December 31, Proverbs 21
The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; he turns it wherever he will... The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but the victory belongs to the LORD. - Proverbs 21:1, 31
I know people who watch the news and get very anxious as a result of what they hear and see. I also know people who've decided to not sit and watch whatever a cable news channel or television network feeds them. Can you identify with either of these groups?
Proverbs 21 begins and ends with verses that might help some over-anxious people if they would meditate on what these verses teach about God. Both the first and last verses of the chapter are about God's absolute sovereign power.
Verse 1 says that God turns the heart of the king “wherever he will.” Some people were fretting when the last president of the United States was in office. I know other people who are fretting now that his successor has moved into the White House. This verse challenges us to believe that God can control and use the most powerful rulers on earth to accomplish the Lord's purpose. I do not mean that these rulers are always or ever godly people. God used Pharaoh's hard heart to bring his people out of Egypt in Exodus. The book of Ezra tells how God “turned the heart of the king of Assyria" to his people, so that the pagan king helped them return to the land and rebuild the temple in Jerusalem (Ezra 6:22). God has used kings and kingdoms to accomplish his purposes throughout history. The rulers may or may not have known they were being used as they pursued their own agendas. But behind the scenes, "Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand" (Proverbs 19:21).
The last verses also stress the sovereign power of God over any idea, plan, weapon or strategy of human beings. "No widom, no understanding, no counsel can avail against the LORD" (verse 30). No one is smart enough to debate God and win. Prideful humans forget their place as creatures before their Creator when they imagine that their intelligence, skills or strategy can defy God's purpose. The last verse is about impressive military power and its ineffectiveness against God's purpose. (Horses were a powerful weapon for ancient armies.) When Israel was faithful to God, they won battles and wars against much larger, better armed armies. When they forsook and despised the Lord, God used those same nations to punish his own people. God's purpose is going to be realized, and no tank or bomb or battle plan can change the outcome. As James Weldon Johnson put it in God’s Trombones, “Young man, young man, your arm is too short to box with God.”
What do those ideas mean to us today, and how can they help us with “news anxiety?” A child of God can rest assured that God is firmly in control. Whatever disturbing news we hear does not mean that God has lost control of this nation and its leaders, or of other nations and their leaders. Whether we understand how or not, current events are no more a threat to God's plan than other crises we know about from history. Confidence in God's sovereignty over all things will keep us from placing too much confidence in a human leader, or from falling into despair over an elected leader we believe is bad for our country.
God's sovereignty is more than a theological concept. It is a concrete reality that we embrace by faith that gives us stability, confidence and peace of mind, even in turbulent, troubling times. Believe that God is in control and that the Lord will overcome every opponent. Those facts about God form an effective filter for our minds when we're exposed to worrisome news or find ourselves in threatening situations.
Copyright © 2021 by Michael B. McElroy. Used
by permission. All rights reserved.
Today in God's Word—December 2023
East Tallassee Church of Christ
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