But the doctrine of God’s providence and unfailing purposes is meant to comfort us and reassure us. It may look like evil – and evil rulers and evil nations – have the upper hand, but it is only temporary. God is at work behind the scenes bringing about his wise and good purposes. So we persevere. If need be we may need to pray for more faith, for more trust, and for more certainty that God is indeed on the throne and is working out all things for his good and gracious purposes.
It was the Dutch survivor of Nazi concentration camps Corrie ten Boom who once said, “If you look at the world, you’ll be distressed. If you look within, you’ll be depressed. If you look at God you’ll be at rest.” I must say, I am far too often distressed and depressed, and I often need to pray for more faith and more trust in God.
But because of my ministry, and because of the sort of person I am, I am often looking at what is happening around me, what is going on in the world, what the political scene is like, and so on. And the more the Christian looks at all that, the more depressed and distressed he might become.
So we need to see things through the eyes of faith as well as just through human eyes. We need to try to understand what is happening all around us from God’s point of view, not just our own point of view. As such, we need to see that God is accomplishing his purposes.
Sure, one big problem is we may not always know what exactly his purposes are. We cannot always see what he is up to, and so often it seems like his purposes are not being done. Or we may have an inkling of what his purposes are, but we may not like them!
But knowing that God is in control and that he is working out his plans is meant to comfort and console us. Yesterday I wrote about how human choices fit in with divine purposes. They may seem to be mutually exclusive, but somehow God is bringing them together: billmuehlenberg.com/2021/07/24/human-choices-divine-purposes/
Here I want to look further at divine purposes, and I will again confine myself to the book of Isaiah which I am now once again reading. Many times in this key Old Testament book we find statements about how God’s purposes stand, and how he is accomplishing what he desires. Here are some of them:
Isaiah 14:24-27
The Lord of hosts has sworn:
As I have planned,
so shall it be,
and as I have purposed,
so shall it stand…
For the Lord of hosts has purposed,
and who will annul it?
His hand is stretched out,
and who will turn it back?
Isaiah 19:12-17
Where then are your wise men?
Let them tell you
that they might know what the Lord of hosts has purposed against Egypt…
Everyone to whom it is mentioned will fear because of the purpose that the Lord of hosts has purposed against them.
Isaiah 23:8-9
Who has purposed this
against Tyre, the bestower of crowns,
whose merchants were princes,
whose traders were the honored of the earth?
The Lord of hosts has purposed it,
to defile the pompous pride of all glory,
to dishonor all the honored of the earth.
Isaiah 37:26
Have you not heard?
Long ago I ordained it.
In days of old I planned it;
now I have brought it to pass,
that you have turned fortified cities
into piles of stone.
Isaiah 44:24-28
Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer,
who formed you from the womb:
“I am the Lord, who made all things,
who alone stretched out the heavens,
who spread out the earth by myself,
who frustrates the signs of liars
and makes fools of diviners,
who turns wise men back
and makes their knowledge foolish,
who confirms the word of his servant
and fulfills the counsel of his messengers,
who says of Jerusalem, ‘She shall be inhabited,’
and of the cities of Judah, ‘They shall be built,
and I will raise up their ruins’;
who says to the deep, ‘Be dry;
I will dry up your rivers’;
who says of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd,
and he shall fulfill all my purpose’;
saying of Jerusalem, ‘She shall be built,’
and of the temple, ‘Your foundation shall be laid.’”
Isaiah 46:9-11
I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is none like me,
declaring the end from the beginning
and from ancient times things not yet done,
saying, ‘My counsel shall stand,
and I will accomplish all my purpose,’
calling a bird of prey from the east,
the man of my counsel from a far country.
I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass;
I have purposed, and I will do it.
Isaiah 55;11
so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
As can be seen, most of these passages have to do with the nations. Of cours, his purposes stand for all aspects and details of life. But the fact that even secular nations are part of his purposes should be of real comfort to us. As we look around at evil nations and ungodly tyrants, it is so easy to get discouraged. But God is accomplishing his purposes, even with godless and arrogant nations.
