What could have been and should have been does not change the fact God knows in advance exactly what will happen. Just because He reveals it to us a little bit at a time does not mean He doesn't know how it will play out.

What could have been and should have been does not change the fact God knows in advance exactly what will happen.

Just because He reveals it to us a little bit at a time does not mean He doesn't know how it will play out.

Rosangela, Kevin covered your comment in detail. *That* Christ's coming would happen was not in question, but the details weren't set in stone, as Kevin pointed out. Iow, Christ could have come much earlier than He did, had the Hebrews responded positively to God's overtures at some previous point.

What could have been and should have been does not change the fact God knows in advance exactly what will happen. Just because He reveals it to us a little bit at a time does not mean He doesn't know how it will play out.

What could have been and should have been does not change the fact God knows in advance exactly what will happen.

They do not imply God isn't certain of the date, that the date is flexible.

"When the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come." Christ is waiting with longing desire for the manifestation of Himself in His church. When the character of Christ shall be perfectly reproduced in His people, then He will come to claim them as His own.

It is the privilege of every Christian not only to look for but to hasten the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, (2 Peter 3:12, margin). Were all who profess His name bearing fruit to His glory, how quickly the whole world would be sown with the seed of the gospel. Quickly the last great harvest would be ripened, and Christ would come to gather the precious grain. (COL 69)

I have a different opinion. The prophecies about Christ are very specific and I don't consider the details to be conditional, even if the Jews had responded positively - the place in which He would be born, the details about His death, the time of His coming according to the 70-week prophecy.

"Why didn't the Lord bring the people directly to Mount Zion then, where they could find the law as life, and not to Mount Sinai, where it was only death?"

That is a very natural question, and one that is easily answered. It was because of their unbelief. When God brought Israel out of Egypt, it was His purpose to bring them to Mount Zion as directly as they could go. When they had crossed the Red Sea, they sang an inspired song, of which this was a part: "Thou in Thy mercy hast led forth the people which Thou hast redeemed; Thou hast guided them in Thy strength unto Thy holy habitation." "Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of Thine inheritance, in the place, O Lord, which Thou hast made for Thee to dwell in, in the sanctuary, O Lord, which Thy hands have established." Ex.15:13,17. If they had continued singing, they would very soon have come to Zion; for the redeemed of the Lord "come with singing unto Zion," and everlasting joy is upon their heads. Is.35:10; 51:11. The dividing of the Red Sea was the proof of this. See verse 10. But they soon forgot the Lord, and murmured in unbelief. Therefore "the law was added because of transgressions." It was their own fault--the result of their sinful unbelief--that they came to Mount Sinai instead of to Mount Zion.