“Seek Yahweh while He may be found. Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return to Yahweh, and He will have compassion on him. Turn to our Elohim, for He will abundantly pardon.”
Isaiah 55: 6-7
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Yahweh’s Precision Timing: He’s Never Late and He’s Never Early
Saying that Yahweh has precision timing is an understatement. He’s never late and He’s never early. He’s always on time to the nanosecond or one billionth of a second. That’s an expression we humans use. Yahweh is more precise than that. We don’t have a time scale with enough increments to show precision in Yahweh time. Let it suffice to say that Yahweh’s timing is absolutely perfect.
For Yahweh, close isn’t good enough. He declared the end from the beginning. This is how He explained it to Isaiah:
“Remember this, and be assured. Recall it to mind, you wrongdoers. Remember the former things long past, for I am Elohim, and there is no other. I am Elohim, and there is no one like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things which have not been done, saying, ‘My plan will be established, and I will accomplish all My good pleasure.’” (Isaiah 46: 8-10)
In Genesis 12, Yahweh made promises to Abraham that all believers rely on for their salvation:
Now Yahweh said to Abram, “Go from your country, and from your relatives and from your father’s house, to the land which I will show you. I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great. You shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. In you all the families of the earth will be blessed.” (Genesis 12: 1-3)
In Genesis 15, Yahweh ratified the covenant with Abraham. It included giving the Promised Land to Abraham and his descendants through Isaac and Jacob/Israel. As Yahweh’s promises were revealed in more detail later to Isaac and Jacob/Israel, eventually they included the precise boundaries of the Promised Land and more details about the coming of the Messiah who would descend from the line of Judah, one of Jacob’s/Israel’s sons. He is our Savior and our Redeemer, and His Name is Yahweh. See His Name is Yahweh.
Tucked away in Genesis 15 is a tidbit of information that is often overlooked and rarely mentioned, but it is very important. Yahweh told Abraham that his descendants would be enslaved by a nation (Egypt) and that they would be oppressed for 400 years. Below is Genesis 15: 12-16:
Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and behold, terror and great darkness fell upon him. Elohim said to Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years. But I will also judge the nation whom they will serve, and afterward they will come out with many possessions. As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace. You will be buried at a good old age. Then in the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete.” (Genesis 15: 12-16)
Yahweh ratified the covenant with Abraham in about 2000 BC. Abraham died in about 1975 BC. The Children of Israel’s enslavement in Egypt started in about 1850 BC. The Exodus took place in about 1450 BC. The Children of Israel started taking possession of the Promised Land in about 1410 BC.
Those dates are rough approximations, but for my purposes here, they are good enough. I don’t want to quibble about exact dates. The key point is that Yahweh told Abraham about those things hundreds of years before they happened, and He explained to Abraham that the delay in taking possession of the Promised Land was a result of “the iniquity of the Amorite” not being complete. Yahweh knew exactly when that would be to the nanosecond.
Yahweh is incredibly precise, even though we have a hard time pinpointing exact dates most of the time. When a prophet speaks for Yahweh, he is just as precise as Yahweh is. If a prophet says that Yahweh spoke to him and told him to deliver a message, you can rest assured that whatever he says will happen exactly the way he explained it, or he is not a true prophet. This is how Yahweh explained it to Moses, so the Children of Israel would have a way of evaluating people who claimed to be prophets:
“When the prophet speaks in the Name of Yahweh, and the thing does not happen or come true, that is the thing which Yahweh has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You are not to be afraid of him.” (Deuteronomy 18: 22)
As I said, precision to the nth degree matters to Yahweh. Close isn’t good enough. I have had experiences with Yahweh’s timing. So have many others. I wrote about one of my experiences in “The Pope and Me: A True Story”. You should read it. You will be amazed if you do.
In the 1970s, Yahweh told me that I would do something very specific for Him. I am not going to tell you what He told me, because at this point, I don’t know exactly what He meant. Besides, it’s not the right time.
I have a witness to that experience. He was the associate pastor at the church I attended in Athens, Georgia, and I told him about it a few days after it happened. He knows what Yahweh told me, because I told him. It’s the kind of thing that I don’t feel at liberty to share with many people. If I am right, one day I will have the freedom to declare it openly, but I won’t do it until I know I for sure that I am right and that what I have to say is exactly what Yahweh wants me to say at exactly the right time.
I was working on a Ph.D. degree in business when that happened, but what Yahweh told me has nothing to do with business. I raised that point with Him, and He assured me that I was where I was supposed to be.
Obviously, Yahweh did not want a seminary trained person to do this job, or He would not have chosen me for it. I’ll have more to say about that at a later date. Here’s a hint, though: Seminary trained preachers as a group are a serious problem. Quoting many of them, “Can I get an amen?”
I hate hearing that line. It makes preachers sound insecure and like they are seeking approval. Yahweh doesn’t suffer from those maladies. When the time comes for me to speak, neither will I.
I have a strong hunch that most preachers, and churchgoers for that matter, won’t like a lot of what I have to say. So be it. That’s their problem, not mine.
You can make a good argument that I accomplished my mission when I wrote and published His Name is Yahweh, but there is a problem with that conclusion. In September 2000, Yahweh told me to leave the University of Virginia, but He didn’t tell me when or why. He allowed me to chose the date of departure, so I decided to retire in May 2004 at the end of the 2003-2004 academic year.
