While His activity is sometimes hidden and sometimes plain, we can see God orchestrating events to spread the Gospel, for the good of His people, throughout all of scripture.
One of my favorite examples of this is the entirety of the book of Ruth. Ruth married a man of Bethlehem when he had moved to her home in Moab. Ruth’s husband died, and she moved back to Bethlehem with her mother-in-law. Moved makes it sound simple. She changed cultures, languages and religions. This move included the often quoted: “For where you will go I will go, where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God.” What seemed like a pretty harsh start to the story of Ruth, ends with her meeting a man named Boaz, who was a distant relative of her deceased husband. Because of cultural laws, she was only to remarry a “redeemer”; someone who could continue the family name she married into. However, not only did Ruth meet this relative, her redeemer, but she met the father of her future child Obed, the grandfather of Jesse, and the great-grandfather of David.
Skip to the first chapter of the New Testament, and we realize that through hardship, feelings of bitterness, confusion, and impractical obedience, the lineage of Jesus Christ, the one true Redeemer, was rooted in the line and family of David. This is the same family line of Ruth. It’s one thing to read this in the Bible and know the end of the story: the part where Christ is born, lives on this earth, dies on the cross and rises again. Of course Christ’s story was carefully planned, pieced together, and accomplished. God is His Father. He cares for Him. Jesus’ name is literally translated as “Yahweh Saves”.
But does the same apply to us and our lives? Yes it does, but knowing this and living in a way where we know it to be true, are two different things. I don’t always live in a way that glorifies God and all that He is orchestrating, has planned, and is currently accomplishing. But I do believe it applies to us. Yahweh saves us too. I know this because the Bible tells me so (Leviticus 26:9-13, Ephesians 2:8-10, Colossians 1:16-17), but I also know this because I have experienced this sovereignty and grace of God.
I now live in Charleston, West Virginia, specifically focused on flood relief over the next year in the nearby town of Clendenin. This is just one hour from Rosedale, where we have loved and served for the last 5 years as a ministry. Personally, I have had the privilege of serving in Rosedale three of those years. This change has come with its fair share of hardships. There was some doubt, and questions. At points I wasn’t sure if this was God’s plan. It was tempting to think He didn’t have a plan. At one point I was hurt and confused because in my mind this move was not how things were supposed to work. But in the weeks and months to follow, I am continually amazed at who God is, and humbly reminded of who I am not.
I don’t understand why things work out the way they do, but I can now say I’m thankful l I didn’t get my way. My way doesn’t see the whole picture. My way glorifies myself as the one who knows best, when I do not. I am so thankful to still be in West Virginia, in a new place, and to have the opportunity to serve, grow, and glorify Christ here. At the beginning of this year I taped a quote to the front of my planner. Who knew it would ring so true.
“Because we know God is directing our lives to an ultimate end, and because we know He is sovereignly able to orchestrate the events of our lives toward that end, we can trust Him. We can commit to Him not only the ultimate outcome of our lives, but also all the intermediate events and circumstances that will bring us to that outcome.” -Jerry Bridges
We can trust in the sovereignty of God because He knows what is to come. He has created everything and has orchestrated it perfectly. We can know that no matter what our lives may bring, Yahweh saves.
