Today, the time between the cross and the empty tomb

I'm in awe, today. 

One year ago today (3/31/17) I walked onto the beautiful campus of my new deployment. A place I’d never even heard of. I was in awe, not because of the large campus with cascading fountains, and winding walkways and state of the art exercise equipment…I was in awe of the timing. God’s perfect timing.

It all started when I followed a prompting to lead our Whispering Pines RV Village Wednesday Bible Study. For the whole winter I (unqualified and scared) led a weekly Bible Study in our clubhouse. Most of the attendees were snowbirds, who’d been studying the Bible longer than I’d been alive, yet, they came, and were attentive and gracious. I spent everyday of the week preparing for that one hour.

Soon the time had come when snowbirds flock back to their northern homes. As I prepared for our last Bible Study of the season, I mentioned to God that I should get back to gainful employment. I think I whispered that prayer on Monday, 3/27/17. One Tuesday 3/28/17 I received an email from a place I’d never heard of. I replied. Wednesday we had Bible study. Friday morning, one year ago today, (last year the 31st was on a Friday), I walked into the beautiful campus of my new deployment.

By about the time the snowbirds flocked back and our Bible study resumed, this place had deposited six figures into my account. I was in awe, not because of the large sums they paid me…I was in awe of the timing. God’s perfect timing.

A few days ago, Wednesday, 3/28/18, we finished our last Bible study together. I didn’t lead it this year; our pastor from Calvary Church taught from the book of Daniel.

For our last study, we finished chapter nine. It’s the one where the angel Gabriel shows up and tells Daniel that as soon as he started praying he was heard. Gabriel explains things that are to come. He talks about seventy weeks; about rebuilding and restoration and then, destroying and desecration of Jerusalem. He tells the exact day of the triumphant coming (Palm Sunday) and the cutting-off (crucifixion) of Messiah the Prince. He prophesies of things that are still to come, like the rebuilding of the temple and starting and stopping of the sacrificial worship. He foretells of the coming of another prince, the anti-christ and abominations and a seven-year covenant, which is broke in the middle, and the coming battle and victory of Jesus Christ the King of kings and Lord of lords, forever and ever, amen.

…it’s a chapter that’ll blow your mind.   

The next day, Thursday morning, I opened my Bible to where I-just-happened-to-be in my regular Bible reading and it just-happened-to-be at the place where, Jesus told two of His disciples: “Go into the village opposite you; and as soon as you have entered it you will find a colt tied, on which no one has sat. Loose it and bring it.”

Jesus rode that colt into Jerusalem and a multitude of people spread their coats and palm branches in the road and cried out, “Hosanna! Blessed is He wo comes in the name of the LORD!”

At that moment I sat back in awe. Not that He rode on an unbroke colt through a parade of screaming people, stepping over branches and coats, and the colt never bucked…I was in awe of the timing. God’s perfect timing.

I remembered something the pastor said about Gabriel telling Daniel the exact day when Jesus would ride into Jerusalem. I had to go back and look at my notes.

Remember, Gabriel said, “Know therefore and understand, from the going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince, there shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks”

Seven weeks plus sixty-two weeks equals sixty-nine weeks, or sixty-nine sevens or four hundred and eighty-three years. So, in simple words, that even I can understand, Gabriel told Daniel, ‘When the command is given to rebuild Jerusalem, it’ll be four hundred and eighty-three years, and the Messiah will come.’

It is a historical fact that on 1st Nisan, 445 B. C., Artaxerxes gave the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem. It is a historical fact that 483 years to the day Jesus rode into Jerusalem with the crowds proclaiming Him as Messiah and King.

“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, your king coming unto you; he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon a donkey, even upon a colt, the foal of a donkey” (Zech 9:9)

And today, I stand between Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday. Between the cross and the empty tomb. Commemorating the time Jesus body lay in the grave; The Light of the world, lying in a cold dark tomb. I’m awe struck again, at the timing of it all, as I stand here in line, about to enter the movie, God’s Not Dead: A Light In The Darkness.  

One year to the day of when I walked awe-struck into that impressive complex, I’m still in awe of God’s amazing, perfect timing.

You know, there’s still one week unfulfilled in Daniel’s prophecy. He who made time, has stopped time, because He waits, because it’s not His will that any should perish.

But, unfortunately, His will isn’t always done.

That’s why he told us to pray; “Thy will be done…” That’s why Jesus Himself had to pray, “Father not My will, but Yours, be done.”

I think about tomorrow. The timing of it all. Easter; Resurrection Sunday. April 1st. April Fools Day.  

Psalms 14:1 “The fool has said in his heart, ‘there is no God.’”

Can you hear Him whisper, as He holds back the curtain of time? “Today, if you hear His Voice, harden not your heart.” (Hebrews 3:15)

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