 By Matt Guerino|Published Date: November 09, 2009
His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.
2 Peter 1:3-4
Whiter Teeth in Just 7 Days
Delayed gratification, once considered a virtue, now seems passé. We’re a time conscious bunch, we Americans, and getting what we want is no longer good enough by itself. We not only want it, we want it now!
Consider how the benefits of modern society are marketed to us. According to advertisements I’ve seen just this week, I can now:
- Receive a preliminary loan approval in just 15 minutes – no more waiting while underwriters perform due diligence.
- Take painkillers that “begin to work instantly” on my headache – why wait a full 45 minutes for relief?
- Shed 45 pounds of unwanted weight in less than a month - it may have taken me years to accumulate those pounds, but once I decide they need to go I want to see them go quickly.
- Upgrade my “snail-paced” internet access - why should I waste a full 15 seconds (an eternity!) downloading that video file I want, when I can get it in a mere two?
And the list goes on. From buy-now-pay-later deals on mattresses and consumer electronics, to treatments that promise to dissolve years’ worth of coffee stains from my beleaguered smile in a mere 7 days, everything around us seems geared to satisfying our needs instantly.
Patronizing the Tortoise
And this expectation has shaped our overall outlook on life. A well-known children’s fable tells of the victory of a slow, patient tortoise over a rash and impetuous hare. But we’ve apparently decided that the real world doesn’t work that way.
“Real life” simply doesn’t afford us enough time to invest too much tortoise-like focus into any one task. While technology and other efficiencies have made it possible to do our work in less time, the result is increased pressure on us to get more done in the time we have. This produces in us a greater demand for still more efficiency, a quicker turnaround, and the delivery not just of quality, but of quickness.
We’ve become accustomed to demanding not just satisfaction of our needs, but near instant satisfaction. If I have to wait, I’m not interested.
God’s Marketing Plan
In reading the Bible, one is struck with how unmoved God seems to be by our desire for instant gratification. If there’s one word that doesn’t seem to register at all in the Bible’s unfolding redemptive plan, it’s instant. God takes his time, and he takes lots of it.
Not that redemption started out slowly. In fact, God promises to send his Messiah in just the third chapter of the Bible. The ink hasn’t even dried yet on the Curse and already God is promising to wipe it out. Redemption, it seems, is off to the races.
Which Race?
But it turns out this race isn’t a sprint, it’s a marathon. The next big step in revealing who the Messiah was going to be comes in a promise to Abram in Genesis 12, centuries after Adam. And by the time Moses enters the scene and tells us that God will send “a prophet like me” sometime in the future (Deuteronomy 18:15), another 400 years has passed. And still, the Messiah isn’t here.
And on this refrain goes throughout the Old Testament. Joshua wasn’t the guy, nor were any of the Judges. Israel’s first king Saul certainly wasn’t, but neither was God’s choice for king, David. And while God promised David that the Messiah would be one of his descendents (2 Samuel 7:12-13), sending the national hope for the reign of David’s son Solomon through the roof, Solomon turned out not to be the guy either. And the Old Testament continues to parade king after king of Israel before our eyes, some of whom were good guys, but none of whom is the Messiah. By the time Judah’s throne falls to the Babylonian Empire, yet another 400 years has passed since David with no sign of God’s promised Messiah in sight. God, it seems, is not in a hurry.
Throughout the centuries God’s people are told to wait. The cast of the Old Testament is forward-looking, and gratification-delaying. God’s followers learned to be patient, to trust, and to see their ultimate hopes go unfulfilled.
A New Day!
When Messiah finally did come, some 1,400 years after Moses promised another prophet like him, the people finally understood that their patience had paid off. The long-promised Day of the Lord had come at last. One would expect, as 1st century Christians certainly did, that the Old Testament mentality of delayed gratification would finally give way to a different New Testament mentality of fulfilled dreams here and now.
Or Not So New…
So the words of the Apostles came as a surprise to them. Christians were urged to wait yet longer for the fulfillment of their dreams. While the Apostles taught that the consummation of God’s redemptive plan could come at any moment, they also taught that it had not come yet. The salvation they longed for is spoken of in terms very similar to those of the Old Testament:
- They would see it “in the last days.” (1 Peter 1:5)
- It was “kept in heaven for” them. (1 Peter 1:4)
- They were to “set their hope on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ” – an event yet future. (1 Peter 1:7)
So the cast of the New Testament turns out to be future-looking and gratification-delaying, just like that of the Old Testament. The coming of God’s Messiah, though the fulfillment of a long-awaited promise, did not change the mentality his followers are supposed to cultivate from delayed to instant gratification. New Testament era believers are taught to live today in light of an as-yet-unrealized future; to wait, as God’s followers have always done.
Promises Kept, Promises Broken
Which brings us back to our modern propensity to lose interest in any message that requires us to wait. Loan approvals, bank account access, and even whiter teeth may come much faster these days than ever before. But despite the coming of Christ 2,000 years ago, the real life which Christians anticipate still lies in the future. How can Jesus’ followers learn to place their hope in the future consummation of his kingdom when everything around them seems to shout for instant gratification?
One way is to recognize that every message of quick satisfaction is a promise; the promise to make us happy, now. But those promises are empty. In 2 Peter 1:3-4 the Bible tells us that we have been granted all we need for true fulfillment through knowing Christ. In him we have been given much greater and more precious promises than those the world can offer; promises of an eternal inheritance that is partly enjoyed now but will be fully enjoyed only when he comes again. This reminder that our world’s promises of instant gratification can never really be kept can help us develop an eternal perspective even in the midst of a temporal culture.
Memorize these verses this week, and recite them each time you see an advertisement promising instant satisfaction. This simple step can help us remember that true gratification doesn’t come instantly, but rather in the long run.
As it turns out, the mindset of the tortoise isn’t just a children’s fable, it’s a Biblical truth.
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