Why Jesus Waited

Gen. 4:1 And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD. This verse is not completely accurate. In Hebrew, there is a prefix on the word for LORD. Usually, this prefix is either a direct object or is translated as the word with. The translators have used the word with here. But it is better translated as that is. It should read, I have gotten a man, that is, the LORD. Dr. Ron du Preez has an excellent paper on this verse and its proper translation. The point is that Adam and Eve expected their first child to be the LORD, who we know as Jesus. Cain was anything but the Son of God, however. When it became clear that Cain was not the promised seed, Adam and Eve had to have asked the question, Why didn t Jesus come right away? This paper seeks to provide at least one answer to this question. We will start with a look at the great controversy. Job 1:7-12 And the LORD said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it. And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil? Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought? Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land. But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face. And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the LORD. This is the heart of the great controversy. Satan raises accusations against God. God answers these questions through humanity. As we are used to answer these issues, God preserves our lives. A dead person has little to demonstrate to the universe. We can see this in action with, of all people, Cain. Gen. 4:8-14 And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him. And the LORD said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother s keeper? And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother s blood crieth unto me from the ground. And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother s blood from thy hand; When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth. And Cain said unto the LORD, My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth; and from thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth; and it shall come to pass, that every one that findeth me shall slay me.

God punishes Cain by cursing the earth so that it would produce nothing for him. His response is interesting. He repeats God s punishment, except for two important differences: 1. The punishment is not fair 2. People will kill him on sight Cain reasons from cause to effect. Because of the curse, he knows that the natural result of his actions is death. Cause and effect is God s normal method of punishment, as spoken of in places such as Psalm 7:14-16. He lets us suffer for our actions. But what does God do here? Gen. 4:15 And the LORD said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the LORD set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him. The threat of receiving a seven-fold judgment would deter any would-be killers. The mark on Cain s forehead, therefore, blocked cause and effect. It preserved his life. Why did God do this? He did it to prove a point. Gen. 6:5 And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. In the first six chapters of Genesis before the flood, there is no record of God slaying anyone for committing sin. This is in stark contrast to much of the Old Testament, where God visits multiple people and nations with direct judgments. Yet if any people group deserved to be judged, it was the Antediluvians. Why did He not do it? Because Cain complained 2000 years prior that it would be unfair. We truly serve a merciful God. To answer Cain s objection, God preserved his life so that everyone could see the results of unchecked sin. Its results were the shattered world that we live in today and the near-total corruption of the human race. It would have been better for humanity if Cain had died. But humanity did not know that, and so God had to show us the hard way. Clearly humanity needed God s intervention. But even this wasn t enough. Jesus still didn t come. There was still another issue to settle. And to do this, he used Israel. Israel received at least four covenants through four people or tribes: Abraham, Judah, Levi, and David. We will be focusing on David s covenant. Psa. 89:35-37 Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David. His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before me. It shall be established for ever as the moon, and as a faithful witness in heaven. Selah. David received a very powerful covenant. It is unbreakable. David s children would sit on the throne of Israel, and his children would last forever. But what would happen if his children were unfaithful? Psa. 89:30-34 If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments; If they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments;

Then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless my lovingkindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips. Normally, unfaithful people are subject to cause and effect. Their sins would snare them, and they would be destroyed if they continued. Eventually, their family would be destroyed. But, like Cain, David s family has been exempted from this. Instead of abandoning David s children, God promises to correct them. But how does this work? Is. 22:20 And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah: And I will clothe him with thy robe, and strengthen him with thy girdle, and I will commit thy government into his hand: and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah. And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; so he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open. And I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place; and he shall be for a glorious throne to his father s house. And they shall hang upon him all the glory of his father s house, the offspring and the issue, all vessels of small quantity, from the vessels of cups, even to all the vessels of flagons. In that day, saith the LORD of hosts, shall the nail that is fastened in the sure place be removed, and be cut down, and fall; and the burden that was upon it shall be cut off: for the LORD hath spoken it. In the verses before, God is rebuking Shebna, who was over the house of Hezekiah. Because of his unfaithfulness, God promised to remove him from his office. In Shebna s place, God places Eliakim. If you look at the story of Hezekiah in Isaiah 36:3, Eliakim is over Hezekiah s house, and Shebna is now a scribe. God made good on His word. Eliakim received the key of the house of David. Isaiah compares it to a nail on a sure place . The nail holds other vessels up. Shebna was the nail in the sure place. But since he was unfaithful, the nail was removed and another nail stuck in place. This was Eliakim, and on him they hung all the glory of his father s house. This illustrates how the covenant worked. The promise was never made to an individual, but the whole family of David. He allows people to occupy their positions until they are no longer deemed fit to stay there. The person loses their position, and God puts someone else in their place. Eliakim, a more faithful man, takes Shebna s position. By moving out the people who are unfaithful and moving in the faithful, God worked to preserve David s house. The captivity was a more drastic measure taken to preserve Israel. It purged Israel of idolaters and unfaithful. When the captivity ended, the faithful families returned and the rest stayed where they were scattered. The number that returned was very few compared to beforehand. But like Noah, God intended for Judah to make a fresh start. It preserved part of David s line from sin. Ezek. 34:2,5 Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD unto the shepherds; Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! should not the shepherds feed the flocks?...And they were scattered, because there is no shepherd: and they became meat to all the beasts of the field, when they were scattered.

