* Since there are no free e-books of Trusting God When Life Hurts by Jerry Bridges, i had to type out chapter 3 on THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD from my own personal copy of the book i have by hand. It will be in two separate blogs. Soon to follow will be two more blogs i will write up on Chapter 4 called, GOD’S SOVEREIGNTY OVER HIS PEOPLE.
This is a very important subject that is rarely preached, talked about or even given serious study to. Prayerfully consider, meditate on, and dig deeper Scripturally on the absolute Sovereignty of God in all things seen and unseen alike. It might be quite difficult to comprehend and embrace, but it is what it is. THE TRUTH according to His Word!
Isaiah 55:8-10
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:
Linda Rose
THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD (Chapter 3 ~ by Jerry Bridges)
THE LORD FOILS THE PLANS OF NATIONS; HE THWARTS THE PURPOSES OF THE PEOPLES. BUT THE PLANS OF THE LORD STAND FIRM FOREVER, THE PURPOSES OF HIS HEART THROUGH ALL GENERATIONS (PS 33-10-11)
In the year 1902, a young English boy came down to breakfast to find his father reading a newspaper which carried news of preparations for the first coronation in Britain in sixty-four years. The middle of breakfast the father turned to his wife and said, “Oh, I am sorry to see this work like that.”She said, “What is it?” “Why,” he replied, “here is a proclamation that on a certain date Prince Edward will be crowned king at Westminster and there is no Deo volente, God willing.” The words stuck in the young boy’s mind for the very reason that on the appointed date the future Edward VII was ill with appendicitis and the coronation had to be postponed.
At this time, at the end of Queen Victoria’s reign, the political, economic, and military power of the British Empire was at its zenith. Yet for all its great might, Great Britain could not carry out its planned coronation on the appointed date. Was the omission of “God willing” from the proclamation and the subsequent postponement of the coronation merely coincidence, two events without any relation to one another? Or did God cause Prince Edward to have appendicitis to show that He was “in control?” We don’t know why the situation occurred as it did. One thing we do know, however; whether we acknowledge it with Deo volente or not, we cannot carry out any plan apart from God’s will. The Bible leaves no doubt about that fact. James says it clearly in the following passage.
James 4:13-15
Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.
GOD’S ABSOLUTE CONTROL
God is in control; He is Sovereign. He does whatever pleases Him and determines whether we can do what we planned. This is the essence of God’s Sovereignty; His absolute independence to do as He pleases and His absolute control over the actions of all His creatures. No creature, person, or empire can either thwart His will or act outside the bounds His will.
In chapter one I stated that, for us to trust God in times of adversity, we must believe in God’s Sovereignty, His love, and His wisdom. Of these three truths, the Sovereignty of God seems to be questioned the most frequently and most stridently. It seems we will allow God to go anywhere except upon His throne ruling His universe according to His good pleasure and His Sovereign will.
Even godly Christian writers whose books are helpful to many can, in their writings, take God off his throne. One of their most common statements is that God voluntarily limited Himself to the actions of men in order to give man his freedom. For example, Andrew Murray wrote, “In creating man with a free will and making him a partner in the rule of the earth, God limited himself. He made himself dependent on what man would do. Man by his prayer would hold the measure of what God could do in blessing” (emphasis added.)
Other Christian writers fail to acknowledge the controlling hand of God – either directing or permitting – in every event of our lives. One writer, for example, speaks of suffering sometimes coming because of misfortune or accident, things “just happening.” And pain coming our way, “due to circumstances beyond our control.”
Our response to such statements is more than mere theological discussion. Confidence in the Sovereignty of God in all that affects is crucial to out trusting Him. If there is a single event in the entire universe that can occur outside of God’s Sovereign control, then we cannot trust Him. His love may be infinite, but if His power is limited and his purpose can be thwarted, we cannot trust Him. You may entrust to me your most valuable possessions. I may love you and my aim to honor your trust may be sincere, but if I do not have the power or ability to guard your valuables, you cannot entrust them to me.
Paul, however, said we can trust our most valuable possession to the Lord. In 1 Timothy 1:12, he said, “That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet I am not ashamed because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him for that day.” (emphasis added) “But,” someone says, “Paul is speaking there of eternal life. Without question, we can entrust our eternal destiny to God, but what about our problems in this life? They make me wonder about the Sovereignty of God.”
It should be evident; however, that God’s Sovereignty does not begin at death. As we will see in a later chapter, His Sovereign direction in our lives even preceded our birth. God rules as surely as He does in Heaven. He permits, for reasons known only to Himself, for people to act contrary to and in defiance of His revealed will. But He never permits them to act contrary to His Sovereign will.
In support of the statement I have just made – God never permits people to act contrary to His Sovereign will – consider the following passages of Scripture:
Proverbs 16:9
A man's heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps.
Proverbs 19:21
There are many devices in a man's heart; nevertheless the counsel of the LORD, that shall stand.
