1053. PREPARATORY WORK.

God usually does much to prepare his people for those things which yet, if he pleased, he could bring to pass, and that in a due perfection, without any preparation. Thus much was done to prepare Joseph for his exaltation in Egypt. Much was done to prepare Moses for his high privileges and employment in his forty years banishment. Much was done to prepare the children of Israel to enter into covenant with God at Mt. Sinai, in the hard bondage they suffered in Egypt, and the great and terrible things which they had seen wrought by God on the Egyptians; and much was done to prepare them for the blessings of Canaan in their forty years’ travel through the wilderness, Deuteronomy 8. Much was done to prepare David for the crown of Israel, in the troubles he met with through Saul’s persecution, etc. How much was done to prepare the church for the blessings of the gospel introduced by Christ! What a law was given to [be] their tutor and schoolmaster, to train up the church for these privileges and their glorious inheritance, and what a variety of dispensations of providence did the church pass under, from the calling of Abraham, for that end. John the Baptist was sent to prepare the minds of men for Christ’s coming. What a long preparation had Christ himself for the work he had to do, before he entered on his public ministry. How much did the man Christ Jesus pass through, to fit him for the glory of his exaltation! How much did Christ do to the disciples, to prepare them for their privileges and business after his ascension. How long a time of preparation had they! The apostle Paul was long in Arabia, to fit him for the great things he was designed for. And how much have the church of God, to prepare them for the latter-day glory. And how much have the saints in this world, to fit ‘em for the heavenly state! God’s church and people are represented in Scripture by those plants that come to their perfection and ripe fruit through much preparation, and by many degrees. God reaps his harvest when it is ripe, and when the fields are white to the harvest, and gathers his fruits when come to maturity. Christ came into the world in the “fullness of time” [Galatians 4:4], when all things were ready; and so God accomplishes all that appertains to the salvation and glory of his people in the fullness of time. If the wisdom of God did not see it meet that there should be preparation for that spiritual good that he bestows on his church and people, there would be no use at all of means of grace, and prayer to God for the blessings we need would be of no benefit.

Works of Jonathan Edwards, Volume 20, The “Miscellanies:” 833-1152, ed. Amy Plantinga Pauw (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002), 393-394.

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