Just for an Hour

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE

JUST FOR AN HOUR

Luke 22:52-62

52 Then Jesus said to the chief priests, the officers of the temple guard, and the elders, who had come for him, "Am I leading a rebellion, that you have come with swords and clubs? 53 Every day I was with you in the temple courts, and you did not lay a hand on me. But this is your hour — when darkness reigns."

NIV

Evil is having a grand time for a moment, and that is all evil gets, a moment. Jesus made that perfectly clear when he told them it was their hour, not for forever, but just for an hour. The Greek word, horas, means exactly one hour, one-twelfth of a day, with a day being from sunup to sundown. However, it can be used as any certain time, or definite time, a moment. This still brings us to the fact that the evil that was to take place was only temporary, a flash in the pan, so to speak, having no lasting effects, that darkness was only going to reign for a day, but the glory is going to last an eternity. Of course, we still have evil in this world, in fact, we are told that our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the dark forces of evil in this world and the evil forces in the heavenly, or spiritual realm. In other words, evil is all around us, but it is just for a day, a moment in time, for someday, we will leave all evil behind and step into the eternal glory of Jesus. However, just as Jesus had to contend with the time when darkness reigns, we must contend with it as well. There is a difference, however, that darkness had to reign for a moment in time to fulfill the will of God. We know in the past, God used the evil forces of this world so Israel might learn a lesson, never to turn away from Him. Yet they did it over and over again. Still, this one time, God used the dark forces of evil to accomplish our salvation. He used evil for good, for Jesus going to the cross was for the good of all mankind, if they just accepted Him and bowed down to worship Him. Just as we sing, “We worship and adore Him, bowing down before Him, songs of praises ringing, Hallelujah!”. Yes, we must contend for just a moment in time with these dark forces, but we do not have to submit to them, as Jesus had to for our redemption. But because we have God with us, the Spirit dwelling within us, we should be able to stand our ground against that evil for the moment of time we are here, or until we leave this place behind. The Lord has told us through the apostle Paul, to forget what is behind and strain for what is ahead. So in a sense, we know that this evil will be behind us as we traverse into what is ahead. Still, we live among the evil, but just for an hour.