Providence

Overturning Providence

Isa 8:9-10 Go ahead, arm yourselves, make your plans, propose your best, but you will be shattered. Your plans will not stand, for God is with us.
Isa 10:5-7 Assyria was the rod of My anger, and the staff of My indignation. I sent them against a godless nation. I sent them to express My fury upon the people, to seize their plunder, and to trample down the godless in the streets. But this was not Assyria's plan. No, they sought to destroy, to utterly cut off many nations.
Isa 13:3-5 I have commanded those I have consecrated, My proud and mighty warriors, to execute My anger. There will be the sounds of battle in the mountains, the sound of many people. As the LORD musters His army, it will sound like many nations gathering for battle. They will come from far countries, from the farthest horizons, these instruments of His indignation. They will come with the LORD to destroy the land.
Isa 41:2-4 Who has aroused the east, this one whom He calls in righteousness? HE delivers nations to him, and kings are subdued. He makes them like dust, like chaff driven by the wind in his attacks. He pursues them in safety on roads his feet had never trod. Who has accomplished this? Who called forth every generation since the beginning? "I, the LORD, am the first, and I am with the last. I am HE."
Isa 43:14 The LORD your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, says, "For your sake, I am going to make Babylon a fugitive. These Chaldeans will be brought as captives into the very ships they celebrate in now."
Isa 44:28-45:6 I say that Cyrus is My shepherd. He will do all that I desire. I declare that Jerusalem will be built, and the foundation of the temple will be laid. These are My words for Cyrus, whom I have anointed to subdue nations. I will make kings weak before him, and open doors and gates that will not be shut. I will smooth out the rough places. I will shatter the doors and bars that try to keep you out. I will give you hidden treasures, so that you will know that it is I, the LORD, the God of Israel, who calls your name. For the sake of Jacob My servant, and Israel My chosen, I have called you by name. I have given you honorable titles even though you don't know Me. I am the LORD. There is no other besides Me. There is no other god. I will strengthen you, though you haven't known Me. Thus will men know that from the rising to the setting of the sun, there is none besides Me. I am the LORD, and there is no other.
Isa 45:13 I have aroused him in righteousness. I will make his ways smooth. He will build My city, and free My exiled people without seeking any payment or reward. Thus says the LORD of hosts.
Isa 48:14-17 Come together and listen! Who has declared these things? The LORD loves him, and he shall carry out God's own good pleasure against Babylon. I have spoken. I have called him, and brought him, and He will succeed. Listen closely: I have not kept anything secret, but from the first I have told you. When it took place, I was there. Now, the Lord GOD has sent me, and His Spirit. Thus does He say, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: "I am the LORD your God, who teaches you to profit, and leads you in the way you should go."
Isa 54:16-17 Look, I Myself have created the one who blows upon the coals, bringing out of it weapons, and I have created the destroyer to ruin things. No weapon that is formed against you will prosper. Every accusing tongue that seeks your condemnation you will condemn. This is the heritage of the LORD's servants. Their vindication comes from Me.
Jer 51:19-21 Jacob's lot is not like these others, for the Maker of all is God, and He is LORD of the tribe of His inheritance. He says, "You are My weapon of war, with which I shatter nations and destroy kingdoms. I will shatter both horse and rider with you."
Jer 52:3 It is because of the LORD's anger that Jerusalem and Judah have been sent from His presence. This is also the cause of Zedekiah's rebellion against Babylon.
Eze 21:26-27 The Lord GOD says, "take off the turban and the crown, for this will not be the same any longer. Exalt the humble, and humble the exalted. I will make it all a ruin, a great ruin. This, too, shall be no more until He who rightfully rules it comes, and I shall give it to Him."
Eze 29:19-20 I will give Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, and he will take away Egypt's wealth. He will plunder them to provide wages to his army. I have given him Egypt as payment for the work he has done for Me.
Da 11:27 Both kings will be set on doing evil, and they will lie to each other at the table. Yet, they will not succeed, for the appointed time for the end is yet to come.

 

New Thoughts

God's providence reaches far beyond His chosen people, far beyond those He has called unto salvation. In these passages, we are shown a number of rulers of empires whose course is set by God. Indeed, the nations of the earth are established and destroyed as He wills. Babylon was raised up by God to punish His own people, as well as other nations who had angered Him by their sins. Assyria, as well, served God in their attempts to destroy the nations around them. They did not do so intentionally, they were not aware that they were in God's will at that point, but they did it nonetheless.

There are a number of lessons that should be learned from this. First, it should be noticed that God's concern for righteousness does not end with those He has saved. It applies to all mankind. Every one of us that ever has or ever will live is responsible to walk in righteousness before Him. He has sufficiently revealed right and wrong to us, so that there can be no excuse of ignorance. He will judge. He will bring punishment. Even on this national level, vengeance is His.

In seeing God's choice of using Assyria, Babylon, and Persia to further His purposes, I see another lesson we must take to heart: We must, I think, be careful in judging the events around us. Was Israel right to pray against these invaders, to seek that God might turn them aside and preserve His people? I'm not sure. Personally, I think they allowed the threat to distract them from the problem that really needed addressing. The attacks on Israel were not the problem. They should have known this as God's people. They should have known from the history of their nation that if attacks on Israel were succeeding, there was a reason within Israel to explain why. If Israel was losing the battle, it was because Israel was no longer obeying its God.

