Just the Right Time

For a long, repetitive paragraph in Numbers 9, God describes for us how Israel would follow his leading in the cloud. Sometimes they would remain in camp a long time and not set out (v. 19). I wonder how bored those kids got on long summer afternoons, struggling to come up with a creative game in the desert. At other times, they would stay only one day and set out the next morning to follow the cloud (v. 21). It was not only tedious but also hard work (11:1), meticulously setting up, then tearing down the tents and furnishings, hoisting them on their backs for yet another journey—“here we go again,” I can almost hear them say.

Sometimes God’s timing seems so arbitrary, so capricious for Israel—and so too for us. How long it took me to find a job after seminary. The timing and frequency of sinus infections. How long it takes a child to be potty-trained. The number of years I pray for a family member. The length of time it takes God to work out any given problem or complication.

Rom 5:6 says, “At just the right time…Christ died for the ungodly.” In what way was it just the right time? We don’t exactly know. For Simeon it must have seemed awfully late. It is frustrating sometimes not to have all the answers, and not to understand fully the mystery of interaction between God’s sovereign plan and man’s responsibilities. But it is unbelievably comforting to believe in a sovereign God who has set all times and dates (Acts 1:7), who has numbered our hairs and our days, who has ordained all things, and yes—who does so at just the right time.