April 17th 2020

The origins of the saying “Cometh the hour, cometh the man” it seems are lost in the mists of time but it is believed by some to be a joining of John 4:23 “the hour cometh and now is...” in the Authorised Version of course, given the antiquity of the saying, and an old English proverb,  “opportunity maketh the man.” That, or else people writing on the internet just made it all up to look clever.  

Sorry to go all bookish on you but If you have a mind to do it you can check it out for apparently the first written record of it is in Sir Walter Scott’s novel “Guy Manning” written in 1815 which is a year or two before my time but mentioning it makes me look intelligent. Practically though, we know the meaning that in difficult times or historic days someone comes to the fore to help and today we have such a hero, in fact we’ve many both men and women serving in the NHS or driving delivery lorries or buses, serving in shops or a score of other jobs that we never considered “essential” before.

However, the man of the moment is Captain Tom Moore, a veteran of WW2 who to mark his 100th birthday decided to do 100 laps of his garden with his trusty rollator as a sponsored walk to raise funds for the NHS. His family say that he set himself a target of £1000 which had he reached it would have pleased him. Well, as of the 10pm news last night he had raised in excess of £15 million and although he completed the walk yesterday he vowed to keep going as long as people kept donating money. Captain Tom, we salute you!
 
It was interesting to me (though probably most people have given up reading this by now) that the origin of the saying we’ve talked about lay partly in the bible for many times it could be said of men in the bible “Cometh the hour, cometh the man” and not only men but women too. Think of Gideon, Samson and Deborah in the book of Judges, or Joshua who led the people of Israel into the promised land and the great prophets who, before the exile, bore witness to God and suffered for it.

Two men however come into their own, three really but we’ll come to that, and they are Moses and David, of these truly it could be said “cometh the hour, cometh the man” for they not only served God in their generation through momentous times, but in their roles as prophet and king pointed forward to the Saviour Jesus who is Prophet Priest and King to his people. It’s not over egging the pudding to say that as far as the world is concerned there is no-one to whom this saying applies more. Yeah, it’s just me saying that but you can’t get away that easily for it’s based on God saying it in his word Galatians 4:4-5

​“But when the set time had fully come, (cometh the hour) God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.” (cometh the man). Well here’s a thought to finish today, when we come to Jesus in faith, and trust him with our lives we are not only saved, sorry if you hate that term but what better word to describe our rescue from the penalty of sin, but we are adopted into the Royal family of King Jesus. What grace!

A PRAYER
Heavenly Father, I give thanks and praise you today that at the right time you sent your Son Jesus into this fallen world, and at the right time he died on the cross bearing the penalty for my sin and the sin of his people. Lord I praise you that you raised him from the dead and that through him I am one of your own family. Help me to realise my new status in Jesus, to grow into this new identity and so by my life to bring glory to you Lord and to Jesus my King.  AMEN
 
LISTEN

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