Sunday Morning, December 15, 2019 AM

Let's pray together. Father, we come before you, and thank you for the time that we've had together, singing your praises, reading your word, praying together, encouraging each other. I pray that you would help us now as we look at your word about your son, that by your spirit you would give us not only understanding of your word, but also eagerness and zeal and strength and power to obey it.

Lord, we thank you for the season where we may consider the gift of your son to us, and pray that that theme would be filling our hearts and occupying our minds on the tips of our tongues this year. We pray all these things for the sake of Jesus Christ, the one with whom you are well-pleased, amen.

The Timing of God's Gift in Galatians 4:4

Well, I invite you to open your Bibles to Galatians chapter four. Galatians four, and we're going to be looking at verse four again as we consider more about the timing of God's gift to us, the gift of his son.

Last week, we considered a few points about that, why in that particular time, in the opportunity that God created and shepherded and arranged for his son to be sent into the world, but also it was time for many promises to be kept.

The prophecies of old that had been given for hundreds and even some thousands of years before the coming of Christ, it was all arranged in time for those prophecies to be fulfilled. It was also a time of conflict.

It was not an easy time into which Christ came. It was a critical moment, a critical, even a critical defeat of the enemy, Satan, in the sending of Christ. And we'll think of some more this morning about the fullness of the time.

I want to begin reading for us out of Galatians chapter three and then read farther to chapter four, verse seven, so that we'll hear the context. I invite you to stand with me as I read this word from God's word.

Let us hear the words of our King and Savior, Jesus Christ. Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? May it never be. For if a law had been given, which was able to impart life, then righteousness would indeed have been based on law.

But the scripture has shut up everyone under sin so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith, which was later to be revealed.

Therefore, the law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ so that we may be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, you're no longer under a tutor for you are all sons of God through faith in Jesus Christ.

For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free man. There is neither male nor female for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's descendants, heirs according to promise. Now I say, as long as the heir is a child, he does not differ at all from a slave, although he is owner of everything, but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by the father.

The date set by the father. So also we, while we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental things of the world. But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law that we might, so that he might redeem those who are under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.

Because you are sons. God has sent forth the spirit of his son into our hearts crying, Abba, father. Therefore, you are no longer a slave, but a son. And if a son, then an heir through God. This is the word of the Lord.

You may be seated. Don't you just hate Pinterest? Apparently there are a few people in our society who have so transcended beyond all of the commitments of time and family and relationships and budgetary constraints that they live a picture perfect holiday life.

All of their presents are handcrafted and better than what you would find at the store. Personalized for all of their loved ones. While having the time to make everything just right, they also put together a wonderful Christmas holiday meal.

And there's always smiling and the house is always clean and the Christmas cards all get sent out and everything is picture perfect. And we wonder how someone is able to balance all of the complicated constraints of the season and pull that off.

But of course, it's a calculated Photoshopped kind of a thing, isn't it? It's not real. We know that when it gets close to Christmas, there's dirty laundry and there's dishes and there's the dusty picture frames and all sorts of things that need to be taken care of.

And there's the need to keep up with it all. And so we sometimes can get a little stressed in the season. We can feel the pressures of the season. But you know, when it comes to Christmas, it is not the complicated matters that we fail to master.

It's not the complicated matters that we fail to master, but the simple truths we fail to remember, which make for a bad Christmas. If we slip and we don't get our Christmas cards out as early as somebody else, and if we forget somebody's Christmas present, and if we don't pull off the meal the way we thought we would and everything else, it is not those things that make for a bad Christmas.

What makes for a bad Christmas is if we don't remember the simple truth which we celebrate, that God sent forth his son. And if we remember that, it's a good Christmas. If we remember that in that active, true, and full way of remembering, that makes for a good Christmas when we keep that in mind, that God sent forth his son.

And that is the centerpiece of Galatians 4 and verse 4, that God sent forth his son. It was in the fullness of the time that God sent forth his son. When the fullness of the time came, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law.

