God's time is the best!

John 7:1-2,10,25-30

Jesus stayed in Galilee; he could not stay in Judaea, because the Jews were out to kill him.

As the Jewish feast of Tabernacles drew near, However, after his brothers had left for the festival, he went up as well, but quite privately, without drawing attention to himself. Meanwhile some of the people of Jerusalem were saying, ‘Isn’t this the man they want to kill? And here he is, speaking freely, and they have nothing to say to him! Can it be true the authorities have made up their minds that he is the Christ? Yet we all know where he comes from, but when the Christ appears no one will know where he comes from.

Then, as Jesus taught in the Temple, he cried out:

‘Yes, you know me

and you know where I came from.

Yet I have not come of myself:

no, there is one who sent me

and I really come from him,

and you do not know him,

but I know him because I have come from him and it was he who sent me.’

They would have arrested him then, but because his time had not yet come no one laid a hand on him.

Food for thought

There is one unique thing in this passage which we must note. Jesus kept out of the way, careful not to draw attention to himself because his time had not yet come. And the Jews too were looking for a way to arrest him, but not a hand was laid on him because it wasn't yet God's time. 

All this means that there is God's time and our time. Jesus was operating under God's time, and he knew it. He knew how and when to wait for God's time to come. In this particular instance Jesus' opportunity had not come. Literally this means that the best time for Jesus to act, the moment when circumstances were most suitable, the psychological moment was not yet; the moment which would give him the chance for which he was waiting had not yet arrived. For that reason, Jesus kept out of the way, careful not to draw attention to himself because his time had not yet come. And the Jews too were looking for a way to arrest him, but not a hand was laid on him because it wasn't yet God's time 

From this passage we learn one thing that it is impossible to force God's hand. It was not unnatural for Jesus to go to Jerusalem and let his supporters there see what he could do. Further, if Jesus was ever to succeed in winning men, he could not hope to do so by hiding in a comer; he must act in such a way that everyone could see what he did; but God's hand is never to be forced. God does things, not in man's time, but in His own time. We too must learn to wait on God's time because God's time is the best time. Anything done out of its time is disastrous. Many of us don't know how and when to wait, and that is why we crush and get crushed.

Jesus was born when the fullness of time came: (Gal 4:4) "But when the time arrived that was set by God the Father, God sent his Son, born among us of a woman." And Jesus died when all was done: (Jn 19:28-30) Jesus, seeing that everything had been completed so that the Scripture record might also be complete, then said, "I'm thirsty." A jug of sour wine was standing by. Someone put a sponge soaked with the wine on a javelin and lifted it to his mouth. After he took the wine, Jesus said, "It's done... complete." Bowing his head, he offered up his spirit."