John 8:20 These words spoke Jesus in the treasury, as he taught in the temple: and no man laid hands on him; for his hour was not yet come. I. EXERTS A RESTRAINING POWER ON WICKED MEN. "No man," etc. Why? Jewish rage was almost at its height; the Sanhedrims lacked neither disposition, muscular power, nor public cooperation. It was because "His hour was not yet come." There was a mysterious power holding them back, an invisible hand restraining them. In relation to this restraining power of God's moral government of the world, note — 1. It is not always a matter of consciousness. Sometimes, it may be, men feel that they are reined in, some mysterious power preventing them from doing what they desire. History presents us with monsters that have felt themselves like caged lions. But as a rule the restraining force is so subtle, so delicate, that men are unconscious of it. 2. It interferes not with human freedom. A man is not free from the guilt of a wrong act because he has not the power or the opportunity to embody it. The guilt is in the desire, the volition. "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." At first sight it seems morally absurd that God should restrain a man from committing a crime, and yet hold him guilty for it. The solution is here: the crime is in the wish. 3. It is an incalculable advantage to the race. What was in the Alexanders, the Caligulas, the Napoleons, the Lauds, and the Bonners, is for the most part in every unregenerate soul. Were there no restraining hand upon depraved hearts, all social decency, order, peace, and enjoyment would be at an end. The world would be a Pandemonium. We rejoice that He who reigns in the ocean and keeps it within bounds, holds in the passions and impulses of the depraved soul. "The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord," etc. II. HAS SETTLED PERIODS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF EVENTS. "For His hour was not yet come." Christ recognized that there was a particular hour or crisis for everything He had to do. There was an hour for the commence, merit of His miracles, for His baptism, for His death. His death was the hour of hours. "Father, the hour has come." God has appointed scenes in space and in duration for all things that occur in His vast dominion. Nothing He allows to be done in one scene that is intended to occur in another, nothing in one season that is fixed for another. "To everything there is a season." Every orb that rolls through immensity has a point it is bound to reach, and an "hour"; it is never behind its time. So it is not only in the epochs and eras of human history, but in all the events of individual life. Man's decrees and purposes often fail from the fickleness of his own mind, from his want of foresight, and from his want of power. It is altogether otherwise with the designs of the Almighty. When His set time for working comes, not all the power in the universe can stay His hand. When we first look abroad, indeed, upon the busy field of human affairs, and observe the numerous actors, all moving, planning, arranging, we may be tempted for the moment to imagine that destiny itself is in their hands. But when we have looked a little longer and have seen all their schemes deranged, and a result emerging the very opposite, it may be, we begin to discover that there is a power out of sight mightier than all — "One whose purposes are from everlasting to everlasting, whose counsel shall stand, and who will do all His pleasure." (D. Thomas, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: These words spake Jesus in the treasury, as he taught in the temple: and no man laid hands on him; for his hour was not yet come. |
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