Perfect Timing

When God brought the children of Israel out of Egypt it took drastic measures. After nine plagues of increasing severity He prepared for the final one that would break the will of Pharaoh. All of the firstborn in the land of Egypt would die. The believing Jews were to kill a lamb, one without a blemish, and put its blood upon their doorposts. They were to eat the lamb, roasted with fire, with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. The blood on the doorposts would be a token, which when God saw, he would pass over that house and spare the firstborn within.

And this day shall be unto you for a memorial: and ye shall keep it a feast to the Lord throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever.

Fast forward about fifteen hundred years; a Jewish teacher that has spent the last three years traveling through Israel, proclaiming God’s love, with miraculous healings, even raising some from the dead, is observing Passover with His disciples. Knowing that one of His chosen disciples was about to betray him, and that He would be given over to His enemies to be scourged and crucified, He took the unleavened bread and broke it saying, “this is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me. He took the cup of wine also, saying, “drink all of it, for this is my blood of the new covenant which is shed for many for the remission of sin, this do ye as often as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.”

Talk about perfect timing. The real Lamb of God, the one that was prefigured in ancient Egypt in the blood upon the doorposts, the unleavened bread, and bitter herbs, was about to be sacrificed so that God could pass over the sins of all mankind. And it was happening not a month away or a week away from the memorial that had been observed through the centuries, but on the very day. No amount of human effort, no amount of planning, scheming, staging, or manipulation could have brought the necessary mix of people, place, and events to make the crucifixion of Christ coincide with the annual Passover observance.

Was it happenstance, or coincidence, or was it the hand of the Almighty, working in omnipotent wisdom, working His will, while allowing individuals to do what they thought was their will. It was the work of Jehovah, the great I Am who appeared to Moses in a burning bush and said, “Go and tell Pharaoh to let my people go.” His ways are beyond our understanding, His timing is perfect.

We don’t like having to wait so long for our little girl from China. When we applied in May of 2005, we expected a wait of about a year. It is almost a year beyond that now, with several more months to wait in a best case scenario. We have had to remind ourselves that our times are in His hands, and that all things work together for good to them that love God, who are the called according to His purpose. The child that we will be matched with, and when that will occur is not in the hands of someone in China, it is in the hands of the Master Planner whose timing is perfect.

Oh yes, the rest of the story. Jesus rose again, Happy Easter everbody!

Ronnie