It seems to me that’s often the way for us, too. It’s never going to happen.” But they kept on praying and waiting and finally, this explosive thing happened, which we call Jesus. Other people said, “Oh, it’s just a load of old mythology. During those 500 years, many wise Jews pondered and prayed and struggled. And yet, it was 500 years before Jesus came. The great book of Isaiah, promised a great new moment when God would come in person and would become king. We look and we say, “Oh yeah, there’s God rescuing His people from Egypt.” Well, yes, that is dramatic and that happened, but then, in the Psalms, the poets are saying, “Has God forgotten us? Has He forgotten to be gracious? Has He abandoned us? It’s been a long time now.” I think part of our problem here is that when we read the Bible, we read it with long hindsight. It seems like we don’t see God moving today as clearly as we see in the Bible. Wright about why it might seem that way, what we can learn when it feels like God isn’t answering prayers and how we should pray when a situation seems hopeless.
We talked to theologian, author and professor N.T. Sometimes, it can even seem like He’s not involved at all.
Today, it seems like we don’t see God directly intervening as much. The Bible is full of stories of God directly interacting with humans-He speaks to Moses from a burning bush, He sends fire down on Elijah’s offering, He comes to earth as a man.
