There are many questions in life and some seem to have no answer.  One of the questions which most often bother me is the matter of timing.  If I know that I have been called to do something in particular why does it take so long for that call to be fulfilled?  There are things I have prayed for over many years which are yet to come about.  How long until the answer is manifested?  But this wondering applies to situations beyond my life, such as when will Australia come to a place of turning to Jesus or when will the church come to a time of renewal?  I was pondering these things recently, while painting my bathroom ceiling, and this short discussion is the result.

I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything, but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father.  In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world.  But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons (Gal 4:1-5 ESV).

This passage speaks to the question of timing.  I have sometimes wondered why Jesus waited so long to come into the world.  The answer, according to Galatians, is that dates and times are set by the Father.  When the Father had determined that the fullness of time had come, he sent the Son into the world.  The time of Jesus’ coming is a matter which is not the concern of human beings.  It is the Father alone who determines these matters.  A similar statement about the Father’s sovereignty is made by Jesus just before his ascension.

So when they [the disciples] had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”  He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority” (Acts 1:6-7 ESV).

It is the Father who has authority over timing of events.  Human beings are not given the gift of determining these things and not even given the authority to know these things.  In a culture in which self-determination is so central to our thinking this seems very difficult to accept.  Yet it is something which we must accept as children of the Father in heaven.  Acceptance of what the Father chooses not to tell us is one aspect of the life of faith.

Since Jesus is now fully human he has accepted the authority of the Father over the timing of his life.  This does not merely apply to the timing of his birth, but the timing of his future.  About his own return to earth, Jesus said, “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only” (Matt 24:36 ESV).  This acceptance of the timing of his return is part of what it means for Jesus to submit as a human Son to the authority of the Father.  Since Jesus is the example we must follow and forerunner of our own destiny, his acceptance of the authority of the Father is something which he both enjoins (commands) us to participate in and gives us the capacity to embrace.

So in answer to my questions about when will this or that happen in my life, in the life of Australia or the life of the church, it is the Father who has authority to determine these things.  If the Father does not tell Jesus some matters of timing, then he will not tell me certain matters of timing either.  There are two things I must do in response to the Father’s authority in matters of timing.  First, I must continue to pray that his will is done in my own life and the life of the church and the nation.  Secondly, I must submit to the Father’s authority in this matter.  Submission can be an active thing through a decision to trust in the goodness of God over my life and the goodness of his will for the world.