Because this must be the central truth of our Christmas celebrations. God sent forth his son, we're taking the time to consider the truths surrounding that central thought in Galatians 4 verse 4. As I said last time, we were thinking about this opening part of Galatians 4 verse 4, but when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth his son.

It reminds us that God is sovereign, that he's in charge of everything, that he's the shepherd of history, that he sent forth his son at just the right time, the opportune time when God had made arrangements for everything for his son to come.

He had been talking about it for a very long time. The prophets of old, even the psalmist and many other writers in the Old Testament, the patriarchs of old were promised God's son. They were promised the seed, they were promised the Messiah, and the time had come for him to enter the world, to take upon the form of a bond servant, to be born of a woman, to be God the son, who is fully God, would take on human flesh, fully human and be born into conflict that God knew the exact time and had arranged for the right time to send forth his son in a way which would achieve victory amidst the conflict.

Christ as the Fullness of Revelation

And now we have another consideration about the fullness of the time. The time had come for the fullness of God's revelation. That he had said, well, as John chapter one says in verses 17 and 18, for the law was given through Moses, grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.

No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten God who is in the bosom of the father, he has explained him. And so we think of the timing there. No one has seen God at any time, but now the only begotten God, the word in human flesh, the word became flesh and dwelt among us and his name is Jesus Christ.

And he has come to reveal who God is to us. Hebrews one, one through four, God, after he spoke long ago to the fathers and the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days, we hear the timing, in these last days has spoken to us in his son, whom he appointed heir of all things, sounds like Galatians, through whom also he made the world.

Why is he the one who reveals God to us? Why is Jesus Christ the supreme revelation of God to us? Verse three of Hebrews one, that he is the radiance of his glory and the exact representation of his nature and upholds all things by the word of his power.

When he had made purification of sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, having become as much better than the angels as he has inherited a more excellent name than they. So we have something more to say after we say that Christ fulfills the promises of God, which of course he does.

But why is it that it is Christ who fulfills the promises of God? Why is it second Corinthians one 20, for as many as are the promises of God in Christ,.

They are yes.

Why is that the case? Because of who Christ is as the fullness of the revelation of God. Jesus told his disciples, you asked to see the father, if you've seen me, you've seen the father. Jesus Christ is the supreme revelation of God.

All prophecy, you see, Peter tells us that it was the spirit of Christ. It was the spirit of Christ. Christ through the Holy Spirit, speaking through the prophets, the ones who actually wrote down the promises that are fulfilled by Christ.

It is Christ who gives the prophecy. It is Christ who interprets the prophecy. It is Christ who fulfills the prophecy because all of the revelation is Christ centered. The fullness of the time means that the fullness of revelation has come for Christ has come.

He is the light of all men. It's a glorious reason why Christ fulfills the promise of God. He is the supreme revelation of God. We feel, not today, but on some other day, we would feel the warmth of the sun and we would see everything in its bright light.

And we would know, of course, that the warmth that we feel and the light which we can see by, we can trace it back to the star around which God has put our planet in orbit. Even so, we rejoice in the warmth of the fulfilled promises of God in Christ and see everything in this proper perspective in the light of Christ and trace all that warmth and all that light straight back to the exalted person who is at the right hand of the Father.

That's the big picture. Now, for the specific statement in Galatians. Galatians 4, verse 4, starts off with a contrast. But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth his son. Something new has happened.

Something new is on the scene. We need to consider the difference now as opposed to then. Now, this contrast, this is more of a transition. This contrast is a transition. It is not a critical separation.

And that is Paul's point in this area of Galatians, this portion of Galatians. What we have is your same old gospel. We don't have a new gospel in the New Testament as opposed to over and against a different gospel in the Old Testament.

It is a resounding testimony in the New Testament that the gospel is the gospel is the gospel. It is the same. And so what we see in context, Galatians 3, if you back all the way up to verses 6 and following, we see that the word of the Lord, we are reminded by the Apostle Paul, the word of the Lord came to Abraham.

