It’s Worth the Wait

In the four hundred and eightieth year after the Israelites came out of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, the second month, he began to build the temple of the LORD (1 Kings 6:1, NIV).

Back in Exodus 3:7-8, God made a promise to rescue the Israelites from slavery in Egypt and to bring them to a land of their own, a land flowing with milk and honey. The building of the Temple celebrates the fulfillment of that promise.

There is no promise that God has made that He cannot keep. Neither is there a promise God has made that He will not keep. And when He fulfills them, they will exceed our own expectations. But not all of God’s promises are fulfilled quickly; this promise was 480 years in the making.

Not only that, but God’s promises are often brought about by ways and means that leave us wondering what God is doing…if He is doing anything to advance His promise at all.

Take this promise to bring Israel into the Promised Land. Right out of the gate the people of Israel refused to do what God directed and they ended up going in circles in the desert for forty years. And no sooner than Moses and Joshua seemed to have them straightened out, they walked away from God again, and for the next 350 years under the judges, things seemed to just go from bad to worse.

Then Samuel came on the scene and hope seemed to come back, but because Samuel’s sons were not following in his footsteps, the people demanded a king and offered up Saul. Saul looked good, smelled good, and was a successful strategist and politician, but he ended but being a lousy king; so God took the kingdom from him and gave it to David.

David looked to be everything Israel needed in a king. God even promised David that his dynasty would last forever. But then David commits adultery and murder and things in his family start to fall apart. Absalom rose up against him and ends up being killed. Then Adonijah attempts to succeed David when he thought he was too old to do anything about it.

But then at the last moment, Solomon is made king and things are quickly brought under his control. When the dust cleared, the wars were over, there was peace on all sides, Israel was established and in spite of all the headaches, heartaches, troubles, and disobedience, God’s promise came to pass.

The moral of the story: Don’t judge God’s ability or desire to keep His promises by how long they are taking to come about or what your present circumstances are. God’s love is tenacious, His patience is resilient, His grace is unfettered, His wisdom unmatched, and His power is unequaled. God keeps all His promises, and it is worth the wait.