OUR FATHER WHOSE SON CAME TO SAVE THE WORLD

The political opposition to Jesusˋ ministry was intensifying and designs to kill Him were on the table and Jesus began to restrict His movements to the northern territory of Galilee to stay away from those who sought to kill Him.

In the book of John chapter 7 verses 1 - 9, the Lord explained the reason why He was regulating His traveling itnerary to avoid Jerusalem and Judea;

1 After these things Jesus walked in Galilee; for He did not want to walk in Judea, because the Jews sought to kill Him. 2 Now the Jews’ Feast of Tabernacles was at hand. 3 His brothers therefore said to Him, “Depart from here and go into Judea, that Your disciples also may see the works that You are doing. 4 For no one does anything in secret while he himself seeks to be known openly. If You do these things, show Yourself to the world.”       5 For even His brothers did not believe in Him.

6 Then Jesus said to them, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always ready.        7  The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it that its works are evil. 8 You go up to this feast. I am not yet going up to this feast, for My time has not yet fully come.” 9 When He had said these things to them, He remained in Galilee.

When the feast of Tabernacles arrived, Jesusˋ brothers cynically urged Him to go to Jerusalem so that more people could see His miraculous powers. They considered Jesusˋ ministry to be a novelty to be promoted at festivals and so their view was that He should show Himself to the world to maximize His exposure.

Jesus, knowing that their understanding of what was actually going on was limited, told them that the time had not yet come for the revealing of His primary reason for coming down from heaven and as such, He could not be conspicuous at that time and would not travel with His brothers to the feast.

The time for which all of creation awaited to see the perfection of the nature of God was approaching but was not yet.

Amen.

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