November 3rd

Today's reading from the One Year Bible Chronological Reading Plan is Mark 15:2-20; Matthew 27:11-31; Luke 23:1-25; John 18:28-19:16.

The first thing that struck me was how odd it felt to let myself actually get drawn into these passages as though they were a novel I was reading or a movie I was watching. And, of course, we naturally cheer for the good guys and want everything to work out in the end. And so as the scene unfolds and you realize that Pilate knows that Jesus is innocent of all charges, I found myself willing him to set Jesus free, for wanting right to win out.

Except that this time, in order for right to win the war, injustice had to win the battle.

Injustice had to win, Jesus couldn't be declared innocent, because that would mean God's plan would have failed and that Jesus would not have become the innocent sacrifice on our behalf and that we would no longer have had a way to bridge the insurmountable chasm between us and God.

In order for all the Old Testament prophecies to be fulfilled, Jesus not only had to be killed, he had to be crucified. The geek in Tammi will be thrilled with the John MacArthur sermon Jesus Before Pilate, which explained how God moved history in order for this to happen....
it wasn't until 30 A.D. that Israel lost the right of execution. That would be right around the time of the execution of Jesus Christ. God had actually moved history in order that when it came time for Christ to die, He would die at Gentile hands. Though it was a Jewish plot, it was a Gentile execution. And God was designing this in view of prophecy. Jesus Christ was to be hanged on a tree. Jesus Christ was to be lifted up. All the pictures and types of Christ of the Old Testament had crucifixion in view, even particularly Psalm 22 which gives us a detailed view of crucifixion, and had Jesus been crucified anytime prior to that Roman rule, which took away the right of execution, Jesus would then have been stoned because Leviticus 24:16 says that for blasphemy a man was to be stoned, and consequently would have been unfulfilling in the sense of fulfilling the Old Testament prophecies, all of the Old Testament would have been wrong. The whole thing would have been a fraud and you could have thrown away your Bible. But God moved history so that just prior to the time of the crucifixion of Jesus, the law changed, the right of execution passed into the hands of the Romans and thus Jesus was to die at the hands of the Gentiles, making His death, in a sense, a conglomerate decision on the part of Jew and Gentile. And not only that, being assured that He would then die on a tree, as Paul said, "Cursed is everyone," quoting Galations 3:13, Paul said: "Christ would die on a tree because cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree."

And so, fulfilling accurate prophecy, God moved history in order that it might be changed. That the Romans would have the right of the sword just in time for the death of Jesus. (emphasis mine)

Isn't that amazing?!

My own little note - I find it encouraging that God moved history just in time. He could've moved history any time He wanted to. The Romans could've had the right of the sword for 200 years and Jesus still would've been crucified. But He didn't do it 200 years early, He did it just in time.

This is encouraging to me for a couple reasons.

First - because then it is just so obviously a God thing. When things happen just in time, it's a lot harder to give the glory to anyone but God because it's just too much of a coincidence to be a coincidence.

Secondly - it gives me hope. Hope that during tough times when God is not acting in the way we think He should or in the timeframe we think He should, we can have confidence that He will act just in time, and not sooner. He provides the strength we need just in time, He provides the words to say just in time, He provides the encouragement, the peace, the hope, everything just in time.

Because God's time is always the right time.

Tomorrow's passage: Mark 15:21-41, Matthew 27:32-56, Luke 23:26-49, John 19:17-37