IN THE RIGHT TIME

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

After this, Jesus went around in Galilee. He did not want to go about in Judea because the Jewish leaders there were looking for a way to kill Him.

But when the Jewish Festival of Tabernacles was near, Jesus’ brothers said to Him, “Leave Galilee and go to Judea, so that Your disciples there may see the works You do. No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since You are doing these things, show Yourself to the world.”

For even His own brothers did not believe in Him.

Therefore Jesus told them, “My time is not yet here; for you any time will do. The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify that its works are evil. You go to the festival. I am not going up to this festival, because My time has not yet fully come.”

After He had said this, He stayed in Galilee.

John 7:1-9

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

How many times do people expect Jesus to act in accordance with their terms, not His?

Too many, I’m afraid.

You see, so many people fail to see Jesus for who He really is, the Son of the Most High God, the God who is the Master and Maker of everything, the God who delegated authority over all heaven and earth to His Son.

Think about that a moment.

Jesus has been placed over everything in heaven and on earth. And that includes all people. So who has any right to demand or dictate anything to Jesus? Who?

The point is that no one has the right. Jesus works in His time frame and in His perfect way. We are expected to place our hope and trust in Him, waiting patiently and faithfully for Him to move in our situations. For Jesus knows best as He is One with God the Father.

This matter of trying to command Jesus isn’t a modern day problem by any means. For as we see in today’s scripture passage from the opening verses of John 7, even Jesus’ own family tried to tell Him what He should do. Look again at these words here:

After this, Jesus went around in Galilee. He did not want to go about in Judea because the Jewish leaders there were looking for a way to kill Him.

But when the Jewish Festival of Tabernacles was near, Jesus’ brothers said to Him, “Leave Galilee and go to Judea, so that Your disciples there may see the works You do. No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since You are doing these things, show Yourself to the world.”

For even His own brothers did not believe in Him.

Therefore Jesus told them, “My time is not yet here; for you any time will do. The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify that its works are evil. You go to the festival. I am not going up to this festival, because My time has not yet fully come.”

After He had said this, He stayed in Galilee. John 7:1-9

You’ll recall that Jesus had been in Capernaum through most of Chapter 6, going there after miraculously feeding the 5,000. In Capernaum, we found Jesus trying to teach a group of Jews who had followed Him after the great feeding as well as His own disciples. You’ll recall that both the Jews and the chosen Twelve had difficulty understanding what Jesus was trying to convey, so much so that many of the Jewish followers abandoned Jesus. The Twelve remained faithful to their Master.

As Chapter 7 opens, we find Jesus still in Galilee, the region where Capernaum was located on the northwestern shores of the Sea of Galilee. We read where Jesus intended to stay in Galilee, fully knowing that the Jewish leaders in Judea were looking for an opportunity to kill Him and it was not yet time for that to happen.

Jesus remained in Galilee even when the Feast of the Tabernacles was drawing near, a sacred observance that God had commanded Israel to observe five days after the most sacred day on the Hebrew calendar, the Day of Atonement. The Feast of the Tabernacles started and ended with a Sabbath rest, and included the six days in between. It occurred around the time of the fall harvest and because it was considered a pilgrim feast, native born Jewish males were expected to make the journey to Judea for the observance.

With this as the backdrop, we find Jesus’ brothers encouraging Him to go to Judea with them to observe the Feast and so that His disciples might see the works He could do. The brothers tried to use worldly reasoning with Jesus, telling Him that “no one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret” and so He should “show (Himself) to the world.” Note here that it’s no surprise the brothers would make such a suggestion because they didn’t believe He was who He said He was and so they would not have seen Him as God’s Son and respect His judgment as divine and well above their own.

Before I move on much further, let me address the matter of Jesus’ brothers because the scriptures do discuss them. Look at this verse from the Gospel of Matthew:

“Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t his mother’s name Mary, and aren’t his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas?”

Now most people know about James because he has a book in the New Testament but not much is known of the three others. Of interest, Jesus had sisters too but we never find out their names in the Bible. We only get to know about his brothers, the brothers Jesus addressed with these words in response to their suggesting He should go with them to Judea:

“My time is not yet here; for you any time will do. The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify that its works are evil. You go to the festival. I am not going up to this festival, because My time has not yet fully come.”

Jesus knew His Father’s will which included everything He should do and when He should do it. God had purposed His Son for things in their perfect time and Jesus, obedient to His Father, would not allow anyone to sway Him from what God wanted Him to do, when He wanted Him to do it. Indeed, the world, including the Pharisees and Sadducees, hated Jesus for calling them out for acts that were evil and He knew the Jewish leaders intended to kill Him at the first chance they had. This is why it wasn’t the right time for Him to go to Judea.

As for the brothers, they didn’t have such a problem and so they could go ahead and do as they had planned without their brother who chose to stay behind in Galilee.

As we are going to see, Jesus will make an appearance at the feast but at the time He deems appropriate, the time His Father would send Him there. He has moved in every circumstance since then in the same way and He always will.

This is why we are to wait on the Lord Jesus and wait patiently, trusting that He will move in the right time, in God’s perfect time to fulfill the Father’s will for His people, all the way up to when He returns and comes a second time, this time to bring eternal life to all those who placed their belief.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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