Perfect Timing

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

PERFECT TIMING

John 7:1-9

7:1 After this, Jesus went around in Galilee, purposely staying away from Judea because the Jews there were waiting to take his life. 2 But when the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles was near, 3 Jesus' brothers said to him, "You ought to leave here and go to Judea, so that your disciples may see the miracles you do. 4 No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world." 5 For even his own brothers did not believe in him.

6 Therefore Jesus told them, "The right time for me has not yet come; for you any time is right. 7 The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that what it does is evil. 8 You go to the Feast. I am not yet going up to this Feast, because for me the right time has not yet come."  9 Having said this, he stayed in Galilee.

NIV

It is not that Jesus was afraid of the Jews that he would not go to Judea, but it simply was not his time to go and make a public spectacle of himself. We will see next that after his brothers went, he did go, not publically, but privately. For now, he is going to stay in Galilee, at least as far as his brothers knew. What is interesting in this conversation between Jesus and his brothers are how they were baiting him. It is also interesting John decides once again to reveal Jesus had brothers. There is no mistake John meant to use the word which denotes a brother of the womb, meaning that Joseph and Mary had other sons after the birth of Jesus. This would also then mean Jesus is the firstborn son and thus according to Jewish customs, he would inherit all his fathers’ wealth, business, land, and be the head of the family. Interestingly the Father has given all authority to His Son, the firstborn of many. Well, back to the baiting of his brothers, who at this time did not believe in him. It would seem having grown up in the same household as children with the only understanding of children that Jesus was no different than they were, a son of Joseph and Mary, it would take something extremely special to make them see him as their Messiah, the divine Son of God. Sometimes it requires something that special for some people to believe in Jesus. The response of Jesus is what we would expect as he is very aware of the exact time when he should make his move so that he would be arrested and crucified. This was not that time and so he tells them that for them any time is right, but for him, the time has not yet come. The timing of God is impeccable, perfect, without defect, or mistake. Sometimes we want what we want when we want it and for us, anything is right the right time for us to have it. It would be good for us to remember the timing of God with respect to every aspect of our lives, even the number of days. We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him and who are called according to His plan or purpose. We are also told that we may make our plans, but God orders our footsteps. It seems we want to control our own lives, our own plans, or desires. It seems we want to plan out our future, determine the course of our lives, as to what type of career, or profession we think would best suit our plans for living in the manner we want. We plan out our financial future so we can retire at a certain age and then do everything we always wanted to do, with all the freedom and carefree life we planned for. How foolish we mere humans are. All our timing, all our plans are so flawed, so fraught with difficulties, so inaccurately scheduled. God’s timing is perfect and until we learn to live according to his time schedule we are sure to experience frustration, anxiety, impatience, envy, greed, jealously, discontentment and maybe even a little depression because life is just not all we expected it to be. Even as believers we think we should be healed right now, or get whatever we pray for right now. It seems it always comes down to we want what we want and we want it when we want it. Let us wait on God’s timing. Let us live by perfect timing.