Knowing the Will of God #4 – Through Circumstances
10th February 2008 am
Romans 8:28
While we as Christian’s are to live above our circumstances, we should not be unaware of them. God often works through circumstances in revealing His perfect will for our lives. Paul’s wonderful statement that all things work together for good to them that love God takes into account our circumstances. A number of Biblical examples can be given to illustrate this.
I. Abraham – Genesis 22:1-13
The word tempt is a little bit too strong; actually, the word means “test.” James makes it very clear in his epistle that God never tempts anyone with evil. God tempts folks in the sense that He tests their faith. God did test Abraham, and He asked him to do something very strange.
In times of testing, it is easy to think only about our needs and our burdens; instead we should be focusing on bringing glory to Jesus Christ. We find ourselves asking, “How can I get out of this?” instead of, “What can I get out of this that will honour the Lord?” We sometimes waste our sufferings by neglecting or ignoring opportunities to reveal Christ to others who are watching us go through the furnace.
What must have gone through Abraham’s mind when God asks him to offer his only son Isaac, maybe he said, “I don’t understand it, but I know God has commanded it. I’ve been walking with Him now for over fifty years. He has never failed me, nor has He asked me to do anything that did not prove to be the best thing. I don’t understand this, but I believe that if I go all the way with Him that God will raise Isaac from the dead. I believe that He will do that.”
Genesis 22:10-12
Now God knows that Abraham fears Him. How does He know? By his actions, by his works; previously it was by his faith. God sees your heart—He knows whether you are genuine or not—but your neighbours and your friends don’t know. They can only know by your works. That is the reason James could say that “faith without works is dead.” Faith has to produce something.
God tested Abraham. I believe that any person who God calls, any person who God saves, any person who God uses is going to be tested. God tested Abraham, and God tests those who are His own today. He tests you and me, and the tests are given to us to strengthen our faith, to establish us, and to make us serviceable for Him. To reveal His will.
True faith is always tested. Of course, God did not want Isaac’s life, He wanted Abraham’s heart. God had promised Abraham many descendents and this promise could not be fulfilled unless Isaac lived or God raised him from the dead. Abraham knew that God would not lie, so he rested in His unchanging Word.
“Never doubt in the dark what God has told you in the light.” Abraham obeyed without delay. If we do the one thing God tells us to do, He will reveal the next step when the right time comes. God’s answer never arrives a minute too late.
Genesis 22:13
God supplied a ram (not a Lamb = Christ) just when one was needed. This is why Abraham called the name of the place “Jehovah-Jireh” – Mt Moriah is where the Temple was built and it is said that on the same ridge 2000 years later the Lamb was offered – God does indeed provide.
Often times situations in our life don’t make sense – part of a greater picture… The greatest thing that can happen as we experience the trials God sends our way is that we grow closer to our Father and become more like the Lord Jesus Christ and understand what God’s will is for our lives.
II. Moses – Exodus 2:1-10
Amram and Jochebed were Moses’ parents (6:20), and while the Exodus text emphasises the faith of the mother, Hebrews 11:23 says By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper child; and they were not afraid of the kings commandment. Both his father and his mother trusted God.
It took faith for them to have normal marital relations at this dangerous time when the Jewish babies were being killed. Amram and Jochebed already had two children: Miriam, who was the oldest, and Aaron, who was 3 years older than Moses (7:7)
From the beginning Moses was seen to be no ordinary child. Stephen tells us in Acts 7:20 that he was “Exceeding fair” or “Fair with God” and it is evident that God had a special purpose for Moses. Believing this to be true, the parents defied Pharaoh’s edict and kept their son alive. This wasn’t an easy thing to do.
Jochebed did obey the law when she put Moses in the waters of the Nile, but certainly she was defying Pharaoh’s orders in the way she did it. She was trusting the providence of God and God did not fail her. When the princess came to the Nile to perform her religious ablutions, she saw the basket, discovered the baby, and heard him cry; and her maternal instincts told her to rescue the child and care for him.
