The origin of the phrase cometh the hour, cometh the man, is not known.
However, its believed that it comes from the joining of the verse in John 4:23 But the hour cometh, and now is, and the English proverb; opportunity makes the man.
In December 2013 South Africa and the world commemorated the life of the late Mr. Nelson Mandela. For ten days after his death all the television channels were filled with people praising the transition he went through and brought to this country. Mr. Mandela went to prison ready to lead the country into sabotage and anarchy, to fight for freedom and equality for all. During his 27 years of internment, he had a change of heart and came out of prison preaching and propagating forgiveness and reconciliation. However, he stood firm on the matters of freedom and equality.
It was at the brink of national uprising and of a possible bloodbath that the amazing happened. The white government and then president released a man who was ready to preach peaceful co-existence, unity and true democracy in a country that had been torn apart and lived on a powder keg of oppression. Nelson Mandela was the man for that hour.
Every speech and talk show during this period of mourning worldwide, spoke of a man for the hour of change, from hatred and resentment to peace and reconciliation.
Churchill, Ghandi, Martin Luther King Jr.
When England faced disaster during World War II, Winston Churchill took the lead to spur that nation on to fight till victory. Though he was replaced after the war as prime minister, he was certainly the man for that hour.
The same can be said of Mohandas Ghandi who was the preeminent leader and freedom fighter of Indian nationalism in British-ruled India. Employing nonviolent civil disobedience, Gandhi led India to independence and inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world.
Gandhi first employed nonviolent civil disobedience as an expatriate lawyer in South Africa, in the resident Indian communitys struggle for civil rights. After his return to India in 1915, he set about organising peasants, farmers, and urban labourers to protest against excessive land-tax and discrimination. Assuming leadership of the Indian National Congress in 1921, Gandhi led nationwide campaigns for easing poverty, expanding womens rights, building religious and ethnic amity, ending untouchability, but above all for achieving Swaraj or self-rule. (Wikipedia)
And then there was Martin Luther King Jr. who led the black consciousness movement in the United States of America by turning the other cheek and bending their backs to rods and whips, and in the end giving their lives for the sake of freedom and equality for all. From his speech in 1963 he pronounced his dream: when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of Gods children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old traditional spiritual, Free at last! Free at last! Thank God almighty, were free at last!
Many are the men and women of the hour who propagated peace and reconciliation and forgiveness by peaceful means, who paid with suffering and their lives. This can also be said of many or most of the voices that cried out throughout the Bible. These include prophets of the Old Testament with John the Baptist as the last one who was beheaded.
But it did not end there. There were the apostles who proclaimed the gospel of peace and hope and all suffered. It is believed that all but John died a martyrs death. And there have been many missionaries through the ages who sacrificed their lives in jungles and faraway places to bring the message of peace and reconciliation to heathens and even cannibals. The results of their service are well known by the testimonies of those who accepted the message.
And then there was Jesus Christ himself who propagated forgiveness, offered his peace beyond understanding, died to make it possible, and rose from the grave to make it eternal.
Not all who intervened were committed Christians, but they were all men and women of the hour that changed some of this world to better lives and environment.
Could it be you?
I believe all those, and those who will still come, are Gods interventions into a cruel world that needs some respite. God does intervene by means of human instruments because he is concerned for our welfare and he invites us to participate and share in what he is already doing.
This may even be you in a bigger or smaller way, who will do some intervention. It may be a meal or soup kitchen to the hungry or a jacket to the one shivering in the cold or a service of encouragement.
The leader of our church in South Africa heard the calling of a few thousand believers in Mozambique for help and guidance. Selflessly he packed his little Renault and trailer and brought much help to them after thousands of kilometres and a number of breakdowns to the little car. He brought them, with the help of others, wells for fresh drinking water, guidance to plant vegetables and much needed Bibles. He suffered malaria in the process but still carries on.
When you see a need and feel passionately about a way to bring alleviation, you may just be the man or the woman for the hour. Humanity is rife with suffering, but short of people willing to address the dire needs of those suffering.
Thats where intervention comes in. Consider your awareness of a need and, sometimes when it grows into a passion, you may just be the man or the woman that cometh for the hour of need.
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