A Time to Every Purpose Under Heaven

Ecc 3:1-To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

Solomon opened up the third chapter of Ecclesiastes with this statement and went on to list many events of our lives.  These include:  birth and death, sowing and reaping, laughing and crying, speaking and silence, war and peace and several others.  The Bible has several instances where it seems as if God is looking at HIS calendar and HIS watch.

Let's look at how this holds true for Jesus' ministry.
     In John 2:4-When Mary told Jesus that the wine was all gone at the wedding, He said, "Mine HOUR is not yet come."  He did turn the water into wine on that day, but this statement indicates that He was waiting for a particular moment on that particular day.

     In John 7-Jesus' brothers were urging Him to go up to the feast at Jerusalem and show His miraculous powers there.  Here again, Jesus says, "My hour has not yet full come."  Jesus DID go up to that feast but He waited for a specific moment from His Father.

     In Luke 22:53, Jesus told the priests and scribes that had come to arrest Him, "When I was daily with you in the temple, ye stretched forth no hands against me: but this is your hour, and the power of darkness."  In Luke the fourth chapter, the priests were so mad at Jesus that they lead him to the edge of the hill and intended on throwing Him to His death.  However, Luke tells us that Jesus just walked through the middle of the crowd and went on to Capernaum.

     Even the devils know that God is on a time schedule.  When Jesus cast out the legion of devils from the man at Gadara, the devils cried out to him in Mt 8:29-And, behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us before the time?

     In Gen. 17:21, God told Abraham that Sarah would bear him a son "at this set time in the next year."  In Gen 18:14, He said, "Is any thing too hard for the LORD? At the time appointed I will return unto thee, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son."  Gen 21:2 reiterates God's SET TIME for this occurrence.

     In Gen. 15:13, God told Abraham that his children would be afflicted for four hundred years in a strange land.  In Ex 12:41, on the four hundred and thirtieth anniversary of their entering in to Egypt, God brought them out.  The Word of God says, "on the selfsame day."

     Let's talk about Jesus.  God's Word required a pure lamb to be sacrificed for the sins of the world.  Technically, Jesus could have died within minutes of being nailed to the cross.  However, God required Him to suffer for six hours.  Plus, there were several hours before that where He was beaten with fists, rods and a scourge.  Jesus was humbly committed to God's complete time schedule and therefore, enjoyed God's complete blessing for His life.  Were His enemies broken on that day or three days later at the resurrection?  No.  But, in 70 AD, the priesthood was devastated as well as the city destroyed just like God had said.  All of it happened in God's timing.

     When God sent Moses to tell Pharaoh to let His people go, God could just as well have broken Pharaoh on that day.  Instead, God's timing prolonged their suffering.  Why?  God could have come down in one fell swoop and destroyed every inhabitant.  His people would have been free to pillage the entire town before leaving for the promised land. 
     We have to remember, in Gen 8:22, God instituted the 'timing' of seedtime and harvest, or reaping what you sow.  These Egyptians had sown hardship and sorrow of heart into the lives of God's people.  God's Word had faithfully declared seedtime and harvest.  Instead of an immediate Exodus, God was obligated by His own Word to reap hardship and sorrow upon the Hebrew's captors. 

     God's Word is true and He is true to His Word.  I have given you just a few examples of God's strict sense of timing.  The hard and harsh things that you and I are going through right now DO have an end.  I am in the middle of building a bee, butterfly and hummingbird habitat in my back yard.  I looked on the back of the pack of seeds and it gives me a time table as to how long it takes for the seeds to pop up out of the ground and how long it takes before each different one comes to bloom.  Guess what?  None of the information says anything about "when I want to."  There is a God-ordained timing element in each different seed.  Just as sure as I can count on that pack of seeds to be right, I can count on God making His Word come out right.

     Saints of God, it would behoove us to quit striving over 'when this' and 'why that.'  God is well aware of what He has promised and is well able to bring it to pass.  We have the option of accepting His timing, waiting patiently for Him (Ps 40:1), and praising Him until that day comes.  Gal 6:9-And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.  In Luke 21:19, Jesus encouraged His disciples, In your patience possess ye your souls.  Let's quit giving our souls over to every harsh moment that seems bent on destroying us.  Let's give our souls to our Keeper and steadfastly praise Him for the harvest of His goodness that we know is ours.

     Pass this on.  You'll never know who could use an encouraging word right now.