There is a pattern of God’s working with men that seems almost like He is teasing us, but the aim is to test and show our faith, remove idolatry and make us more dependent on Him.

When Abraham was told at the age of 75 that his descendants would be like the stars of heaven or the sands of the seashore (Gen. 15:1-6), his expectation was probably that he would have a son almost immediately and that there would be at least tens of descendants before he died.  As it turned out, he had just two descendants (Isaac & Jacob), to whom the promise applied, by the time he died 100 years later (see Gen. 25).

Joseph might have been forgiven for thinking that the trajectory of his life would not have involved kidnapping, prison and servitude from the age of 17 to 40 after getting dreams of his parents and his siblings bowing down before him (Gen. 37 – 40).

Moses probably didn’t anticipate Pharaoh making things much harder for the the people of Israel when he was sent to deliver them from bondage (Exodus 5).  Watching the bondage actually increase when he was told that God would deliver them must have been hard.  God didn’t tell Moses that that was going to happen first and it didn’t exactly inspire faith in his story in the ones he had come to deliver either (Exodus 5:21).

Another significant example of the same principle in practice can be seen in the life of David.  He was anointed king at around 17 (1 Sam. 16:1-13) but was running for his life for a large part of his career after that and didn’t see the fulfilment of the promise until he was 30 (1 Sam. 18 – 2 Sam. 5).

So, if you have been given a promise from God and the exact opposite seems to be happening don’t be surprised.  You are in good company.

God will come through for you.

“..we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; ⁴ perseverance, character; and character, hope.”

Romans 5:3-4