We've been passed over, but it's a good thing!

I have heard people say again and again, 'God's timing is perfect' and I have always agreed to it without much thought. This Palm Sunday it really hit me just how perfect His timing really is.

A while back I had an opportunity to participate in Beth Moore's study of Esther. This is a wonderful study which I highly recommend. In the Bible, Esther (who is Jewish) becomes queen and finds out that the King and an enemy named Haman, have established a new law that will annihilate all of the Jews. In the study Beth Moore points out the timing of the decree that goes out to all of the provinces in this kingdom. She states that the decree to kill all of the Jews goes out on Passover (Esther, It's Tough Being a Woman, p. 73). So, here we see that God's timing is perfect because through His timing He is saying this law has been passed, but the total destruction intended by the law will not be carried out. The total destruction of the Jews will be 'passed over.'

So, this Sunday I was thinking about Jesus being crucified during the Jewish celebration of Passover (see Matthew 26-27). As you recall, the celebration of Passover was because the Jewish people put lamb's blood on the door posts of their houses so that the death angel would pass over their home and not take their first born sons (see Exodus 12) during the plagues of Egypt. So, the first Passover means that the Jewish people were exempt from God's wrath and punishment. Now consider that Jesus was crucified during Passover. This means through our belief in Jesus as God's son, God was providing a way for all of us to escape His wrath. Our punishment can be 'passed over' if we believe in Jesus' sacrifice (and that He died for our sins), and God was emphasizing His willingness to 'pass over' our punishment by Jesus' death on the cross during the festival of Passover. Hallelujah! Our God is a complex and amazing God, and His timing is indeed perfect.

Special thanks to Angie, Chris, and Hazel for helping me clarify this point.