Then they sought to take him: but no man laid hands on him, because his hour was not yet come.
The setting is Jerusalem during the feast, where priests and rulers kept watch over Jesus and plotted to silence Him by violence. While He taught in the temple, the very men who hated Him and were ready to use violence listened spellbound and felt powerless to harm Him, even though they thirsted for His life. The move to seize Him came after His words convinced many listeners, and many believed in Him because of His words and miracles.
To seek to take Him meant His opponents and rulers tried to seize Him with intent to kill Him and take His life. That they could not lay hands on Him was because His hour was not yet come, the appointed time for His arrest, suffering, death, and being seized and killed having not yet arrived. His life was therefore preserved until that time, and He continued to work in the cities while it was safe. No hand could be laid on Him before that time.
An invisible, unseen power and influence, God Himself, restrained their rage and set a limit to what they could do. Jesus remained safe under divine control, so that their intent and rage could not override that limit. As it was with Jesus, so it was with Paul, whose appointed time to die as a martyr had not yet come, so God sent angels to guard him from the mob.
The setting is Jerusalem during the feast, where priests and rulers kept watch over Jesus and plotted to silence Him by violence. While He taught in the temple, the very men who hated Him and were ready to use violence listened spellbound and felt powerless to harm Him, even though they thirsted for His life. The move to seize Him came after His words convinced many listeners, and many believed in Him because of His words and miracles.
To seek to take Him meant His opponents and rulers tried to seize Him with intent to kill Him and take His life. That they could not lay hands on Him was because His hour was not yet come, the appointed time for His arrest, suffering, death, and being seized and killed having not yet arrived. His life was therefore preserved until that time, and He continued to work in the cities while it was safe. No hand could be laid on Him before that time.
An invisible, unseen power and influence, God Himself, restrained their rage and set a limit to what they could do. Jesus remained safe under divine control, so that their intent and rage could not override that limit. As it was with Jesus, so it was with Paul, whose appointed time to die as a martyr had not yet come, so God sent angels to guard him from the mob.