God Has a Plan

A little timeline from Genesis – Judges for you history buffs.  Before we start the second book of 1 Samuel, it is always nice to consider the timeline or history in years for our minds to wrap it up and put things in perspective. Here we go. 

2500 BC  The great flood 

2091 BC God sends Abram to Egypt

2066 BC Isaac is born

2006 BC Jacob is born

1806 BC Death of Joseph

1525 BC Birth of Moses

1446 BC The Exodus begins

1406 BC The Israelites cross the Jordan River

1399 BC  Land allotted to the tribes under Joshua

1043 BC Saul becomes king over Israel

1024 BC David kills Goliath

1014 BC David protected from Saul

1010 BC Saul and his sons are killed

Wow what a timeline.  It has been over 515 years since Moses was born in Egypt.  The previous 400 years the Israelites were slaves in Egypt.  It has only been 33 years since Israel has a king, Saul.  So to put things in perspective, the nation of Israel was led by God alone for just under 1490 years under judges and prophets like Moses and Samuel.  From Noah to a nation in about 1500 years.  It has been 14 years since David has been on the run from Saul, and he is now ready to take the thrown in his early 30’s. 1010 years from this point, Jesus Christ was born in a manger in Bethlehem, the city of David, marking the greatest event this earth will have ever witnessed outside of Jesus rising from the dead 33 years later.  It has been roughly 4500 years since the flood of Noah and the halfway point was the birth of Jesus.  

God has a plan. Sometimes we don’t have the full scope of His plans because we are too focused on what is happening right now to us. If you can, step back and gaze as far back as you can in your history. Maybe you can remember your great grandparents or even read about your family history. I will bet your parents can tell some great (or not so great) stories about you have not heard yet.

We may not be able to figure out why some things happen to us, but we can rest assured that God is in the middle of all it and He has a plan. God said to the nation of Israel in Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” It is not too late to give your life over to Jesus. Your history could start now. Say yes to Jesus and let Him write the next chapter. As you can see with the timeline above, He did pretty good.