We can read about this in Genesis 15. The word of the Lord came to Abraham and preached the good news of the seed to him, of the promised seed, promised to Eve, the seed who would come and crush the head of the serpent, the seed who would come to save.

And the word went with Abraham outside. You can read about this in Genesis 15, went with Abraham outside and pointed at the stars as a sign of promise. So shall your descendants be. If you can number the stars, you'll be able to number your descendants in it.

And what do we find? In Galatians 3, verse 6. Even so, Abraham believed God. And here, Paul is quoting Genesis 15, verse 6. Even so, Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. Right, so Abraham was saved by faith, right?

He wasn't saved because he got circumcised. He wasn't saved because he was really excellent at following God's instructions. It says Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. Therefore, Paul concludes, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are the sons of Abraham.

And he's quoting from Genesis 15. The Holy Spirit who inspired Moses to write Genesis 15 is the same Holy Spirit inspiring the apostle Paul to write Galatians 3. And Paul knows the context. Because Abraham went outside and looked up and saw all the stars, so shall your descendants be.

Well, just who are they?

Paul says, those who are of faith are the sons of Abraham. Those who are of faith are the descendants which cannot be numbered. Verse 8 is remarkable. Now, pay attention. The scripture, capital S, the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, and now we're backing up to Genesis 12, all the nations will be blessed in you.

So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer. Who preached the gospel to Abraham in Genesis 12?

The scripture.

The scripture preached the gospel. The scripture foresaw the justification of the Gentiles by faith. Excuse me. No, get the, no. Some of you have the image in your head, a walking, talking Bible coming up to Abraham.

No, no, that's not what happened. What happened is explained very clearly in Genesis 12 and 15, and you may read it for yourself. The word of the Lord came to Abraham. And who might we ask is the word of the Lord?

Jesus Christ. So it is the same gospel, the gospel that Jesus Christ preached in human flesh when he was upon this earth doing the miracles and refusing and rebutting the religious leaders and going through all of this earthly ministry, the gospel that Jesus Christ preached when he walked upon this earth and got his feet dirty is the same gospel he preached to Abraham when he came to him with the word of the Lord.

It's the same gospel. It's the same gospel. Notice verse 14 of Galatians 3. In order that in Christ Jesus, the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles. How does the blessing of Abraham, how do the things that God spoke to Abraham, how do the things that Jesus Christ spoke to Abraham come to the Gentiles?

How does it move from Jew to Gentile? In Christ Jesus, by Christ Jesus, through Christ Jesus, the blessing that was pronounced to Abraham, upon Abraham, for Abraham and his descendants comes to the Gentiles in Christ Jesus so that we would receive the promise of the spirit through faith.

It was vital, you see, in this particular historical situation for the apostle Paul to clarify to the Galatian churches that they did not need Jewishness to be saved. They did not need circumcision to be saved, which was the false teaching being spread about this area, that they needed Jewishness to be saved by the Jewish Messiah, that they needed circumcision to be open to the blessings that were promised to the folks of Christ's background, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, so on.

It was important for Paul to clarify that salvation is not for Jewishness, it is through Christ. Israel's hard and happy history is important, vitally important, but it was never to be used, it was never to be employed as a barrier to sinners, keeping them from entering the kingdom.

God's son, as Israel was long known, his firstborn son, his beloved son, Israel was known as God's son. He spoke of them more than once as his son, and his son had lived long under the tutelage of the law, but the entire purpose of that education was graduation.

The whole purpose of living under the law, being educated by the law was to graduate, it was for his son to come of age, and that occurred in and through Christ. So that the whole idea of sonship, it was used to describe Israel, is now consolidated in the person of Jesus Christ.

What does the Christmas passage say in Isaiah 9 .6? Unto us, a child is given. Unto us, a child is born. Unto us, a son is given. Unto us, Isaiah is saying, oh, people of God, oh, tribes of Israel, here's a good promise to look forward to.

