Well, I love the book of Galatians and find myself very glad to be returning to the book in our Bible reading together.

We reach Galatians 4 on Wednesday, a chapter that is just loaded with things to think about and talk about.

I mean, you've got that phrase, Abba Father, right?

In Galatians 4, 6, what does it mean that phrase, Abba Father, right? In Galatians 4-6,

what does it mean to cry, Abba Father? We looked at that in the past in APJ 1743. And then there's Galatians

4-4, which is our focus today on it. We have two related questions. One from Bryce, who simply asks this,

Why did God wait so long in human

history to send Jesus? It's a good question. Slightly elaborated by Craig, based on what he

sees in our reading coming up to. Pastor John, thank you for your dedication to ministry, Craig

writes. Your books and this podcast have been a huge

encouragement to me. Recently, my brother-in-law posed a question to me that I had no good

answer to, and I'm still thinking about it. After the fall of Adam and Eve into sin,

why did it take so long for Jesus to come to earth like thousands of years later?

I can't help but think that Jesus could have come sooner and brought the saving message of the gospel to a lot more people than he did.

Can you explain to us the fullness of time in Galatians 4 and what God was waiting for.

I'm really here to tackle this question because last December, way back then, during Advent,

I was asked to preach at Bethlehem and the topic that Pastor Kenny gave me was the superior priesthood of Jesus

over all the priests of the Old Testament. And in my preparation, I was provoked by this very question,

why didn't God send Jesus the better prophet, the better priest, the better king, 2,000 years earlier.

I mean, the world had fallen, right?

With Adam, it was in such terrible corruption so bad that he'd wiped out the whole world

except for eight people because of how pervasive sin was and how deep the corruption was.

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