The Resurrection

Most people don't realise that even Jesus experienced a divine delay. He spent three days in the tomb, with the wounds of spiritual and physical warfare all over His body. His head was bruised and scarred beyond recognition. His hands, His feet and His side were pierced through and through. For three long days, He laid on a cold slab of stone. It was dark in that cave. It was lonely. All of His friends and family members had scattered. They were in a state of shock. And I'm sure that even Satan believed that Christ was down for the count. It likely appeared to everyone that Jesus was defeated and that the ultimate dagger and deathblow were firmly in place.

I have often wondered why God allowed His only Son to remain in that condition for three long days. Why didn't the Father simply resurrect His Son immediately after He laid His life down? It would have been so easy for the Almighty to do this. It would have been so effortless. Thankfully, the Saviour knew the end from the beginning. Unlike Jesus, we are not blessed with such omniscience. Instead, when in the midst of a divine delay, we find ourselves asking such desperate questions as: Why me? Why now? Why this? Lord, am I down for the count?

- Marlinda Ireland, What is God Waiting For?

"By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, "It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned." Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death." - Hebrews 11:17-19 (NIV)

"I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds." - John 12:24 (NIV)

"He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all - how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?" - Romans 8:32 (NIV)