Unto us, a son is given. Not only the fact that he would have a human mother, that a virgin should be with child, and give birth. Not just that he would have a human mother, a son was given to Mary for sure.

No, no, no, but this son was given to us, Isaiah says to Israel. A son was given to us, a son who would complete the point of sonship. So it's the same old gospel, and as we've been saying, there's a coming of age.

Paul was building up this analogy at the end of Galatians 3, and following through at the beginning of Galatians 4, that there are sons, but then there's the need to, after the education, there's graduation, there's the tutor who is the law, but then now we're living by faith.

There's a transition here, and it is moving from being sons de jure to sons de facto, that we are not just sons in name only or legally, but we are sons in all that that means, that we're truly sons. Philip Rikin writes, under ancient law, the father had the right to fix the time when his son would receive his estate.

So the father decides when the son gets the estate. In the same way, Paul's using that illustration, in that same way, God the father determined when in the fullness of the time, God determined when the son would come to give all God's children their inheritance.

Now notice Galatians 4, verse one. Now I say, as long as the heir is a child, he does not differ at all from a slave, although he is owner of everything, but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by the father.

So also we, while we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental things of the world, but when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law, so that he might redeem those who are under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.

We hear the very close connection that Paul is making between Christ's sonship and our sonship. That because Christ is the son of God, because Christ was born under the law, but has fulfilled the law, graduated from that education, and to the fullness of sonship, so that he is the heir of everything.

Hebrews one. He inherits it all. He has been given a name which is above every name. He is king of kings and Lord of lords. He's at the right hand of God's favor. He has done it all. He has fulfilled it all, and so he's at the right hand in terms of the law, in terms of the things that he was supposed to keep.

He has fulfilled it all. The end of the law, the talos of the law, the goal of the law is Christ. So it is the son. It is God's son whom he sent forth from himself, who makes the transition from under the law to adoption as sons, and Paul wants to deliver the Galatians from the false teaching of the Judaizers, who were holding on to things that are obsolete.

They were holding on to things that were ready to pass away. They're all passing away. Israel was called God's son, born under the law. God forged that covenant with them at Sinai, but now sonship has been fully consolidated in Christ, who is the seed of Abraham, which was always the point.

So if Jews or Gentiles want sonship, they come through Christ, God's son whom he sent forth. If we want sonship, if we really want to be a child of God, if we really want to know God as a heavenly father, we come through Christ.

The gospel preached of old is here revealed in the fullness of revelation. Son was born under the law, but in his faithful obedience, he graduates from the tutelage of the law and transitions the status of sonship into its fuller condition.

Christ is the seed, he is the son, he's the ultimate heir, and all who are with him by faith have that sonship status. What does it say in Hebrews? Christ brings many sons to glory. All who are with him partake in that new status.

This is sonship by adoption, by adoption, which is a legal condition. It was just a legal condition brought about by Christ's work on the cross and resurrection from the dead. This is a sonship that is made real in us by the Holy Spirit.

And if we're sons in Christ, if we're sons in Christ, then we are heirs to all the promises in Christ. Romans 8 says we're co-heirs with Christ, full participants sharing in the promised inheritance in Christ.

Listen again to Galatians 3, beginning in verse 25. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor, for you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. All you who are sons of God are sons of God how?

Through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ, which means what for our identities. There is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free man.

There is neither male nor female for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's descendants, heirs according to promise. To put it another way, all of God's promises are granted to Christ for all of God's people gathered in Christ.

All of God's promises are granted to Christ for all of God's people gathered in Christ. And the time had come to say this and to say it clearly and robustly. Proverbs 15, 23 says a man has joy in an apt answer.

And how delightful is a timely word? We know that when someone says just the right thing at just the right moment, we're either laughing or smiling or rejoicing. We have that sense. Well, here's God's perfect answer at the perfect moment.

Mark 1, 14 and 15. Now, after John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the word, the gospel of God, and saying, the time is fulfilled. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel.

