From the very opening pages of
the book of Genesis, the Lord would demonstrate to man his
own corruptible fleshly nature and the Lord's purpose to deliver
that people who were precious in his sight. Adam showed himself
to be a corruptible human being by doing the very thing which
the Lord revealed to him that he would do. The Lord demonstrated
his faithful watch care over his creation by covering Adam's
nakedness with the skins of animals to replace the inadequate coverings
which Adam had concocted to hide his shame. Though he placed a
curse upon the ground because of Adam's sin and drove him from
the paradise of Eden, he nonetheless declared that a deliverer would
come through the seed of the woman. The Lord is never in a
hurry to do anything, and we see the fulfillment of this prophecy
coming many, many years after it was spoken. Though the Lord
is never in a rush to accomplish His purpose as man sees it, He
is completely faithful to perform that which He ordains to come
to pass at the exact moment which seems good in His sight. Thus
we see the Lord demonstrate, down through the history of man,
His circuitous but certain deliverance of that people upon whom He has
set His everlasting love. The deliverance of the children
of Israel was ordained before Joseph was born, and in his own
time he ordained the selling of Joseph into Egypt in order
to save Jacob's family from starvation. Then over another period of many
years the children of Israel were brought into complete slavery
and servitude in the very place which they once viewed as their
salvation. The Lord ordained this captivity
as much as he did their salvation from the famine. He would demonstrate
His continual purpose to deliver His people, but only in the time
which pleased Him. Over the next few centuries of
time, the Lord ordained the rise and fall of Israel in order that
He might remind them of that Deliverer who would come and
build a temple not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. It is upon this backdrop that
the Lord was pleased to paint the grandest masterpiece of deliverance
that has ever been put on display to His creation. as He sent forth
him who was born of a woman to be the true Redeemer of the Israel
of God. All of these deliverances which
took place throughout the history of the nation of Israel were
but types and shadows of that true deliverance which He had
ordained from before the foundation of the world. This Redeemer was
sent to bring salvation to all that He had ordained unto eternal
life. This was indeed the set time
when He would favor Zion. A set time is a specific time. It could not occur either before
or after that time which is appointed. In order to have a set time,
the one doing the setting must be an absolute sovereign. Man
may propose to establish times, but only he who ordains all events
can, in reality, set any time. A set time presupposes a set
purpose, which is to be accomplished at that set time. The work of
the redemption of God's people is not set forth in the scripture
as an open-ended offer to save, but it is declared to be a work
which He would accomplish and indeed has completed since that
set time to favor Zion has come with the advent of Jesus Christ. Then a set time becomes a time
of rejoicing for those who are ordained to be blessed by that
which occurs at this set time. In this I am reminded of those
Gentile believers which we read of in Acts 13.48. For so hath
the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light
of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends
of the earth. And when the Gentiles heard this,
they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord, and as
many as were ordained to eternal life, believed. Job also rejoiced
at the prospect that he would be raised from the dead, saying,
O that thou wouldst hide me in the grave, that thou wouldst
keep me in secret until thy wrath be passed, that thou wouldst
appoint me a set time, and remember me. If a man die, shall he live
again? All the days of my appointed
time will I wait till my change come. The Lord saves sinners
and causes them to believe according to His set time and not their
own.