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by Bible League International

Verse of the Day and Devotion

Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Shall a land be born in one day? Shall a nation be brought forth in one moment? – Isaiah 66:8 ESV

Devotion

You have, so you think, a realistic sense of timing for the appearance of what you’re hoping for: the manifestation and fulfillment of your promise from God. It’s based on the past, it’s based on what you’ve seen before. Life proceeds and develops step by step. You can’t skip steps or things won’t work out right and, most of the time, you’re right. The Lord God has structured His creation in certain ways and that includes the temporal unfolding of its various parts. First steps first, second steps second, and so on.

The thing is, it doesn’t always go that way. The temporal processes are not absolute. Sometimes, the Lord speeds things up. Sometimes, He even skips the steps He designed Himself. Our verse for today references a prime example of this. Nations usually take long periods of time and many steps to come into being. How could one be born in one day, even one moment? And yet, that actually happened. The Israelite nation went from a miserable band of slaves to a nation in one day when they crossed the Red Sea.

Isaiah metaphorically describes how quickly it happened: “Before she was in labor she gave birth; before her pain came upon her she delivered a son” (Isaiah 66:7). You can’t put the Lord in a box, even a box of His own making. He created all things, He controls all things, and He can tweak the system anytime He wants. If He sees something in the future that He wants to appear earlier than expected, He can make that happen. If He wants to remind His people of just who He is from time to time, He can do that. With Him, all things are possible (Matthew 19:26).

Given all this, do the right thing. Move through your life step-by-step as the Lord leads and guides you. Move through your life in accordance with the structures and patterns He built into His creation. Structure is better than chaos. Order is better than tumult. Nevertheless, don’t limit God. Don’t refuse to cross your Red Sea because the opportunity came before you expected it.

Don’t allow your understanding of God’s structures and patterns keep your promise from being born in one day (Proverbs 3:5).