That's the timely word. The perfectly timed word. The gospel of God. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel. The heir, the son has come with his kingdom. So turn to him, believe in his sonship, know him and the father by faith.

Christ Meets the Fullness of Our Needs

Well, it was a time to reveal in the fullness of the time, God revealed this truth. It was also the time to come to meet the fullness of our needs. It was in the fullness of the time. Well, God sent forth from himself the eternal son in human flesh in a particular time.

In a particular time. What kind of time did Christ enter? It was one that was full of need. It was a time that was full of need. And the first need that really jumps off out of the pages of Galatians is racial division.

Especially in Galatians two, we can tell that it was a time of deep, bitter racial divides. These were tectonic fractures, and they appeared in such exquisitely detailed and culturally painful tapestries that they make today's critical race theory look like toddler's finger painting.

Of course, that has a lot to do with CRT being mass snowflake psychosis. Some of you will know what that is. The Jews, let me tell you what racial division actually looked like. The Jews had physically isolated the Samaritans and the Gentiles as much as they possibly could.

Wouldn't even travel through Samaria unless there was some, you know, grave emergency. They were not allowed to receive gifts from Gentiles and Samaritans. Not allowed to even enter their houses. They would not eat any of their food.

They did not allow Samaritans and Gentiles into the temple against God's specific instructions to let them in. Jesus, one of the reasons why Jesus cleansed the temple and was so angry is because they made the house of prayer for all nations into a den of thieves where they, and they had isolated and kicked out all of the Gentiles, would not allow them in.

Jesus' own disciples, if you remember, thought it was best to call down fire on a Samaritan village just to watch them burn, Jonah style. Jesus' Jewish audience, we have record of them chuckling in glee at the stories of some Gentiles slaughtering other Gentiles in interesting ways.

They thought it was very fitting. And it was into this fractured, divided, hateful, bitter time, Jesus came. And all the language here in Galatians 3 is about how in Christ are resolved all of these distinctions.

In Christ are resolved all of these divisions.

What do we read?

For all of you who are baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, neither Jew nor Gentile. We do not have a full appreciation of just how significant that is.

We will be hard pressed in our very short history of the United States to come up with any kind of racial division at all, even going back to the Native Americans to find racial division as deep and as hateful and as awful as the Jew-Gentile divide.

The worst possible racial division that had been so reinforced, even by using scripture in inappropriate ways, the worst possible racial division to have existed on the face of the planet was the time into which God sent forth His Son.

And He resolved it.

He reconciled it.

It is done.

He said, it is finished.

The resolution is there. The bringing together is already there for those who are in Christ Jesus, those who are in Him by faith. As soon as someone insists, and I wanna say this carefully. Notice it says, verse 27 to 29, Galatians 3.

For all you who are baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free man, neither male nor female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Now listen, this is not a passage that is saying that ethnic or cultural differences have ceased to exist and we're all the same flavor. This is not a passage that is saying there is neither any more hierarchy of anybody being in charge of anybody else forever.

This is a passage. It is not saying that God is walking back His very good plan for male and female, husband and wife. This passage is not saying that God is counteracting everything that He has done.

This passage is saying that all of those distinctions in all of their, even their righteous propriety of what those things mean, that none of those things is more important than this, that we are in Christ.

And anyone who insists on applying their intersectional prefix, I'm a black Christian, I'm a female Christian, I'm a gay Christian, whatever they may come up with. Anybody who applies their intersectional prefix and exchanges greet one another with a holy kiss with these are my preferred pronouns are denying Christ.

Denying Christ.

Denying Christ.

All of that mess that is out there today, just the recent mess, not the first one by any means, just the recent mess in our culture today is a denial of who Christ is and what He has come to do. And has no place in Christianity or in the church.

Christ came to save us in our needs, the racial division, but also notice the, think of the hopelessness, the situation of hopelessness into which Christ came. He came in the fullness of the need among, just let's consider the Jews themselves.

