It is a great mystery that Jesus was delivered up for crucifixion by the “predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God” (Acts 2:23). Also, in Acts 4:27-28 it says, “For truly in this city there were gathered together against Thy holy servant Jesus, whom Thou didst anoint, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever Thy hand and Thy purpose predestined to occur”. It was God’s hand and purpose, to do whatever He pleased.
How do we respond when we hear or see God’s plans, when they militate against our idea of what God wants to do? In Matthew 24:21-23 Jesus told the disciples that He was going to be killed. We see the reaction of Peter’s natural mind. Peter was resistant to God’s plan! His resistance was so strong that Jesus said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s”. Are our ideas about God mixed with personal interests, with things that might be in conflict with the will of God? This is always a possibility.
We don’t always see the whole plan, so we must be careful about how we interpret events. It was a stern rebuke for Peter to accept, but as time passed, Peter understood it all. Must we not also allow the passage of time to get a better picture of what God is doing? Events in our lives sometimes don’t become clear until much time has passed. A good example is Joseph. Betrayed by his brothers, separated from his father, sold into slavery and wrongly imprisoned. Did he not also think “my God why has thou forsaken me?”. Yet he endured to the end, and in a final expression of tearful, emotional mercy he told his brothers, Gen 45:7 “… God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant in the earth, and to keep you alive by a great deliverance”.
This is hard to fathom in the days that we live. I know that when I look back on some very difficult times in my own life, I have come to relate to Joseph. I felt forsaken of God for a long time, questioning why I had to go thru some terrible things. Now as I look back, I see God’s hand clearly, and here in my later years, I see much fruit and blessing. I see God’s faithfulness; He kept me as the “snares of death confronted me” (Psalm 18) and he “delivered me from strong enemy because he was to mighty for me” (Psalm 18). Thanks be to God! “He prepared a table before me in the presence of my enemies. He anointed my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever” (Psalm 23).
Psalm 115:3 Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.
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