INTERRUPTIONS AND INTERLUDES: How do you respond to interruptions and interludes? An interlude has been described as: "an intervening or interrupted period, space or event." I don't respond very well to these and have always had a problem when circumstances did not go according to my plans - just ask my family!
After days of planning and hoping to write about the Kinsman Redeemer mentioned in Ruth chapter two, I now find myself in an interlude and instead of writing about the Kinsman Redeemer, I have been impressed to discuss the importance of the WORD OF GOD.
God's WORD: Have you ever realized its importance? The book of John begins by stating, In the beginning was the WORD and the WORD was with God and the WORD was God. The Epistle of First John begins: What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we beheld and our hands handled concerning the WORD of LIFE - we declare to you. When the writer to the Hebrews begins his letter he starts by saying, God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers through the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in the these last days has spoken to us through His SON... (Heb. 1:1-2). The writer continues in the next few chapters to exhort us to LISTEN to that WORD and to give the more earnest attention to it.
God's Word is His communication to mankind and He has revealed that communication through His Son, the LORD Jesus - THE WORD OF GOD. How important was God, the Father's Word to Him when Jesus ministered here on earth? It was so important that He informed us that the Words that He spoke were not HIS but the Father's who sent Him (John 14:24, & 17 14). The Father also testifies of the importance of the WORD OF GOD when He speaks to the disciples on the Mount of Transfiguration and says, This is my beloved SON, HEAR HIM. Jesus felt the importance of the WORD of God so much that he tells us that those very WORDS that the Father gave to Him, He also gave to His disciples that they might give them to their listeners and eventually make them known through the written Word. If the Word of God was so important to Jesus, and to His disciples, how important and what preeminence should it have it our lives?
Not only were the words that Jesus spoke His Father's words but the works He did were those of His Father as well. He stated in John 14:10-12, The Words I say unto you, I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does HIS WORKS.....believe on account of the WORKS themselves. The people living during the time of Christ's ministry saw the works He did and should have believed on Him. He tells them that those very works were not His but that His Father did those works through him. The Father both spoke His words and did His works though Jesus, His Son. Why was the Word of His Father and the Works of His Father so important to Him?
One reason the Father's words and the Father's works were so important is because Jesus desired the WILL of His Father. The book of Hebrews tells us in 10:7-9, Behold, I am come (In the Roll of the Book it is written of ME!) TO DO THY WILL, O GOD. You can find similar texts confessing His desire to do His Father's will in John 4:34, 5:30, 6:38. We see the extent of that desire to do His Father's will in the Garden of Gethsemane as He is facing Crucifixion (the WILL of His Father). There He prays, Take this cup from me, nevertheless, NOT what I WILL, but what YOU WILL ( Luke 22:42).
What do the Word of God, the Works of God and the Will of God have to do with interruptions and interludes? Because in all of these there was the "timing of God". The Psalmist states that our times are in HIS hands but so many times we want to control the time. When interruptions and interludes happen we are flustered and frustrated. How did Jesus respond - or did he even experience those interruptions and interludes?
Jesus recognized that His Father had a planned TIME for him for all the events in His life - but, especially for the Cross. He states in John 7:6-8, My time is not yet at hand... My time has not fully come. In many places in the Gospel we hear Him referring to His hour or His TIME is not YET.
What were some of those times in the Life of Jesus and how were they effected by interruptions and interludes? He began with a time to be born. Even at His birth however, there was an interruption. We hear of Herod seeking to kill the young child and his early childhood was interrupted by a time spent in Egypt. There was an interlude. Then there was the time of early childhood or of growth and learning. We find Him at one point in the temple learning from the teachers of His day and His mother and Joseph come to "interrupt" His time there and take Him back home. His statement to them was, "Don't you know that I must be about my Father's business" - and yet, he submits to their authority for His time had not yet come. In fact, we don't know exactly how long that submission lasted but we do know that it was not until he was thirty years old that we see Him finally beginning that "time" of ministry. There was an interlude in which He grew in His home, worked in the Carpenter's shop, faithfully attended the Synagogue and waited His Father's time for full ministry.
Even after He began His ministry, we find Him "interrupted" many times. At one point after he had healed many people and resumed His preaching (that for which He said He came to do), his disciples came to Him and said, "all men seek for thee". His response was, "I must go to the next cities to preach and teach for that is what I was sent to do."
At one point, he was preaching in a house and a great multitude was there and we are told that his mother and brothers sought him and tried to get him to "take a break". But, His response was, Who is my mother, brothers and sisters? He who does the will of my Father in heaven - the same is my mother, brothers and sisters.
Many times he would escape to a lonely place to pray only to find himself "interrupted" in prayer by his disciples or some crowd of people. Jesus knew what it was to face the interruptions and interludes of life. His peace came in accepting each interruption as the will of God and continuing in the plan of God for His life.
I have often imagined that as a young child listening to those teachers in the Temple that Jesus longed then and there to begin His ministry - to do "His Father's business" - but he knew His TIME had not come. I wonder how many times while helping Joseph or Mary He longed to begin His heavenly Father's business - but His TIME had not come. Even after he began that ministry of preaching God's Word and doing God's Works how often did He long to finish that by His atoning work on the Cross and go back to the fellowship of His heavenly Father. Jesus knew the boundary of time and circumstances and submitted Himself to the interruptions and interludes of life.
What application can we make from these truths in our own lives? I am sure that many of you, like I, can identify with interruptions and interludes. Some of you have started college and the finances are just not sufficient at the moment to finish. Perhaps a parent has gotten ill and it is up to you to care for him or her. Maybe you have finished college but you can't find a job.
Perhaps sickness has interrupted your own life and you must spend time bedridden instead of doing the job for which you were trained. Maybe you had planned to be a stay-at-home Mom now that your children have come along but circumstances have forced you for the time being to help with the family income by working outside the home in your little vineyard (Prov. 31:16). Maybe you are the other mother who had trained and planned for a career only to find you must remain at home and do the work for which you had never planned.
Maybe you were very happy in a ministry at your church and circumstances have forced you into a situation where you feel you may never minister again. Maybe as a wife who supports her husband, your life has been interrupted by a job change for him and now you must be the one to leave family, home, friends, church or position to go where he goes - perhaps to face many days and nights alone. The situations can be endless and I think all of us can say that at some point we have faced these interruptions or interludes in our lives. What can we learn from Jesus about how to respond to them?
First, like Jesus, we should recognize the importance of the WORD of God and give it priority in our lives. We should both learn it and communicate it to others. We also should seek to do the WORKS of God and not our own works. We should desire the WILL of God above our own will. And, we must submit to the TIMING of GOD for our lives. If for a time, like Jesus we have to journey into Egypt, then let us wait for His word telling us when it is time to return. If we feel the call of God to ministry and long to be "in the Temple" learning and asking questions and going about our Father's business, but find we must submit to some higher authority, let us do so with patience and faith that God will bring about His will for us in His time.
If we long to stay in prayer but the baby cries or a loved one is in need, answer the call and resume to prayer as you can. Find His Will in His Word and continue to move toward that Will with resolve even if for a time, there are interruptions and interludes. And, trust that God has a Good purpose in all the interruptions and interludes of life. Remember that Jesus has passed this way already and above all He is a compassionate and merciful High Priest and when it comes to the interruptions and interludes of life - He can have compassion on the weak and is able to give aid to the needy. Look to Him - trust Him - and commit your way unto Him, He will bring it to pass - IN HIS TIME.