The plan of switching out faithful people for unfaithful people works as long as there are appropriate substitutes to put in place. But these verses tell us that they were running out of faithful people in David s family. As a result, the people were quickly losing their way. What was God s response to this problem? Ezek. 34:10,11 Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against the shepherds; and I will require my flock at their hand, and cause them to cease from feeding the flock; neither shall the shepherds feed themselves any more; for I will deliver my flock from their mouth, that they may not be meat for them. For thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out. The solution is two-fold. The first part is that God removed the unfaithful people. We would expect this from how God worked in the past. But the second part is new. He Himself would deliver the flock. That is, God would directly intervene and do what the people would not do. How would He do this? It should be obvious by now. Ezek. 34:23,24 And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd. And I the LORD will be their God, and my servant David a prince among them; I the LORD have spoken it. God made mighty promises to humanity and allowed us to try to fulfill His purpose. But if humanity failed, God promised to send Jesus instead. That way, the line of David would never fail. Jesus would fulfill the covenant given to David, gather God s people together, and reign forever. And that is exactly what happened. Rom. 8:3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: The first part of the verse was not known when the law was introduced. That is, humanity did not know that they could not keep themselves. We could not overcome sin in our own strength. God knew this. But He couldn t tell us that. Like with Cain, it had to be proven. That is why Israel was kept alive for so long. Israel struggled for years against idolatry. Sometimes they prospered. More often, they disobeyed and sunk lower and lower. The captivity cured them of idolatry, but legalism took hold instead. After several hundred more years, the Jews were captive to the Roman empire and about to be destroyed. Satan almost had the victory, and it was clear that humanity, without God s direct intervention, was doomed. David s line had run out, and that is when Jesus came. Sin had become a science, and vice was consecrated as a part of religion. Rebellion had struck its roots deep into the heart, and the hostility of man was most violent against heaven. It was demonstrated before the universe that, apart from God, humanity could not be uplifted. A new element of life and power must be imparted by Him who made the world. {DA 37.1} What can we learn from this? One principle is that some issues take time to reveal. It took 1260 years for the Papacy to fall from its own policies. It took 2000 years for Cain s unchecked sin to show its full results. And it took another 2000 years to prove humanity s weakness and need of Jesus.

Because it takes so much time to prove these issues, it is essential that we learn from the examples already given. It would be folly to expect God to prove it again. It could take another two millennia. Better to learn the lesson from the examples given than to see it ourselves. Another principle is that the end will not come about by our own power. God s church also has a covenant like David s: Is. 59:21 As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the LORD; My spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed s seed, saith the LORD, from henceforth and for ever. This promise is given to those who turn from sin. And this is a promise that there will always be people who have God s spirit and His word. If need be, God will directly intervene to make this a reality. Israel already proved that this intervention is necessary. He has spared our lives to prove a point: that we completely need Him to be saved. This time, He will have a faithful group who will prove it. Therefore, if we pray to God, present our total helplessness, and present Jesus worthiness to receive gifts, He will answer. This prayer has power because it relies completely on God and not on us. And we need power in our prayers. To the reader, I urge you to pray earnestly that the end will come. Don t just plead with God because we want His power. Plead because His power is necessary. We have no greater need and no greater promise to fill that need. GUIDING THOUGHT: Jesus picked the right time to come to earth. He intentionally delayed His coming to resolve a question in the great controversy. To this end, He preserved David s lineage for as long as necessary. Over time, it showed how helpless humanity is. The universe could see how essential Jesus coming was.