God will not tolerate disobedience, just because He has claimed us as children. Perhaps it is exactly the opposite: He will tolerate it even less, because His love for His children is greater than the love He has for the rest of creation. Perhaps. It is certainly an act of His love that He will not allow His children to walk in rebellion without acting to bring them back to righteousness. What loving parent could allow their child to run into danger without doing all that was in their power to protect that child? What parent will not discipline their children to teach them the ways that lead to living well? That one does not love as he ought.

We need to learn from Israel, to learn from the history we have been left in the Scriptures. It serves us no better to blame every ill turn on the devil than it served Israel to seek respite from the attacks. If we would seek deliverance from those attacks, we must look to the root cause. Yes, the attacks of the devil may come for no apparent reason, as they did with Job. Yet, in the end, even he was shown to have need of some chastisement, the attacks were not a purposeless testing. God is better than that.

Job suffered because only in extreme suffering would he learn that he needed correction. Only as he was forced back into a complete reliance on God, as he was forced to seriously look to his own internal condition, could he see the pride that spoiled all his good works.

Israel suffered with cause. They had forgotten their God. They had tried to serve Him superficially, and play with all the local gods as well. This can never work. Sin will take its course. Sin began the moment they began to even consider those other gods. Coveting had already set in. It had worked its course, until they had broken every single commandment God had laid before His people. Loving righteousness required that something be done.

When we find ourselves under attack, our first line of defense should not be to pray against the enemy, although this is not in itself a bad thing. It may, however, be a futile thing, if we do not look at our own condition, if we do not allow God to search out our own heart for us. He is not chaotic. He does not send tests just for the fun of watching people squirm. He is reasonable, and acts with reason, acts intentionally. We must learn to stop looking at what the enemy is doing, and instead look at what God is doing.

We must learn to trust in Him, in His Providence. We must get the absolute truth of Romans 8:28 into our heads. We must truly live in the fact that He works all things to our good. If we truly believe that, we cannot have any more cause to complain. If we truly believe that, we are forced to look at every situation in such a way as to see God's hand, for the truth is, His hand is in every situation. We tend to discriminate: The things we like must come from God, the things we don't like must come from the devil. But, all things come from God, and all things - by His Providence - work to the good of His people.

Look at Isaiah 54:16-17, again, and see this truth. It is God who causes the weapons to be made. It is God who causes men to take up those weapons. He created the destroyer to fulfill His purposes on the earth. The destroyer is not free to do as he wills, but only to do as God wills. Yet, there is a promise here, that, if we but believe God, will hold us in incomprehensible peace even as the trials come: No weapon formed against us will prosper. Notice! He caused those weapons to be formed, and He caused them to be formed against us. Yet, they will not prosper. His plans are not to destroy His people, but to correct them. His plans are the best plans, most assured of bringing about His desired ends. The ways in which He executes His plans are the best possible ways. He will achieve His purpose in His people. The attack may come, the weapons may bring hurt, so that the hurt can bring change. No discipline is pleasant at the time. But, the weapons will not prosper. God's people will look up and see Him. They will see their own sins, and repent.

And woe to the ones He employs to destroy and condemn! He does not force them. You'll find no charge against God in this. Assyria, Babylon, Persia; all of these acted on their own vile desires in seeking the pathways of war. The hand of God was found only in steering those pathways to achieve His purpose, in limiting the carnage to that which would accomplish His desire, and no more. Their intent was total destruction, but He would not. Nor would He leave their sins unpunished simply because He had been able to use their sins to good purpose. Sin will have punishment. The condemner of His people will be condemned. The destroyer will be destroyed.

This is the heritage of the LORD's servants. All of it. What strikes us as good, and what strikes us as bad, it's all of it our heritage. Correction and blessing (as if there were a difference other than in our perceptions), are both our heritage. Vengeance is not ours. In our heritage, vindication comes from God. Our chastising comes from God. So, also, does the chastising of our enemies.

Lord, this is my heritage, indeed, my cup runs over with Your goodness. To know that You have it all covered, that no detail has escaped Your careful attention; this is joy unspeakable. To know that You arrange my days to suit Your purpose is security and satisfaction to my soul. Oh, God, how can I complain, when I know that You are ever with me? What shall disturb my peace, when You are my peace?

God, I know that I need work in the areas I have addressed here. I need to work on keeping my eyes on You during the trial, not being distracted by the circumstance from seeking the cause. Help me, Holy Spirit, to cease dealing with the symptoms, and work on the causes. When my trust grows weak, bolster me with belief. For You are shown strong in my weakness. God, it's so very easy to lose this understanding in the fire, to fall back to old ways of crying out against the pain, rather than seeking to understand why the pain was necessary.

How different am I from my own child, in this? So often, the punishment is all in our sight. All we sense is the discipline, and there's no thought given to understanding why that discipline is necessary, only vain efforts to make the discipline stop. Help me, Lord, to correct this, to model a better way to my daughter. Help me, Lord, to accept Your discipline with wisdom; allowing it to point out the areas that need to be repented of. Help me to stop seeking futile ways of shortening the discipline, and to spend my meager energies on the one way that will shorten the discipline: repentance.