God used a baby’s tears to control the heart of a o powerful princess, and He used Miriam’s words to arrange for the baby’s mother to raise him and get paid for it. The phrase “as helpless as a baby” doesn’t apply when it comes to God’s will – often times, when God wants to do a mighty work, He starts by sending a baby. (Joseph, Samuel, John the Baptist, Jesus).
God can use the weakest of things to defeat the mightiest enemies 1 Corinthians 1:25 Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men: and the weakness of God is stronger than man [27]… and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; A baby’s tears were God’s first weapons in His war against Egypt.
God arranged for Pharaoh’s daughter to be bathing in the river Nile at the exact time that Moses floated by in a little ark of bulrushes. Isn’t it amazing how this one event would change the world –
Do we pay any attention to what goes on around us? Is God trying to get our attention by the circumstances that are in our lives? Is God trying to tell us His will for our lives by what comes our way?
God’s will for Moses was not for him to drown in the Nile. It is not a coincidence that the princess was there at that time. God used that circumstance to fulfil His will in Moses’ life.
The princess adopted Moses as her own son, which means that Moses had a favoured position in the land and was given a special education for service in the government Acts 7:22 And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds.
In the Egyptian language, Moses means “born” or “son” and sounds like a Hebrew word that means “to draw out” (of the water). Years later his name would remind Moses of the God who rescued him and did great things for him in Egypt. On more than one occasion, Moses would rescue his people because he trusted the LORD.
III. Paul – Acts 23:11-24
Acts 23:11
When you read the account of Paul’s days in Jerusalem, you get the impression that not everything went according to plan. His attempt to win over the legalistic Jews only helped to cause a riot in the temple, and his witness before the Sanhedrin left the council in confusion.
It would be natural for Paul to be depressed at this time. Perhaps he was fearful and discouraged by the preceding events. Maybe he was blaming himself for the commotion that had been caused by his preaching. Perhaps he thought of himself as a failure and what about the plans to go to Rome.
That night the Lord Himself drew near to Paul, he had not failed. The Lord commended Paul for his witness, He was pleased with Paul’s testimony, and as for Rome, he would get there yet and bear adequate witness in that city to the power of the gospel.
It put new heart into the apostle, and he took courage as the Lord commanded him. He could take the buffeting of the circumstances now as part of that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. All things would indeed work together for good. He was the called according to God’s purpose. He was still in the centre of God’s will.
Acts 23:12-15
The radicals of both parties now formed a coalition to kill Paul. They swore to it under oath. That was the plot. Careless of their own lives, thinking to do God a service, these fanatics would rid Judaism of Paul once and for all. Jerusalem was certainly far from God, even the chief priests and elders were part of this crime.
God was still in control! This, however was not God’s will for Paul’s life at all, Paul still had a job to do, he still had people to lead to the Lord, he still had epistles to write, but how on earth would he be able to escape this murderous plot?
Isn’t God amazing!!! What did He use to thwart this plot? A mighty wind, another earthquake – Paul’s nephew… Acts 23:16-22
We know nothing about Paul’s sister or his nephew. We are not sure if they are believers (Romans 16:7 Salute Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen, and my fellowprisoners, who are of note among the apostles, who also were in Christ before me. some think that Junia could have been Paul’s sister)
Regardless of whether they were Christians or not, God used them to foil the conspiracy and get Paul away from dangerous Jerusalem. We must admire the honesty and the integrity of that Roman captain. He could have scorned the boy’s message or listened to the lies of the Jews, but he did his job faithfully.
Conclusion
1. God directed Abraham to substitute a ram, whose horns had somehow become entangled in a thicket, for the life of Isaac
2. God arranged for Pharaoh’s daughter to be bathing in the River Nile at the exact same time that baby Moses floated by in a little ark of bulrushes
3. Paul’s young nephew happened to overhear a plot to kill his uncle; he then reported it to the authorities, thus saving the apostles life.
Surely the above circumstances were providentially arranged. So we as Christians should ask, when attempting to discover God’s will, “Is the Lord showing me something through my circumstances?”
