There is a master plan.

One place that gives a summary in terms of objectives, is in Acts 17. How He acts is summed up in a single verse. Paul speaks of God making mankind and says,

“And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;”
Acts 17:26 KJV

Among other things it says that there appointed times for men. Times for them to flourish, times for them to perhaps fail and waste away, or times perhaps for renewal. Time for Babylon to rise, and a time for her to fall. A time for the Medes and the Persians to rise, and a time for them to fall. A time for Greece to rise, and a time for Rome to rise. Or the United States of America, or Britain, or France or Russia, or whoever. Then Paul says something else: God appointed the bounds of their habitations. In other words, he says God determines where nations will live, and their boundaries!

These are very long range plans.

In the long ago, in the nineteenth century BC, God spoke to Abraham about a nation with whom He was not well pleased: the Canaanites. God had brought Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldees to the land of Palestine. God said,

… “I am Yahweh who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give you this land to inherit it.”
Gen 15:7 WEB

So God is going to give the land of Palestine to Abraham, that is to his descendants, his “seed.” In the passage which follows Abraham enters into a covenant with God involving these promises. God assures Abraham that he will inherit these land after his descendants spend 400 year in another land as slaves. There are special reasons why it is to be 400 years. For one that 400 years is so that Abraham’s descendants will have time to grow into a nation themselves. There is something else, though. It is not yet time for Abraham’s descendants to take over this land, but,

“In the fourth generation they will come here again, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet full.”
Gen 15:16 WEB

So we can see: God is very patient, and will put up with much bad conduct, at times even for centuries, but there is limit to what God will endure. When a peoples sins are “full,” sometimes he will do away with a people, and give that land to others. And God foresees, and prepares a people to replace the Amorites.

“He changes the times and the seasons; he removes kings, and sets up kings; he gives wisdom to the wise, and knowledge to those who have understanding;”
Dan 2:21 WEB

What then is the purpose of these plans?

“that they should seek the Lord, if perhaps they might reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.”
Acts 17:27 WEB

KJV is the King James Version of 1611

WEB is the World English Bible, a copyright free revision
of the original ASV American Standard Version 1901