Proverbs 21:30
There is no wisdom nor understanding nor counsel against the LORD.
Ecclesiastes 7:13
Consider the work of God: for who can make that straight, which He hath made crooked?
Lamentations 3:37
Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not?
James 4:15
For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.
Revelation 3:17
And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith He that is Holy, He that is True, He that hath the Key of David, He that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth;
We make plans, but those plans can succeed only when they are consistent with God’s purpose. No plan can succeed against Him. No one can straighten what He makes crooked or make crooked what He has made straight. No emperor, king, supervisor, teacher, or coach can speak and have it happen if the Lord has not first decreed to make it happen or permit it to happen. No one can say, “I will do this or that,” and have it happen if it is not part of God’s Sovereign will.
What an encouragement, what a stimulus to trusting God, this aspect of God’s Sovereignty should be to us. Is someone “out to get you?” That person absolutely cannot execute his malicious plans unless God has first decreed it. I spoke with a military chaplain who had a confrontation with a more senior chaplain over an illegal act the senior chaplain proposed to do. As a result the senior chaplain wrote a very critical letter to the chief of chaplains that has seriously jeopardized my friend’s career. Is my friend merely the victim of a cruel act of revenge? Not according to Scripture. The ungodly chaplain may write a dozen letters , but he absolutely cannot end my friend’s career unless God permits it. And if God permits it, it is because the ungodly action is part of God’s plan for him. No one can speak or have it happen if the Lord has not decreed it (Lamentations 3:37)
My friend’s experience is not unique. Thousands of Christians have experienced similar injustices at the hands of teachers, coaches, fellow workers, supervisors at work, etc. Perhaps you have, too. When these events occur they always hurt. We cannot dismiss them with the glib expression, “God is in control.” God is in control, but in His control He allows us to experience pain. The pain is very real. We hurt, we suffer. But in the midst of our suffering we must believe that God is in control; that He is Sovereign.
As author Margaret Clarkson again so beautifully has written, “The Sovereignty of God is the one impregnable rock to which the suffering human heart must cling. The circumstances surrounding our lives are no accident: they may be the work of evil, but that evil is held firmly within the mighty hand of our Sovereign God……All evil is subject to Him, and evil cannot touch His children unless He permits it. God is the Lord of human history and of the personal history of every member of His redeemed family.”
Not only are the willful malevolent acts of other people under God’s Sovereign control, so also are the mistakes and failures of other people. Did another driver go through a red light, strike your car, and send you to the hospitals with multiple fractures? Did a physician fail to detect your cancer in its early stages, when it would have been treatable? Did you end up with an incompetent instructor in a very important course in college, or an inept supervisor that blocked your career in business? All of these circumstances are under the controlling hand of our Sovereign God, who is working all them out in our lives for our good.
Neither the willful malicious acts nor the unintended mistakes of people can thwart God’s purpose for us, “There is no wisdom, no insight, nor plan that can succeed against the Lord.” (Proverbs 21:30) The Roman governor Felix left Paul in prison for over two years. Felix committed a totally unjust act because he wanted to grant a favor to the Jews (Acts 24:27.) Joseph was left in prison for two years because Pharaoh’s cup bearer forgot him (Genesis 40:14, 23; 41:1.) These two godly men were left to languish in prison – one because of deliberate injustice and the other because of inexcusable forgetfulness – but both of their predicaments were under the Sovereign control of an infinitely wise and loving God.
Nothing is so small or trivial as to escape the attention of God’s Sovereign control; nothing is so great as to be beyond God’s power to control it. The insignificant sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His will; the mighty Roman empire cannot crucify Jesus Christ unless that power is given by God (Matthew 10:29, John 19:10-11.) And for what is true of the sparrow and for Jesus is true for you and me. No detail of your life is too insignificant for your heavenly Father’s attention; no circumstance is so big that He cannot control it.
Within two days I received word of calamitous events in the lives of two of my friends. The wife of one friend was killed instantly when the car apparently stalled at a railroad crossing in the path of an oncoming train. The other friend is an independent over-the-road truck driver struggling to get established in that business. On a recent trip his truck broke down, necessitating expensive repairs on the road. The repairs completely wiped out the income he would have made from the trip.
The consequences of these two events, of course, cannot be compared. The struggling truck driver would agree that no amount of lost income can be compared to a precious wife. But what do we say to either of these men, each grappling with his own unique set of circumstances, about the Sovereignty of God? Do we just speak to one of a “tragic accident" and to the other about his “bad luck?”
Are we truly left to the mercy of stalled cars, of trucks that break down, of people who are in a position to do us harm and are intent on doing it? No, a thousand times no! We are in the hands of a Sovereign God who controls every circumstance of our lives and who rejoices in doing us good (Jeremiah 32:41.)
