Even Jesus Waits

Today’s Scripture Readings:
OT: Job 23-24
NT: John 7
W&W: Psalm 69.1-18


Today’s Reflection:

In today’s New Testament reading, you will find Jesus’ brothers urging him to make himself known publicly by going up to Jerusalem and making a big “splash” at the festival that was about to take place. Jesus refused to do so, saying, “The right time for me has not yet come” (John 7.6). After a few days, Jesus did go up to the feast, but only when the time was right.

Joseph Bentz entitled chapter 10 of his book When God Takes Too Long: “Cling to God’s purposes – even if you have a quicker plan of your own.” Bentz says, “We almost never admit this, but many of us Christians believe we know better than God how to run our lives. Oh, he’s competent in the big issues … but we would rather take care of our lives… Sometimes our own impatience, lusts, or desires overwhelm our determination to wait on God and follow his leading… A certain shortcut to disaster: If God won’t help us, we’ll do it our own way…”

Jesus refused to short-circuit God’s timing. His life was defined by his waiting on God. He did not appear on earth until God sent him “when the time had fully come.” He waited 30 years and appeared in public ministry only after John the Baptist had prepared the way and he had been baptized by John. He requested silence of those he healed so that his followers would not prematurely make him an earthly ruler. He did not call on legions of angels to deliver him safely to the Father. Even in the Garden of Gethsemane, where he faced his horrifying death, he rejected the shortcut of his will, praying instead: “Nevertheless, not as I will but as you will.”

And now, he invites us to wait with him. For you see, there is coming a time when God will bring history to a close. Jesus has said that even he does not know the precise day. He is waiting for the Father to reveal it.

So put your waiting in that larger context and realize that you’re in good company: Jesus Christ!


This Week’s Scripture to Memorize:
Work on putting all of Isaiah 53 together:
1 Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4 Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.
8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away. And who can speak of his descendants? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was stricken.
9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet it was the LORD's will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand.
11 After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.