John 11:5-6 (NKJV): ‘Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6 So, when He heard that he was sick, He stayed two more days in the place where He was.’
With the declaration of Jesus’ love for these 3 siblings, I would have expected verse 6 to start with a ‘BUT’ instead there’s a ‘SO’. Ok back to verse 5, if there was no ‘but’ in verse 6, there should be words like ‘Although’ ‘even though’ ‘despite’… nothing. Just some facts – Jesus loves His friends, hears that one is sick and adds 2 days to his stay. Sounds cold doesn’t it?
The ‘So’ at in verse 6 tells me that Jesus did not delay in spite of His love for His friends but because of it! We’ve all been there, where we expect the all loving God to show up on our behalf and instead, things go from bad to worse. Then we begin to question and doubt His love.
If He loved us so much,
Couldn’t He have averted that tragedy?
Couldn’t He have healed that disease?
Couldn’t he have given us the things we needed so badly? – The spouse; the child; the job; the Passing grade; the help; the resources?
Notice that the Jews asked the same kind of question (John 11:36-37); couldn’t He have kept this man from dying?
So why does God sometimes delay? Rewind to verse 4 – he wants to be glorified through it. Really? He lets us go through all that just to be glorified. Sounds selfish right? Well when it comes to His glory, God will not share. ‘How is that a good thing?’ you ask
Well it is good in that God glories in doing good, great, amazing, out of this world acts, and what’s more, like it or not, His glory will rub off on us (Exhibit A – Moses. Exhibit B – Martha and siblings became famous in Israel) and when He does arise and act, we will be able to look back and rejoice at His perfect timing and be glad that He came through when, where and how He chose to. He will ALWAYS come through … just not necessarily according to our timetable.
Pause and ponder ~ Does it look like God is delaying? Don’t give up. Rejoice rather that He’s getting ready to blow your mind. Something amazing is about to happen beyond your wildest dreams and imagination. Yes He still loves you. It is that love that drives Him to give you nothing but the best.
pauseandponderdbible 