God of Time

By Odon Bulamba

God of Time – Focusing on Leah & Rachel

Ephesians 5: 16

Making the most of all opportunity because the days are evil.  Redeeming the time because the days are evil.  Today I want to share with you a little bit about God’s time and I will link it with what we started last time and today I will talk about the wives of Jacob.  First, I will talk about God’s time.  Before anything else existed, God brought into existence time because without time, nothing exists.

In Ecclesiastes, it says that there is a time for everything, even creation.  God had time for creating.  In Genesis, it says that there is a time for the spirit to move upon the water.  On the first day, He created from morning to evening and all was based on the time.  Maybe at 6am, God started to plan what He will do today and God was creating one item after another.  There was no time for distraction, or wasting time and He forgot completely about His Godliness and put time first.

What is God teaching me about time?  What does God want me to learn about Him working from morning to evening and then take a break.  God doesn’t feel tired but He stopped in the evening and continued in the morning.  God’s time doesn’t stop and moves on until the end.  Time moves forward.  We can change the time on the clock but time keeps moves forward. 

You can’t stall God’s time and try to use it tomorrow.  We can postpone appointments with our friend but for God, when time passes, you can’t catch up, it passes forever.  What Ange sung last Sunday won’t be the same as this Sunday even if she uses the same voice and the same songs, it won’t be the same, it will be different circumstances.

Jesus our saviour thanked God for the time God gave to Him, “I have completed my work in the time frame”. 

When I was conceived, I was nothing and as time passed I was developing in my mum’s womb and then I was a baby and as time moved forward, I became a child and today I am an adult.  I can’t stop growing old even if I go to a doctor to change my face or change my date of birth on my passport, I can’t change the time.

We have to be wise with our time because these days are not good days.  What do you do with your time?  Six days God created and then He left it.  On the second day He created something different and on third day and so on.  We were created in God’s image.  What do we create each day that is different from yesterday?

God created trees, oh they are not good by themselves, I need birds.  He adds on what He did yesterday to produce more and all look beautiful.  Fish in the water, be there.  Beautiful.  I need someone here to take care of everything.  Whatever God created at that time and today His creation continues to produce food and fresh air for us.  He didn’t create it to disappear after two days.  His good deeds are continuous.

When you do good deeds yesterday, that is enough.  I moved the chairs last week so someone else can do it next week and we try to limit what we do because we are selfish.  Someone told me they go to work because they need money not because they love their job or to support others.  How do you invest in your time?  We have all learnt that time is money.  Time is precious.

What you do with your time is an investment in Kingdom of God.  How do you use it?  When time passes, you can’t bring it back. 

Laban, the father-in-law of Jacob, had two daughters.  Leah, the first born wasn’t married yet and Laban looked at the time and realised Leah was growing old, time won’t let her go back to being young.  When Jacob arrived, Laban maybe thought, now is the opportunity for someone to marry in my family.  Maybe they were distracted or no one was there to marry Leah but now Jacob is there to marry Rachel and not Leah.  “God what can I do to help my daughter?”

We don’t know how often Leah was crying to God to find a husband.  We don’t know how often she was grieving because she wanted her own family and she was counting the years passing.  You can see how time is flying.  It’s only ten minutes but it turns into an hour.  If you don’t plant seeds in that 10 minutes, you will see that hour gone. 

Laban thought if I tell Jacob what I want to do, Jacob may turn Leah away so I will have to give Jacob his wife during the night.  God has split time into two: day and night.  Do we really need darkness?  No, when we wake up, we need light. Why did God create darkness? Why did God sacrifice half the time to be darkness?  Why didn’t He make 20 hours of daylight so we could do what we want to do and only 4 hours for night.  There is a reason for that. 

Laban came at night time, “Jacob, your wife is here”.  Jacob had worked 7 years for Rachel.  Jacob started with one minute, then one week, one month and then one year and then for 7 years he was a slave because he loved Rachel.  What type of love is that?  Working so hard without salary for that person.  For 7 days, God worked so hard for his love and your love (7th day he rested) to teach humanity that working is very important and working walks in parallel with time.

Jacob didn’t remember the importance of time.  He didn’t tell Laban to wait until the morning, it’s late maybe bring my wife early in the morning.  Because Jacob had no mention of time, he believed it is fine.  Do you know what happens during the night when you sleep?  You can’t control your body, your mind shuts down and your eyes are closed and you dream.  You can be in your house but be in the US in your dream.  A time of confusion, a horrible time.  You don’t want anyone to touch you and wake you up.  Your body doesn’t want to function during that time.

Jacob received Leah during that time.  Time is very important.  Even the oxygen you are breathing, what do you do with it?  When you try to pull in the breath, it is a work.  What does it produce?  Sometimes you pull it in because of anger.  When you are walking it is a work, you must make an effort and after walking you have to produce something.  When I leave here, I must walk around the Base and God asks me, “Is it beautiful what you planned today?”  Then what?  How does this help your family and those coming after you?  How does what you are doing help others.  God gave all to help us, why can’t we help others.

Laban gave Leah to Jacob to help.  When I can’t produce something I have to find another way.  If I can’t preach, why not pray for those who preach to preach. Rachel couldn’t give birth so gave Jacob to her servant to produce offspring. If I can’t pray, why not support those with the gift to support them with my prayers.  However, we very often think, because I can’t preach, that is not my job to read the Bible, others can read it for me and bring message on Sunday.  My job is to watch tv and whatever pleases me.

God’s time can’t be changed.  I can’t wear the same clothes I wore as a child.  The clothes can be the same for 50 years but children will change their appearance.  If you will never be the same again, why do you try to make yourself to be the same.  My job is tv and you make yourself stuck there and you don’t want to move.

You promised God when you were saved to work for Jesus.  Add flesh to giving your life to Jesus, He needs to see your actions and your faith.  This is a dangerous time.  My phone distracts me, it is a danger.  You can spend hours on it.  Spiritually, you forget God.  When I watch a tv series, it is a danger and I can forget about God’s time.  When food is there, we can adore it more than God, I love it, it tastes so good.  How often have you said in front of others that you love God?

Time is more important and Leah understood time was precious and she took more servants to produce more children for her husband because the time that was given to us is the time to produce for God.  Jesus came down to produce something.  He came for a job and when He had finished that was when He left.  We are here to produce for God and not for ourselves. When I work I produce my money for myself.  Even offering to God at church can be a problem for some people.

God gave us everything for our own use but when it’s time to create for others, we think 20x.  The time God has given us is limited. Keith Green had a time.  God gave him the talent.  That time has finished.  What we are doing now produces something and although people enjoy it today, it will not be the same tomorrow because God will say it is finished.   Then we can cry like Jesus, my father why have you forsaken me?  This is your time to produce for God, today.