybe God did immediately answer our prayer request, but Satan temporarily stopped us from receiving God’s answer (cf. Daniel 10:12-13). Maybe God was waiting for us to be an answer to our own prayer<\/a>, and we <\/em>were the ones who slowed Him down.<\/p>\n There are other possibilities as well, but these go to show that when it comes to delays in God’s timetable, there is really almost no way to know why God does what He does when He does it.<\/p>\n Here is a basic timetable of God’s major redemptive works in history, counting from the fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden. Note that in between each major event, there are larger periods of relatively uneventful history. (The number of years listed below is based on the the most conservative estimates. Obviously, there are more liberal estimates which extend these periods of time out to tens of thousands of years.)<\/p>\n Obviously, God is not silent and is not inactive<\/a> during these waiting periods, but this outline of events is simply to show that God’s plan of redemption does seem to occur in small steps spread out over long lengths of time.<\/p>\n Rather than that order of events, we often think it would have been nice for the order of events to follow this outline:<\/p>\n Honestly, from a human perspective, this second order of evens would have saved a lot of horrible grief, bloodshed, death, sorrow, and sadness. Nobody would have ended up in hell. There never would have been wars, or famines, or diseases. Adam and Eve would have sinned, Jesus would have immediately shown up to fix it, and that would have been that.<\/p>\n No Flood. No Hitler. No Atomic bombs. No raping of little girls.<\/p>\n That sounds like a much better plan, does it not?<\/p>\n So why indeed was there a delay in God’s redemptive plan? Why did He wait so long to choose Abraham? Why did He wait so long to give His law? Why did God wait so long to send Jesus? Why is He waiting so long to send Jesus back?<\/p>\n People have often wondered why God waited so long before sending Jesus. Here are three of the more common answers:<\/p>\nSo why did God wait to send Jesus?<\/h2>\n
Why Does God delay in anything?<\/h2>\n
God’s Strange Order of Events<\/h2>\n
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Some Traditional Answers to Why God Waited Thousands of Years to Send Jesus<\/h2>\n
1. It only seems long to us<\/h3>\n