Get Real November 16 Devotional
November 16, 2024
ACTS 1:6-7 | 6 So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 He replied, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority.
Without giving in to excessive schadenfreude, it is okay to take some satisfaction in the cluelessness of the original disciples. They had seen Jesus’ love and mercy in action for three years and heard all His teachings on forgiveness and peacemaking. They had witnessed His refusal of the expected role of the Messiah and then His sacrificial death. They had noted His kingdom parables and heard forty days of Resurrection remarks about their role in it. Yet the last questions they ask “Is this the time you’ll restore the Kingdom of Israel?”
In this question there is fundamental misunderstanding. They miss the nature of Jesus’ kingdom, its scope, and its methods. They return to ethnocentric dreams of military triumph and a reversal in the pecking order of the Nations League! Jesus’ victory comes through willing submission, person by person, and never coercive conquering.
Isn’t it a relief to know these same slow disciples led history’s greatest movement?
Have you ever missed the boat?
