A Sudden Season

“Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season;”

2 Timothy 4:2a

Paul has lived a long and adventure-filled life. He has weathered many changes of season: blistering summers to piercing winters, slogging spring to crisp autumn. He has seen life change slowly, and yet change so suddenly as to alter the course of world events forever. Veteran wisdom flows to an inspired channel when he charges Timothy: “Be instant in season, out of season.”

Solomon advises his son that “To every thing there is a season.” (Ecclesiastes 3:1) In the right season, all good things are possible, even easy. If only every battle came on a good day! But alas, the enemies of a Christian- and the expectation of the Commander- often strike hardest when the season is inclement.

On that kind of preparedness, a lesson from a world-conqueror will suffice.

On October 19, 1812, Napoleon's great army began its retreat from Moscow. Napoleon retreats from Moscow with about two hundred thousand men, a mighty nucleus for another campaign after he gets back to Paris.

The morning of October 19th, when they start for home, is bright and beautiful. The air is tonic, and, although this Russian campaign has been a failure, Napoleon will try again in some other direction with his host of brave surviving Frenchmen.

But a cloud comes on the sky, and the air gets chill, and one of the soldiers feels on his cheek a snowflake, and then there is a multiplication of these wintry messages, and soon the plumes of the officers are decked with another style of plume, and then all the skies let loose upon the warriors a hurricane of snow, and the march becomes difficult, and the horses find it hard to pull the supply train, and the men begin to fall under the fatigue, and many, not able to take another step, lie down in the drifts never to rise, and the cavalry horses stumble and fall, and a hundred and thirty-two thousand die!

-T. DeWitt Talmage

One day, everything changed. The unfavorable season ended the campaign.

But there is a holy demand placed upon the child of God. A demand to be ready when you shouldn’t have to be. A demand to fight when you have already fought, to bear fruit when leaves have only begun to form. “Be instant… out of season.”

And God has always been this way. In Psalm 1, I have often quoted of the blessed man, “And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season.” (Psalm 1:3a) I assumed that it was “his (the man’s) fruit in his (the man’s) season.” But I think you’ll see from Scripture that it is the Lord’s fruit, in the Lord’s season.

In Hosea 14:8, the Lord God redeems and revives Israel. Hear the conversation of a saved nation with God:

“Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with idols?

[The Lord] I have heard him, and observed him:

[Ephraim] I am like a green fir tree.

[The Lord] From me is thy fruit found.”

Psalm 1:3 concludes with Hosea in the hope of an evergreen life: “His leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.”

God’s Fruit, God’s Season

The Lord Jesus held this expectation for Israel when He came the first time. Israel had not yet become the “green fir tree,” they were still a fig tree in their own righteousness. As Jesus approached Jerusalem for the last time, Mark records:

“And on the morrow, when they were come from Bethany, he was hungry:

And seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came, if haply he might find any thing thereon: and when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves; for the time of figs was not yet.”

Mark 11:12-13

Did you catch that? Jesus came in the early spring of the year, when fig trees all around Israel were just budding and flowering. No one, not even the disciples had any expectation of finding a fig that day.

Except for Jesus.

“And Jesus answered and said unto it, No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever. And his disciples heard it.

And in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. And Peter calling to remembrance saith unto him, Master, behold, the fig tree which thou cursedst is withered away.

And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God.”

Mark 11:14, 20-22

It was unconscionable. Unreasonable. It was “out of season” for figs! Yet Jesus cursed the tree, withered it, and used it as a lesson of faith.

You see, He made the tree. He made the seasons. He ordered the weather. He had made His presence known to all Creation in His triumphal entry. A wild ass’ colt humbled himself. The palm trees fanned their branches in the hands of His followers. The rocks bit their tongues excitedly awaiting their chance to sing. The fig tree should have been ready!

It is Time to Make Him Known

The Lord Jesus had every right to expect “HIS fruit in HIS season.” Paul reminds us believers in the dispensation of grace that our God doesn’t change. He calls for us to produce “in season, out of season.”

He made you a new creature. He gave you the Scriptures. He orders your trials. He has made His presence known in your reborn heart. It is time to make Him known!

There will not be a better time than TODAY to preach Christ to your family. There will not be an open door to witness like the opportunity before you. You may have preached all weekend, prayed all night, and worked all day to sow and reap the Gospel. Have you any fruit from your labor? Christ calls: “Children, have ye any meat?” (John 21:5) Aren’t you tired of striving on your terms for Divine blessings? How much better to have GOD’S fruit in GOD’S season! Christ desires and deserves your obedience NOW.

For “the time will come” when Christ will pass by no longer. Felix the governor heard Paul’s testimony one fateful day. But Felix had nothing to offer Jesus Christ that day. He excused himself, “Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee.” But the Bible records a terrible curse, that in a short two years “Festus came into Felix’ room.” (Acts 24:25, 27) Felix never had another chance.

How about us? Do we have an offering for Christ ready at His request? Are you ready to offer obedience in an instant? God grant us the tenacity to be “instant… out of season.”

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