In September 2000, I told the dean of my school that I planned to retire in May 2004 but that I was not positive about the date. I also told him that in September 2002, I would tell him for certain. I was a chaired professor, so a 2-year notice would give the dean plenty of time to find my replacement.
When September 2002 rolled around, I was well underway with the manuscript for His Name is Yahweh, and I was beginning to believe that I could complete the book without leaving UVA. I was wrong, and Yahweh let me know it.
In the early morning hours on the day in September 2002 when I was scheduled to meet with the dean to confirm my retirement in 2004, I had a dream. In the dream, I was two people. For clarity’s sake, I will refer to myself as Me 1 and Me 2. Me 1 was inside Yahweh’s office. Me 2 was sitting in Yahweh’s outer office.
Me 1 was called into Yahweh’s office for a Face-to-face meeting with Him. Me 2 had to sit in the outer office while the meeting took place behind a closed door. The only part of the dream that I was allowed to know anything about was the part with Me 2 sitting in the outer office.
When the meeting in Yahweh’s office ended, Yahweh told Me 2 to tell the dean that I was leaving in May 2004. I did it that day.
Since Me 2 wasn’t allowed to know anything about what took place in Yahweh’s office, my imagination went wild. Not knowing bothered me. The only thing that made sense to me was that Yahweh was angry with me for equivocating about leaving UVA. I thought He must have scolded me for vacillating, and He didn’t want me to feel the pain of being reprimanded by my Creator.
That’s what I believed for 14 years, but in October 2016, I was speaking at a Sukkot gathering in Houston, Texas. On the night that I was scheduled to speak, while the group gathered to sing and dance, I decided to walk in the parking lot and pray. I asked Yahweh for one thing. I said, “Yahweh, please join us tonight and make Your presence known.”
As quickly as I started praying, Yahweh started talking to me, and He changed the subject. He told me that I completely misunderstood the dream in 2002. He told me that He didn’t scold Me 1 at all. He said He revealed things to Me 1 that I would need to know later as I completed the job He gave me in the 1970s.
Yahweh explained that He told Me 1 everything I would need to know. He said that all of the information I needed to know was in me already but that I won’t be able to access it or recall it until the right time.
Me 2 who was sitting outside Yahweh’s office wasn’t allowed to know anything about what went on in His office because I would be tempted to divulge things prematurely. Not knowing, or more precisely not being able to recall, what was said in His office was for my protection. When the time is right, I will be able to remember those things. As He said, they are already in me.
As quickly as Yahweh finished speaking, I noticed a young woman walking toward me, and I could tell that she was coming out to talk with me. When she got to me, she said, “Yahweh told me to tell you that He is coming tonight.”
At first, I thought I misunderstood her. I was the only person who knew what I was praying about, so I asked her to repeat it. She said the same thing, “Yahweh told me to tell you that He is coming tonight.”
Yahweh was confirming that I understood His explanation about that dream correctly. I have witnesses to that event, too: The young woman who delivered Yahweh’s message to me, my wife Katie, and Rowan Smith, the person who was in charge of the Sukkot gathering.
As I think about time, there was a 14-year gap between the time I had that dream and the time Yahweh explained it to me, but the way Yahweh explained it to me, it was as though no time had passed. It was simply a continuation of the conversation we had in 2002.
Yahweh doesn’t see time the way we do. He sees everything at the same time. Past, present, and future are human constructs that help us make sense of reality. Yahweh understands how we think and perceive time, but He isn’t limited by our feeble attempts to understand things.
Eventually, I decided to lay out a fleece the way Gideon did. It’s discussed in Judges 6: 36-40:
Then Gideon said to Elohim, “If You are going to save Israel through me, as You have spoken, behold, I am putting a fleece of wool on the threshing floor. If there is dew on the fleece only, and it is dry on all the ground, then I will know that You will save Israel through me, as You have spoken.” And it was so. When he got up early the next morning and wrung out the fleece, he wrung the dew from the fleece, a bowl full of water. Then Gideon said to Elohim, “Do not let Your anger burn against me, so that I may speak only one more time. Please let me put You to the test only one more time with the fleece. Let it now be dry only on the fleece, and let there be dew on all the ground.” And Elohim did so that night, for it was dry only on the fleece, and dew was on all the ground. (Judges 6: 36-40)
I didn’t lay out an actual fleece the way Gideon did, but I presented something that is impossible unless Yahweh intervenes directly to make it happen. If I understood Yahweh correctly, the things that I will do for Him will be done in Jerusalem. The timing for everything is in His hands. Like Gideon’s fleece, my “fleece” included two seemingly impossible things happening on two consecutive days, because I know that nothing is impossible for Yahweh.
If something happens to me before I move to Jerusalem, I will know that I did not understand my mission correctly. If I move to Jerusalem against all odds, I will know that I understood what Yahweh told me correctly.
I am free to visit Jerusalem any time I want. I’m not talking about visiting Jerusalem. I’m talking about moving there.
Yahweh is an amazing Elohim. He is Wonderful. His timing must be my timing. He will make sure that it is.
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“I am the good shepherd. I know My sheep and My sheep know Me — just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father — and I lay down My life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also. They too will listen to My voice, and there shall be one flock and one Shepherd. The reason My Father loves Me is that I lay down My life — only to take it up again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from My Father.”
John 10: 14-18
