Dear Neighbor,
Do you believe that the Lord your God is sovereign overall? Job’s friends believed that God gives good things to good people and bad things to wicked people, but Job understood that this is not the way of the Lord. God tears down, and what God tears down cannot be rebuilt. When God imprisons a man, he cannot be released by anyone but the Lord. When God decides that it will not rain everything drys up but when God decides that it will rain no man can stop it. God created both the misled and the one who does the misleading; they are both in the hands of the Lord. God makes the rich poor and make fools out of councilors. God allows one man to rule and takes away the rule of another. God causes men to walk barefoot and overthrows those who thought that they had security. God takes away the discernment of the elders and keeps the mouth of trusted ones closed. God can pour contempt on the noble man and bind up the strong. Whatever a man hides the Lord can bring to light. Throughout the history of mankind on the earth, the Lord God has made certain nations great, only to destroy them and lead them away. Kings, governors and all the leaders of the earth are dependent on the Lord God whether they confess the Lord or not; at anytime he can deprive them of intelligence and cause them to make bad decisions. He can cause them to grope around as if they are blind and stagger about as if they are drunk. (Job 12:13-25)
The Lord does not only cause the good things but he causes and allows the bad things also. Nothing happens on the earth that the Lord God does not either cause or allow, for the Lord our God is sovereign in heaven and on earth. The Lord God is good but do not think that this means riches, good health and long life on the earth for those who do what is righteous. He may cause you to be poor, suffer illness and have a shortened life. We must trust that whatever the Lord God causes is good, not because what is occurring is good, but because God is good. God causes all things to work together for good. (Romans 8:28) It may not be for our good in the present but it is for good that God causes all things. because God is good and he is sovereign overall.
Your servant for Jesus’ Sake
