8 You go up to this feast. I am not yet going up to this feast, for My time has not yet fully come.” 9 When He had said these things to them, He remained in Galilee.
7:8
You [emphatic] go up to this feast.
Jesus suggested definitely to His brothers that they could go to the Feast of Tabernacles. The world did not hate them. If Jesus was to go with His brothers, it would have been with a large crowd, which would have called attention to Him. Since this was not the right timing for Jesus to go public in Judea, He did not want the crowd to take notice of Him at this point.
I am not yet going up to this feast,
Jesus did not go to the Feast of Tabernacles at the timing of His brothers. He went later in His own timing (Jn 7:10). It is not that Jesus would not go to Jerusalem but that He would not go “yet.” The idea is that He would not go to Jerusalem right then. Jesus remained for a little while in Galilee before leaving for Judea.
for My time has not yet fully come.”
Jesus’ view of the right timing was very different from His brothers’. He would not be pressured to go to Jerusalem before the Father’s timing.
7:9
When He had said these things to them,
By avoiding fanfare Jesus did not fulfill His brothers’ request.
He remained in Galilee.
Jesus was not willing to accept a publicly induced timing, so He remained in Galilee for a while. The timing of His Father was another matter.
PRINCIPLE:
God’s purpose for us is to do the will of God—nothing more, nothing less, nothing else.
APPLICATION:
Jesus did not do ministry for His personal aggrandizement or to seize opportunity but according to a careful plan by the Father. Jesus’ only concern was to do the will of the Father.
