The Hand of God: for good or for wrath?
My comments today are not drawn from today’s reading, but a few verses back in chapter 8 verse 22:
“The hand of our God is for good on all who seek him, and the power of his wrath is against all who forsake him.”
Ezra boldly, and perhaps a bit proudly, asserted this powerful truth before the King Artaxerxes. Now, with a dangerous passage to Jerusalem before them, Ezra’s bold claim will be put to the test. After having made such a bold claim regarding the power of God, and the righteousness of your cause, do you dare ask a pagan King for assistance on your journey? If the hand of God is for your good, do you need to ask for a pagan cohort’s protection?
This causes me to ask a few questions of this text:
1. What does ‘the hand of God’ mean?
2. What is meant by ‘God is for good’ in such a statement? Must everything go swimmingly for us if God is for us?
3. If not, how do we understand the ‘good’ of hard, yet providentially ordained circumstances, from the ‘wrath’ of God against those who are disobedient and wicked? (Put another way, aren’t there many who are receiving wrath for disobedience, all the while claiming it is providential goodness through hard circumstances? Aren’t there many who see providential struggles which are for their good, who see such hard circumstances as God’s ‘wrath’? How do
4. How do we stand in such truths? How do we maintain a firm position in the truths of God’s goodness to the righteous, while walking in humility in light of our sins and failures?
First, let’s look at this phrase, ‘the hand of God’. There is that ‘plain meaning’ of this phrase that we should be able to get right off the bat. The ‘hand of our God’ is metonymy- part for the whole- expressing the reality that God is directly working in some situation or another. He is displaying his power and purpose in some particular circumstance. We find this phrase (it is especially popular in Ezra- 7:6, 9,28; 8:18,31; and in Neh. 2:8,18) reveals a very special and evident working of God’s providence on behalf of his people. There are times when God is at work in ‘extraordinary’ ways, His power is seen and understood in a peculiar and ‘heavy’ way.
You might ask, “Isn’t God always displaying his power and purpose in all circumstances?” And the answer is yes. God’s hand is always at work, his power is always being manifested in ALL things, and nothing is outside his sovereign reach. That is, in a sense, what Ezra is speaking about in his words to Artaxerxes: God is at work in all things – for the good of those who seek him and for wrath against those who forsake him. All things are designed for either one purpose or the other- the good of his people, or the punishment of the wicked. He was calling Artaxerxes to recognize God’s power, either in blessing or in judgment, as paramount. Each of these things – the blessing of his people, and the punishment of the wicked- are ultimately good, no matter how dark the circumstance may be or how difficult it is to accept God’s wrath against the wicked. They are both ultimately good for the same reason: all things are designed by God, ordered by God, and done by God for one purpose, for ‘the praise of his glorious grace’(Eph. 1:9). His glory is His own ultimate purpose and design. The Apostle Paul says, and we all know it by heart, “we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).
And this leads us to the second question. Does God’s good intention for us always mean that things will go ‘well’ for us? Now, ready yourself, because people don’t like this answer. But, it is the answer of Scripture. In one sense the answer is yes, if by ‘well’ you mean: ‘all things will be for the glory of God’. But, of course, this is often not what we mean. We often mean that we will have the job we want, make the money we need, have good health, and raise kids that don’t embarrass us. We mean ‘well’ or ‘good’ in the worldly sense. But the purpose and design of God is that all things will be ‘well’ for us, when it is for His glory. And all things for His glory are good and ultimately for our joy. Consider the immediate context of Paul’s rather famous words of Romans 8:28. He is speaking of ‘the sufferings of the present time’ (8:18), he speaks of ‘the whole of creation groaning’, he speaks of the reality of the created – and fallen – world’s ‘bondage to decay’, he speaks of a ‘hoping in the unseen’, of the ‘Spirit helping us in our weakness…interceding with groaning too deep for words’. Later in 8:35 he speaks of being ‘more than conquerors’ through ‘tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, and sword’. Can all this be spoken of as ‘good’? Can we see all of this as ‘the hand of God’? As his ‘blessing’? Indeed we can, we must, when all is seen from the redemptive purposes of God to bring glory to himself through all things, especially through us and our struggles in this world.
Next we might ask how we know the good of God’s hand from the judgment and wrath of God against evil. In one sense, when we are redeemed by God to be ‘to the praise of his glorious grace’, then we can know that we have moved from judgment to life. Paul tells us in Romans 8:1 that ‘there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus’. In and through the work of Christ, “God is for us, who can be against us”? All struggles are for our good, even if they might be his discipline for a season.
As those whose faith is in a mighty and powerful God, we are called to humbly trust that these bold claims we make are true in the face of seemingly insurmountable situations. How do we live in such ‘bold humility’? I think we find the answer in Ezra 8:23, “so we fasted and implored our God for this, and he listened to our entreaty”. A constant theme in Ezra and Nehemiah is this theme of fasting and pleading with God. Ezra 9-10 is filled with cries of confession and repentance over sin, brokenness in the face of abounding wickedness, and humble pleading in a season of overwhelming struggle and affliction. These returning exiles of Ezra/Nehemiah are seeking God through his Word (cf. Neh. 8 and the reading of the Law), seeking God through prayer and fasting, and seeking God through humble yet courageous faith. They model for us the believer who is equipped supernaturally to ‘read God’s providence’ in a special and unique way. And even when the work of God seems inscrutable, these bible filled, fasting and supplicating people are able to leave the mystery of God’s design in His own hands.
And so we boldly proclaim that as we seek the Lord his hand his with us, all the while humbly warning a lost and rebellious generation that His just anger awaits those who refuse and forsake him.
