God's Timing

Last week as I was looking at that same passage (Jesus' temptation in the wilderness in the book of Matthew) with a group of really sharp student small group leaders, someone pointed out this great little detail that I had overlooked for many years.

Satan's second temptation involves taking Jesus to the highest point of the temple and challenging him to test God by jumping. Satan quotes a Psalm:

'He will command his angels concerning you,
and they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.'

Jesus rebuffs the temptation with another Scripture.

But after the third and final temptation, Matthew records this great little detail: the devil left him and the angels attended to him.

Angels taking care of Jesus is the glorious thread here: Satan wanted Jesus to force God into service. Jesus decides to wait on his good Father's provision and timing.

Satan wants Jesus to demand something from God. Jesus decides to wait on God, to trust on him to send the angels in his timing, when the Father knows the time is right.

How many times have I tried to press or rush God into service, into doing something in my timing, when I wanted it, because I thought I had a right or that he owed it to me to deliver me, come through for me, exactly when I wanted him to do so?

Jesus gets his angels, but he gets them in his Father's timing, when it was right and good. God's timing is never, ever, ever, ever bad. God's timing is never, ever, ever, ever wrong.

I would be way better off if I lived into that reality a little more often.