Fullness of time

Dancing in the Kingdom- Table of Contents

Dancing In the Kingdom – Part 1 – Shadows of the Kingdom – Chapter 6– A nation emerges

Fullness of time

[Bible references: Genesis 15:16; Exodus 2-4; 7-11; Galatians 4:1-7; Ephesians 1:1-14]

The emerging story of the chosen people of God becoming a nation started slowly: Abraham and one child of the promise, Isaac, who had two children, only one through which the promise would come, Jacob, who then had had thirteen children. But it would take time for that family to grow into a size that could be called a nation – and that took a couple hundred more years – in which time the “sin of the Amorites would reach their full measure.”

Although the Bible does not specifically mention it, there may have been other things that God was waiting to happen such as the development of the Israelite community and the consequent interaction of the Israelite community with the Egyptian community during the Israelite captivity. God allowed events to gradually unfold until “the fullness of time” came for God to orchestrate a dramatic release of the Israelite community. This event would serve as a foreshadowing of another event, the spiritual release of all peoples from slavery to sin.

So it was, that in the fullness of time, when the sin of the Amorites reached its full measure,^[1] Yahweh called Moses to release the enslaved Israelites from Egypt to bring Israel back to the Promised Land.

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^[1] White, James Emery. “Is God a Moral Monster? The Slaughter of the Canaanites” Church&Culture 22 Oct 2020 www.churchandculture.org/blog/2020/10/22/is-god-a-moral-monster

Reflect

Often, when we are younger, we think we know everything. But most of the time, we discover over time that we need maturing – to grow in wisdom – a process that takes time and experience. What things have you learned through time and experience?

Observe

Read Genesis 15:16; Galatians 4:1-7. What do these verses tell us about God’s sense of timing?