"Don’t mistake God’s patience for His indifference."

Michael Kelley:

It was 400 years between the close of Malachi and the opening of Matthew. Four hundred years of silence. Four hundred years of looking at the prophecies. Four hundred years of wondering if today was the day when God would act on behalf of His people in a dramatic way.

That 400 years mirrors another 400 years between the death of Joseph and the rise of Moses. Four hundred years of slavery. Four hundred years of oppression. Four hundred years of stories of a supposed deliverer.

In both instances, that’s one generation of fathers telling their sons to remain faithful and wait. And then that generation of fathers dying off, and another generation of fathers telling their sons the same thing. It’s a lot of waiting. A lot of hoping. And a lot of questions about the “when” of this God we’ve heard about. But we see, in hindsight, see that God was not inactive during that time, but instead knew the right “when.” We know this of course. Of course we do.

Except we don’t.

We think we do, but our impatience and frustration betrays us. In fact, I wonder today how much sin might be avoided in my life if I really believed in the perfect timing of God.

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