“The hand of our God is for good on all who seek him, and the power of his wrath is against all who forsake him.”
Ezra boldly, and perhaps a bit proudly, asserted this powerful truth before the King Artaxerxes. Now, with a dangerous passage to Jerusalem before them, Ezra’s bold claim will be put to the test. After having made such a bold claim regarding the power of God, and the righteousness of your cause, do you dare ask a pagan King for assistance on your journey? If the hand of God is for your good, do you need to ask for a pagan cohort’s protection?
This causes me to ask a few questions of this text:
1. What does ‘the hand of God’ mean?
2. What is meant by ‘God is for good’ in such a statement? Must everything go swimmingly for us if God is for us?
3. If not, how do we understand the ‘good’ of hard, yet providentially ordained circumstances, from the ‘wrath’ of God against those who are disobedient and wicked? (Put another way, aren’t there many who are receiving wrath for disobedience, all the while claiming it is providential goodness through hard circumstances? Aren’t there many who see providential struggles which are for their good, who see such hard circumstances as God’s ‘wrath’? How do
4. How do we stand in such truths? How do we maintain a firm position in the truths of God’s goodness to the righteous, while walking in humility in light of our sins and failures?
First, let’s look at this phrase, ‘the hand of God’. There is that ‘plain meaning’ of this phrase that we should be able to get right off the bat. The ‘hand of our God’ is metonymy- part for the whole- expressing the reality that God is directly working in some situation or another. He is displaying his power and purpose in some particular circumstance. We find this phrase (it is especially popular in Ezra- 7:6, 9,28; 8:18,31; and in Neh. 2:8,18) reveals a very special and evident working of God’s providence on behalf of his people. There are times when God is at work in ‘extraordinary’ ways, His power is seen and understood in a peculiar and ‘heavy’ way.
You might ask, “Isn’t God always displaying his power and purpose in all circumstances?” And the answer is yes. God’s hand is always at work, his power is always being manifested in ALL things, and nothing is outside his sovereign reach. That is, in a sense, what Ezra is speaking about in his words to Artaxerxes: God is at work in all things – for the good of those who seek him and for wrath against those who forsake him. All things are designed for either one purpose or the other- the good of his people, or the punishment of the wicked. He was calling Artaxerxes to recognize God’s power, either in blessing or in judgment, as paramount. Each of these things – the blessing of his people, and the punishment of the wicked- are ultimately good, no matter how dark the circumstance may be or how difficult it is to accept God’s wrath against the wicked. They are both ultimately good for the same reason: all things are designed by God, ordered by God, and done by God for one purpose, for ‘the praise of his glorious grace’(Eph. 1:9). His glory is His own ultimate purpose and design. The Apostle Paul says, and we all know it by heart, “we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).
And this leads us to the second question. Does God’s good intention for us always mean that things will go ‘well’ for us? Now, ready yourself, because people don’t like this answer. But, it is the answer of Scripture. In one sense the answer is yes, if by ‘well’ you mean: ‘all things will be for the glory of God’. But, of course, this is often not what we mean. We often mean that we will have the job we want, make the money we need, have good health, and raise kids that don’t embarrass us. We mean ‘well’ or ‘good’ in the worldly sense. But the purpose and design of God is that all things will be ‘well’ for us, when it is for His glory. And all things for His glory are good and ultimately for our joy. Consider the immediate context of Paul’s rather famous words of Romans 8:28. He is speaking of ‘the sufferings of the present time’ (8:18), he speaks of ‘the whole of creation groaning’, he speaks of the reality of the created – and fallen – world’s ‘bondage to decay’, he speaks of a ‘hoping in the unseen’, of the ‘Spirit helping us in our weakness…interceding with groaning too deep for words’. Later in 8:35 he speaks of being ‘more than conquerors’ through ‘tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, and sword’. Can all this be spoken of as ‘good’? Can we see all of this as ‘the hand of God’? As his ‘blessing’? Indeed we can, we must, when all is seen from the redemptive purposes of God to bring glory to himself through all things, especially through us and our struggles in this world.
Next we might ask how we know the good of God’s hand from the judgment and wrath of God against evil. In one sense, when we are redeemed by God to be ‘to the praise of his glorious grace’, then we can know that we have moved from judgment to life. Paul tells us in Romans 8:1 that ‘there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus’. In and through the work of Christ, “God is for us, who can be against us”? All struggles are for our good, even if they might be his discipline for a season.
As those whose faith is in a mighty and powerful God, we are called to humbly trust that these bold claims we make are true in the face of seemingly insurmountable situations. How do we live in such ‘bold humility’? I think we find the answer in Ezra 8:23, “so we fasted and implored our God for this, and he listened to our entreaty”. A constant theme in Ezra and Nehemiah is this theme of fasting and pleading with God. Ezra 9-10 is filled with cries of confession and repentance over sin, brokenness in the face of abounding wickedness, and humble pleading in a season of overwhelming struggle and affliction. These returning exiles of Ezra/Nehemiah are seeking God through his Word (cf. Neh. 8 and the reading of the Law), seeking God through prayer and fasting, and seeking God through humble yet courageous faith. They model for us the believer who is equipped supernaturally to ‘read God’s providence’ in a special and unique way. And even when the work of God seems inscrutable, these bible filled, fasting and supplicating people are able to leave the mystery of God’s design in His own hands.
And so we boldly proclaim that as we seek the Lord his hand his with us, all the while humbly warning a lost and rebellious generation that His just anger awaits those who refuse and forsake him.
Labels: Ezra, Sovereignty
posted by Pastor Erik at
1:06 PM
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