Delay Is Not Denial (Understanding Delayed Answers to Prayer)

Acts 7:6 – God spoke to him in this way: ‘For four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated.

Acts 7:7 – But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves,’ God said, ‘and afterward they will come out of that country and worship me in this place.’

Don’t misunderstand delay. Delay is when something takes longer than expected to happen. Delay is not denial!

God promised Abraham that his descendants will own Canaan the Promised Land. God tells Abraham that there will be what seems like a delay but it’s not a delay. Humanly speaking it’s a delay but divinely speaking it’s not delay. Even if you think it’s a delay, it’s not a denial.

Israelites will be strangers in Egypt for four hundred years. Israel who are the family of Jacob and twelve sons. They are too few to possess a country. God keeps them in Egypt. For four hundred years they are in Egypt. It seems like a delay but it’s not. Even if you thinks it’s a delay, remember, delay is not denial!

For four hundred years which some think to be a delay, God is increasing their numbers rapidly. They are slaves in Egypt but growing in number. To posses the Promised Land you need numbers. They were too few at the beginning. God hides them in Egypt as slaves but He is using the seeming four hundred years delay to increase their numbers. When others think it’s a delay, it’s not a delay but a divine strategy. Even if for us it seems like a delay, it’s not a denial.

Exodus 1:5 – The descendants of Jacob numbered seventy in all; Joseph was already in Egypt.

Exodus 1:6 – Now Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation died,

Exodus 1:7 – but the Israelites were exceedingly fruitful; they multiplied greatly, increased in numbers and became so numerous that the land was filled with them.

They started as a family of seventy members of Jacob’s family. Seventy people are too few to own a whole country. God used the four hundred years that looked like delay to significantly increase their numbers. They became many enough to take over any country. They increased until their host country became afraid of them. That is the number God was waiting for in four hundred years of seeming delay. That is why we say, delay is not denial.

Exodus 1:8 – Then a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt.

Exodus 1:9 – “Look,” he said to his people, “the Israelites have become far too numerous for us.

Exodus 1:10 – Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country.”

Exodus 1:11 – So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor, and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh.

Exodus 1:12 – But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites

For the early years things were okay as they increased yet some us think it was a delay. When they had increased significantly, later on in the four hundred years, Egyptians became afraid of them and enslaved them. Suffering was later on in the four hundred years. Suffering was a signal that God was succeeding in His plan for Israel.

The suffering of Israel meant they were many enough to threaten a country. The suffering of Israel meant God had succeeded in increasing them to a scary number than can now posses the Promised Land. The suffering of Israel meant everything was moving on successfully as per God’s plan. Therefore the suffering of Israel was good news. It meant God was succeeding and it meant they were almost ready for the Promised Land. Our suffering under God’s guidance may be good news in disguise! Therefore delay wasn’t denial!

Egyptians started enslaving Israelites. Egyptians made Israel suffer. But the Bible records that, the more Israelites suffered the more they increased in numbers. Egyptians thought making Israelites suffer will control their population, but it didn’t, in fact it became a trigger to population increase. That means no human effort can work against God’s plan.

All the plans of the enemy will not cause you to lose what God has prepared for you. All enemy plans will be counter productive. When the enemy wants you to fail, you succeed. When the enemy wants your numbers to reduce, your numbers increase. Your enemies will not succeed even when your blessings seem delayed, it is not denied!

Exodus 12:37 – The Israelites journeyed from Rameses to Sukkoth. There were about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children.

Exodus 12:38 – Many other people went up with them, and also large droves of livestock, both flocks and herds.

Exodus 12:40 – Now the length of time the Israelite people lived in Egypt was 430 years.

Exodus 12:41 – At the end of the 430 years, to the very day, all the LORD’s divisions left Egypt.

After 430 years of what seemed like delay but it wasn’t, the people who began as a family of seventy, left Egypt as 600,000 adult men. If we add a similar number of women, it would be 1,200,000 adults who left Egypt. If we make them 600,000 couple and give each two children, the number of people who left Egypt were over two million. This is without adding the foreigners and other people who left Egypt with them. God used the seemingly 430 years delay to increase them from 70 to over two million. It wasn’t a delay, it was a strategy.

Even our seeming delays are divine strategies. When there is what looks like delay in your prayers being answered, it is not a delay. God is working out something good for you, unknown to you, trust Him! Delay is not denial!

Seventy people couldn’t posses the Promised Land, it was a vast country, but two million people could do it. The delay was a divine strategy. The delay prepared them for nationhood.

During the 430 years in Egypt, they learnt skills that helped them in nation building. They acquired wealth they needed for their economy. Those years developed the national human resource. Later years of slavery sharpened their work ethics and removed lazy people from the system. Think of a country with hardworking well trained human resource. That country is unstoppable. That is what 430 years made them to become. That wasn’t a delay it was a strategy to make them better.

Your delay is making you better. Your delay is shaping and sharpening you for something better. The delay which you now misunderstand is unknown to you working in your favor. Delay is not denial!

Numbers 14:33 – Your children will be shepherds here for forty years, suffering for your unfaithfulness, until the last of your bodies lies in the wilderness.

Numbers 14:34 – For forty years —one year for each of the forty days you explored the land —you will suffer for your sins and know what it is like to have me against you.’

Numbers 14:35 – I, the LORD, have spoken, and I will surely do these things to this whole wicked community, which has banded together against me. They will meet their end in this wilderness; here they will die. ”

On the way to the Promised Land, there was another 40years delay. They loitered in the desert for forty years until the faithless generation perished and a new generation that trusted God arose. Sometimes delay is God’s way to refine our character. Remove unwanted characters and make us fit for His service. Delay could therefore also be divine discipline. Delay makes our character better. Delay is not denial!

May God forgive us when we doubted Him during delays. May God help us to remain hopeful and faithful during delay. May this new perspective of seeming delay help us live happily through difficulties of seeming delay. Delay is not denial, in Jesus’s name, Amen!

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