Having Faith In God’s Plans, Even When We Don’t Understand Them

Word-Of-The-Day: ‘Ah, Sovereign Lord, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you.’ (Jeremiah 32:17)

Would you buy land in Ukraine, and move there – especially in eastern Ukraine where the war with Russia is raging?  Or, would you want to rent an apartment in Natanz, Iran, near the underground nuclear enrichment facility that is currently being bombed by Israel and possibly in a short time by the US, with the possibility of having radioactive materials spilling out over the immediate area?  Likely, these are not moves that any of us would consider making. 

However, there are times when the Lord will place upon us a decision we are to make, though at the time it makes no sense, in our understanding.  It may even be something that we see will put us in great danger.  In Acts 21, Paul understands, through his own dialogue with the Holy Spirit and the warnings by others disciples, and in the vision given to him by the prophet Agabus, that he must make his way to Jerusalem, though he will face certain arrest by the Romans and condemnation by his fellow Jews. 

Paul went to Jerusalem despite the dangers because the Lord placed upon him the need to go.  In the Book of Jonah, we see Jonah was urged by God to go to Ninevah, and failing to go on his own volition, was led by God proverbially grabbing his ear, to go and preach God’s message to them.

What we consider impossible or unlikely, or even perhaps unwilling to do, God’s power triumphs over all.  If the Lord directed us to go to Ukraine’s eastern front or into one of Iran’s nuclear-industry cities, even in a time of great peril, we would be compelled to go.  It may be either of our own surrender and willingness to comply as in the case of Paul, or it would be in God using the force of His omnipotence to grab us by the collar to drag us there.  If God wants it done, He will have it done whether we are fully on board, or not.

Paul’s persecution and later death at the hands of the Romans likely was seen by the Christians at the time to be a great tragedy, as Paul’s evangelism to the Gentiles (and to the Jews outside of Jerusalem in the far reaches of Asia Minor, Macedonia, and Greece) was seen as a great light for the fledging Christians, in growth and in reaching people in the Truth.  It is likely that Paul’s death perhaps was seen as a blow to Christianity, as it coincides with Christian persecution in Rome itself.  But today, we see Paul’s influence on the Christian movement through his writings becoming a large part of the teachings of Jesus in the New Testament.  Perhaps if Paul was not killed, his impact would not have been so great to the cause of Christ.

We may also wonder why God wanted Jonah to preach His message to the Ninevites, especially since we know that a century or so later, the Assyrians would collapse and fall to the Persians, and Ninevah by then had reverted back to its pagan ways.  But God knew that the people of Ninevah, including its king, were ready to accept Him as their God, and that a remnant of those who turned to Faith would stay Faithful. 

The Three Mages or Kings from the East came from this remnant, or perhaps one or two of them and one from Babylon.  After Christianity spread into the region, there was a Christian base in the Ninevah (now Mosul, Iraq) region, with the St. Elias monastery there built around 1000 AD (and standing until recently, when it was destroyed by ISIS in 2014).  When God wants something done, He will ensure it gets done.    

Jeremiah 32:17 is a verse that, by itself, speaks of the obvious – God is omnipotent and can do anything and everything in a snap of the finger.  When read in the context of Jeremiah 32 as a whole, it’s meaning is more onto the Faith of the believer in God’s omnipotence.  Jerusalem was being sieged and soon it would fall to the Assyrians.  The city would be burned and pillaged literally within days, and the Jews would be taken captive and exiled to Babylon.  But God told Jeremiah (the Bad News Bear-er) to buy a piece of property in Jerusalem a relative offered at fair market value (17 shekels of silver; the Bible is silent on whether Jeremiah went through a realty agency to purchase the property).

Why would God have Jeremiah buy property in Jerusalem right as the Babylonians/Assyrians were literally busting down the gates to get in and burn down the city?  It would be like having God coming to us during the recent anti-ICE riots and saying, ‘You see that car in downtown Los Angeles?  The ones with the rioters about ready to catch on fire and destroy with Molotov cocktails?  You need to buy that right now, and for full market value.’  I would guess that none of us would want to buy the car, either just before or after the ‘bonfire’ is set, as it would be a poor investment strategy, in the humanistic perspective.  We don’t knowingly buy products with obvious defects or stocks in companies that have announced they are declaring bankruptcy.  So why did Jeremiah buy the land?

Jeremiah had Faith that God knew what He was talking about.  God told Jeremiah the Jews were coming back to Jerusalem after their seventy-year exile to Babylon.  God knew Nehemiah would come to see the walls and the gates would be fixed.  Jeremiah trusted the Lord over conventional wisdom.  So did Noah, who was told to build the Ark, in the middle of the desert, in a place that did not ever see rain.  Noah had the Faith of God’s omnipotence as did Jeremiah. 

We know God has the power; the question is do we have the Faith in His power and the Faith to obey His directions, even though it may be something that hurts us, materially or physically?  Our Hope should be to have that Faith, to move forward – even though in our eyes we may only see chaos, pain or destruction, as Paul and Jeremiah saw in his vision.  But Paul and Jeremiah also accepted God’s plan is for His good, and the overall good of His people!