At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds. John 8:59
Prior to this, there were three occasions when the Jewish leaders wanted to seize Jesus but “no one laid a hand on him” (7:20, 7:44 and 8:20) and here Jesus slips away. They couldn’t seize him because his time had not come.
A similar thing happened when Jesus preached at Nazareth. The people in the synagogue were so furious they tried to throw him off a cliff but Jesus walked away (Luke 4:28-30). Consider also, with his simple statement “I am He” (John 18:6), Jesus’ enemies fell to the ground. He could have walked away a free man. He has the power to knock over his enemies with a few words.
In reply to Pilate’s question, “‘Don’t you realise I have power either to free you or to crucify you?’ Jesus answered, ‘You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above”‘ (John 19:11). Jesus understood God is the ultimate power and nothing could happen to him outside of God’s purposes.
All this highlights to us, not only is God is in control, but he has the power to protect us. Nothing can touch us without God’s permission. The difficulty is sometimes God does allow things to touch our lives. In Job we see Satan being given permission (Job 1:12). We may find it difficult to understand why God allows Satan to do this. Nevertheless, we can trust that God’s purposes are always good and we know he won’t allow more than we can bear (John 16:12). Furthermore, he provides sufficient grace for whatever we are called to endure (2 Corinthians 12:9).