He had been increasingly languishing under the burden of law preaching. And Christ was born under the law to redeem those who were under the law and we'll think more about that. But it is helpful to remember Jesus' own description of the Jewish plight.

How did Jesus see the Jews under the kind of preaching that had turned the temple into a den of robbers? How did He see their plight, their situation? Matthew 23 verse four, He says, "'They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on men's shoulders, "'but they themselves are unwilling to move them "'with so much as a finger.

"'Woe to you scribes,' verse 13, "'Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, "'because you shut off the kingdom of heaven from people, "'for you do not enter in yourselves, "'nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.'".

And so the very people who were tasked with the job of declaring the truths of scripture, the very people who were entrusted with preaching the good news of the Messiah and forgiveness through God's servant, the ones who were supposed to be preaching that message and applying the truths of how this gospel would go to all the Gentiles, such a huge theme, even in the book of Isaiah, those who were in charge of that, instead were putting burdens up on people's backs, burdens too heavy for the people to bear, and the people preaching these burdens upon them did nothing to help them.

In other words, we're going to use the scriptures to tell you how awful you are and how you can't measure up, and then when there's nothing you can do about that, we're going to leave you there. What a hopelessness, what a hopelessness.

Legalism is as popular today as it has ever been. Dietary laws have not gone away. Laws about who you can associate with without being declared unclean, that has not gone away.

You're not allowed,.

Some people are not allowed to mention certain names. There's a legalism in our vocabulary now that if you don't speak a certain way, then you will be condemned. And then there's a counter legalism. It's not just the wokeness that puts burdens upon to men's backs and doesn't help them, it's the anti-wokeness that can quickly also become hopeless legalism.

You're not doing enough to be anti whatever it is happening and going on. Legalism has always been popular and it always comes down to you're not doing enough to be approved. Justification is by faith alone, by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.

It is his righteousness, not ours. It is his righteousness imputed to us by the grace of God through our faith in Christ, which is a gift from God. It is all about Christ's righteousness, about him being approved by God and to be feared by man.

It was the resolution of the Galatian problem, the very problem here in the book of Galatians. It was in the resolution of that Galatian problem that Peter preached against the hopelessness Christ came to dispel among the Jews.

Acts 15, 10 and 11. Now, therefore, why do you put God to the test by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear?

Why would you do that?

He says, but we believe, listen, Jew, Gentile, we believe that we, the Jews, are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus in the same way as they, the Gentiles, also are. Same gospel, same gospel, saved by grace, saved by grace.

Jesus came into the racial division and came into the hopelessness and he came into the confusion. Not only were the Jews in a time of hopelessness, but you may imagine that the Gentiles were in a time of great confusion.

Their enslavement to the elemental things of the world, their idolatry, their paganism, having to worship dozens of gods would be wearing upon them greatly. How confusing it must be to be in this situation in the region of Galatia and begin to hear about the gospel of Jesus Christ, but then to have two different factions in the church, both saying that they're the true one preaching the gospel, then the confusion that would occur for the Gentiles.

But Christ came to clarify all of that. God sent forth his son in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge as our light to make things clear. It was the time, it was in the fullness of the time that God sent forth his son.

It was the time for the full revelation of God. It was the time in the fullness of the need of humanity. It was also the time to declare the fullness of glory. See what God was up to in Christ is nothing less than the summing up of all things.

Ephesians 1 .10, what was God up to in sending Christ? It was the summing up of all things in Christ, things in heaven and things on the earth. And there's nothing outside of those two categories. The summing up of all things, all things in Christ, whether in the heavens or on the earth, which means there is definitionally nothing in this cosmos that is unrelated to the worthiness of Jesus Christ.

And God sent forth his son. God sent forth his son, the sovereign shepherd of history to bring all things in subjection under the feet of his risen and reigning son. God sent forth his son in the fullness of the time.

Sometimes we ask ourselves, why now? Why are we suffering now? Why the trial that we now endure? Why do we have to wait for God to answer our prayers? Why this set of circumstances? Why has God not yet acted?