The slowness of creation
I’ve been wondering lately: Why did God take a whole day to complete each step in creation? The Bible says that He spoke and new stuff appeared. Just like that. In the blink of an eye. And yet, for each stage, “there was evening, and there was morning,” one day. Why a full day?
With the brief time it took for Him to speak and for something new to be created, He probably could have made everything that exists within twenty-four hours. Maybe even twenty-four minutes. Or twenty-four seconds. It sounds like God spent more time between individual acts of creation than He did on the acts themselves.
Why?
He probably has more reasons than I will ever understand in this lifetime. But I wonder if, for one thing, He was simply pausing to take deep pleasure in contemplating the richness of His handiwork. Maybe when the Bible says, “And God saw that it was good,” it’s talking about far more seeing than the brief glance that I usually imagine. Maybe He appreciates the beautiful intricacy of His creation far more than I do.
The slow passage of history
I’ve wondered for years why God waits so long to roll out historical events. A redeemer was promised to Adam and Eve, Abraham was promised uncountable descendants including the Messiah, David was promised One to sit on his throne for eternity, and Jesus promised to return in glory. Thousands of years passed between some of the promises and their fulfillment, and we’re still waiting for the rest to be fulfilled.
Why?
Why doesn’t God just get it over with? End our suffering. Bring in the New Earth and the New Heavens that we’re all longing for.
The Bible says that He’s being patient, not wanting any to perish (2 Peter 3:9). Obviously, the longer He delays, the more souls there will be in heaven. But with my nerdy brain, I have to look at the flip side of the coin. The more time that passes, the more souls there will be in hell, too. Why wait?
When I was a young Christian, I thought the reason God delayed for so many centuries in sending the Messiah was because He wanted a long, clear, indisputable demonstration of how we always fall into sin, regardless of our circumstances. A demonstration of our inability to meet His perfect standards whether we live in a garden or a desert or a palace, whether we’re suffering or rejoicing, whether God is near to us or far away. If He had shortened the time between the Fall and the resurrection, we might not be convinced that we need a Savior.
But lately I’ve been looking at it from a different angle. There are those who, in spite of the evidence, still believe that we can find all the answers we need without resorting to a supernatural being. But can anyone question our brokenness? Something’s wrong with us. We witness it every day. Just listen to the news. Or to your own heart. Surely it didn’t take thousands of years for God to demonstrate that.
Maybe what people needed to see over and over again through all those millennia, what we need to be convinced of because it’s so very hard to accept, what we need to have pounded into our thick heads is a different message: The all-seeing, all-powerful God, who knows the evil that lurks within every one of us and could wipe us out with a wave of His hand, has an amazingly deep, tender, eternal love for us.
Maybe the greater purpose of the Bible isn’t so much to convict us of our badness (which is obvious enough), but to encourage us to believe the unbelievable through example after example—that the righteous and just God truly, consistently, patiently loves us no matter how bad we are.
Adam and Eve doubted God’s love and goodness enough to rebel against His command and eat the forbidden fruit. And they lived in Paradise. And God walked with them every day. How are we, their fallen children, to accept an idea that they, with all their advantages, couldn’t comprehend? Unless we have a full, thick Bible loaded with story after story and declaration after declaration of God’s incomprehensible love over thousands of years.
Our slowness in responding
And maybe we need all those illustrations over all those millennia to prompt us to love others as He loves us.
If less time had passed between God’s covenant with Abraham and His leading Israel into the Promised Land, they wouldn’t have had to suffer for centuries as slaves in Egypt. But if they hadn’t been abused for all those years, only to be saved by a God who loves the downtrodden, they would have seen no reason to treat the foreigners among them with dignity and respect, loving them as God does (e.g. Deuteronomy 24:17-18). They would have naturally acted like the rest of mankind, harassing them, abusing them, preying on them. That one lesson has changed the world in incredible ways.
When Jesus appeared to His disciples after His resurrection, they were overjoyed. They could finally understand the depth of His love in a way that just wasn’t possible before His crucifixion.
And then they went back to their old lives as if nothing had ever happened (John 21). It took some painful prodding on Jesus’ part to convince Peter to leave his fishing nets and go feed Jesus’ sheep. And, later, to convince him that God loves and wants to save even the worst outcasts—those unclean Gentiles (Acts 10).
If the people who walked with Jesus for three years and were witnesses to His resurrection had a hard time learning to love their neighbors, how much more difficult is it likely to be for us? Unless we have a full, thick Bible loaded with story after story of how God showers fallen people with His love through the millennia.
God’s timing always reflects His good and kind and loving character. In the slowness of creation. In the long, drawn out events of human history. And in my life. Yet so often I question or resent that timing. Help me, Lord, to rejoice in Your timing, even when I don’t like it or understand it. Help me to see the beauty and grace in it, as You’ve demonstrated in Your Word.
