The God Who Delays
Doesn’t God see the distress I’m in with my spouse on the verge of death and my child with a chronic illness? Doesn’t he hear my prayers? Why is he not doing anything to deliver me from this evil?
Didn’t God tell us that sexual perversion, the murder of the unborn, wicked government officials, and many more evils in our society are the disorders of his creation that he intends to solve? Why is he not doing something about them now?
Why God delays when he can do something about it if he wants is a question that haunts God’s people. Yet God has always been, in some ways, a God of delay. He could have made the world and everything in it instantly, but he took six days. He could have sent his Son immediately after the fall, but he delayed for four thousand years. He could have set the world completely right immediately after Jesus’ ascension, but he delays until this present day.
God has his reasons.
In the story of Lazarus’ resurrection recorded in John 11, we receive a glimpse into the story of the God who delays. Jesus’ close friends, Lazarus, Mary, and Martha, are in distress. Lazarus is ill to the point of death. Mary and Martha, Lazarus’ sisters, send word to Jesus about his friend’s condition with the obvious expectation that Jesus, who has healed complete strangers, will come and heal him. Jesus receives the message and waits two days before going. The way John records the story, Jesus waits because he loved them (Jn 11:5-6).
There are, no doubt, deep Scriptural themes running in the background of this personal story. Jesus waits two days and then, on the third day, he leaves to resurrect Lazarus from the dead. Third-day resurrection, connecting Lazarus to the themes of Scripture and Jesus’ own death and resurrection, is certainly theme music behind this scene. But Jesus isn’t merely ticking theological boxes, autistically fulfilling some sort of checklist. He delays because he loves them.
When he tells the disciples that Lazarus is dead, he follows it by saying, “and I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, that you may believe” (Jn 11:15). The disciples, the sisters, and the Jews who will later join in the scene all needed to see that Jesus is the resurrection and the life (Jn 11:25-26). Immediate relief from their distress merely to extend this mortal, old creation life was not what was best for them. They needed to know that Jesus is the Lord of death. Even though he delays, he has the power and will raise them from the dead. Jesus has eternity in mind.
We desire immediate relief from our distress. That is understandable. We know that much of what we suffer is that from which God has promised to one day deliver us. We know that death that rips us apart, tearing our bodies and spirits as well as separating us from others, is not God’s goal for us. It is an evil from which we want relief. But God delays, and he does so for a purpose. One reason God gives us the story of Lazarus is to teach us to trust him in the delay. He has not forgotten us. He doesn’t hate us. He is not enjoying watching us suffer. He loves us and has a purpose, a purpose we don’t understand completely at this time. But you can trust a God who entered our afflictions, took them upon himself, and was delivered from them through resurrection. His path will be our path. Resurrection follows suffering and death. Always
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