GOD’S SOVEREIGNTY IS NOT ALWAYS APPARENT
One of our problems with the Sovereignty of God is that it frequently does not appear that God is in control of the circumstances of our lives. We see unjust or uncaring or even clearly wicked people doing things that adversely affect us. We experience the consequences of other people’s mistakes and failures. We even do foolish and sinful things ourselves and suffer the often bitter fruit of our actions. It is difficult to see God working through secondary causes and frail, sinful human beings. But it is the ability of God to so arrange diverse human actions to fulfill His purpose that makes His Sovereignty marvelous yet mysterious. No Bible believing Christian has any difficulty believing that God can and does work miracles – instances of His Sovereign but direct intervention into the affairs of people. Regardless of our theological position regarding miracles occurring today, we all accept without question the validity of the miracles recorded in Scripture. But to believe in the Sovereignty of God we do not see His direct intervention – when God is, so to speak, working entirely behind the scenes through ordinary circumstances and ordinary actions of people – is even more important, because that is the way God usually works.
A nineteenth-century writer, Alexander Carson, in his book, Confidence in God in Times of Danger, says, “For the wisdom of men cannot see how the providence of God could arrange human actions to fulfill His purpose without any miracle.” For example, one writer, commenting on an accident in which her car was struck by another that went through a red light supposed that for God to have protected her, He would have made the other driver’s car suddenly sprout wings so that it could fly over her car without impacting. What is implied in such a statement is the idea that God is suddenly confronted with a crisis in the life of one of His children and has no recourse to work a miracle or let the crisis occur.
God did allow the crisis to occur in her situation, but it was not because He could not prevent it. In His Sovereignty He could have changed the timing of either driver’s arrival at the intersection, or even diverted them along another route had He chosen to do so. None of us knows of such events in our own lives (perhaps hundreds) when we have been unknowingly spared from adversity or tragedy by the unseen Sovereign hand of God. As the psalmist said, “He will not let your foot slip – He who watched over you will not slumber; indeed, He who watches over Israel will neither slumber or sleep”(Psalm 121:3-4.)
Undoubtedly, one of the reasons the book of Esther is included in Scripture is to help us see the Sovereign hand of God at work behind the scenes caring for His people. One of the more arresting things about the book is that the name of God is never once mentioned. Yet the observant reader sees God’s hand in every circumstance, bringing about the deliverance of His people just as surely as He brought about their deliverance from Egypt through mighty miracles centuries before. God was as Sovereignly at work through ordinary circumstances in the time of Esther as He was through the miracles in the time of Moses.
The pivot point of the book of Esther is chapter 6. Prior to the events of the night recorded in that chapter, the lives of the Jews in the entire realm of the Persian King Xerxes were in danger due to the diabolical scheme of one wicked man, Haman, who had recently been elevated to a position higher than that of all the nobles in the kingdom. But in chapter 6, events begin to turn leading ultimately to the downfall and death of wicked Haman, the physical salvation of the Jews, and the elevation of Mordecai (the hero of the story) to the second highest position in the kingdom.
Because of the series of events recorded in Esther, chapter 6 reveals in a remarkable way how God Sovereignly uses the most ordinary circumstances to accomplish His purpose, we will look at those circumstances in some detail..
On the fateful night King Xerxes could not sleep, he ordered the book of Chronicles of his reign to be brought in and read to him. In the course of the reading, it came to light that Mordecai who was in danger of being hanged the next morning, had on an earlier occasion reported a plot to assassinate the king. The king had asked what recognition had been given Mordecai and found that nothing had been done. So the king decided on the spot to honor Mordecai and, as it turned out, the very man who had determined to hang Mordecai ended up carrying out the king’s edict to publicly honor him.
Consider what had to happen to save Mordecai from the gallows. Why could the king not sleep that fateful night? Why, then, did he ask for a dry register of facts to be read to him rather than soothing music to put him to sleep? And when the book of the chronicles of his reign was read, why did the reader happen to read from the particular section of the book where Mordecai’s actions were recorded? Were there not a thousand chances that the reader would have selected some other portion of the annals of the Persian empire to read?
The king heard about Mordecai’s service and asked how he was rewarded. Why had the king not rewarded Mordecai at the time he had saved the kings life? Why did he suddenly determine to do something? And why did wicked Haman appear at that moment to ask the kings permission to hang Mordecai? Why did Xerxes ask Haman what should be done to honor the man in such a way as to conceal the object of his favor, causing Haman to think he himself was the one to be honored?
The answer to all of these questions was that God Sovereignly orchestrating the events of that night to save His people. The question naturally arises, however, “Does God always orchestrate the events of my life for my good?” If we grant that the unusual outworking of events in Esther was due to the Sovereign hand of God, are we justified in concluding that God always orchestrates the events of our lives to fulfill His Purpose? According to Romans 8:28, the answer is a solid yes. That verse says, We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose” (emphasis added.) It is this assurance that God works in all events of our lives that gives sense to Paul’s exhortation elsewhere to “give thanks in all circumstances” (1 Thessalonians 5:18, emphasis added.) How can we possibly give thanks to God for all the circumstances of our lives if He were not at work in them for our good?
