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Job 34:29-30
29 When he giveth quietness [shaqat], who then can make trouble [rasha`]? and when he hideth [cathar] his face [paniym], who then can behold [shuwr] him? whether it be done against a nation [gowy], or against a man ['adam] only [yachad]:
30 That the hypocrite ['adam] [chaneph] reign [malak] not, lest the people [`am] be ensnared [mowqesh]. KJV-Interlinear
29 When He keeps quiet, who then can condemn? And when He hides His face, who then can behold Him, That is, in regard to both nation and man? — 30 So that godless men should not rule, Nor be snares of the people. NASB
God is the source of all blessing and punishment. When He gives quiet, is the expression for giving blessings. When He hides His face, is the expression for suffering and difficulties that enter into our lives.
Jesus Christ controls history, in other words.
Who can condemn? Who can overrule God? And the answer is that, no one can modify, overrule, change, interfere or otherwise alter Gods will in any way shape or form.
Jesus Christ controls history. If it is His will to bless you, then no on can cancel that blessing out. No one can change it. No one can prevent it. If it is His will to discipline, punish, judge you, then no one not even yourself, can alter, prevent, or change His will.
What is going to happen will happen, if it is in accordance with Gods will.
This principle applies to nations as well as individuals. God can raise up nations. God can dismantle nations. And He does so in accordance with His sovereign will and purpose, which too, is in full compliance with His original plan. God never deviates from His plan. No member of the Godhead deviates from the original plan of the Father.
The Father is responsible for the original plan, the Holy Spirit is responsible for its being revealed and its support, and Jesus Christ is the one who executes all of the details of the plan.
God controls history in all of its infinite detail, so that wickedness and evil will not rule, so wickedness and evil will not take over the control of history to the detriment of humanity.
So why does evil seemingly run rampant?
God controls history in three ways. First, He controls history through the direct application of His essence. He created the universe. He creates all life. He decides when in history a person will spring into life and when the person will lose it.
Second, God controls history through the laws of divine establishment as pursued by mankind. Volition, marriage, family, nationalism, legal due process and so forth.
Third, God controls history through His permissive will. He allows man to choose his own way, and even though mans choices are often wrongs ones, God allows man to fail if that is what man chooses.
People elect their own governments. God is the one who appoints governments, but when the government is a bad one, then God allows people to choose the wrong leaders.
God has the foreknowledge to know how history should go and when it should go a certain way. God knows all the decisions that people will make at any given point in time. If an election is to go a certain way, then God will birth, as it were, into history those folks who will make the right choices when the proper time comes along.
We may think the results of a close race are a miracle, but to God, it was just another day at the office.
When nations go negative, really negative, then God will bring suffering against them as a nation, if not remove them altogether. Just as He would a single person.
Gods sovereign will cannot be contested and cannot be overruled. He knows all of the cards before they are played. You cannot beat Him. You will never be able to better God at the game of life.
By pursuing your spiritual life, complying with His mandates and so forth, God opens up your eyes of discernment to life and brings opportunities into your life.
By rejecting, being antagonistic, being indifferent, thinking that you have a better way with regard to your spiritual life, then you will discover the hard way that you are the fool of fools, and those opportunities for a great and better life will not exist for you.
God provides many warnings to folks in order to help them get straight in their spiritual lives. But with continued spiritual deficiency, God sooner or later simply backs out of their life. He lets them become caught up in their self-made illusion of life, until the end of their life.
If you are reading this study or reading the Bible or any legitimate study, then you have not slipped into the land of the lost, as it were. Those folks, when they slip away from doctrine, probably never read a study, or are not even interested in one. But even then, life has a way of hammering even the most negative person, such that they might get started or restarted on their spiritual life.
If you are alive, then there is always hope for you.
But no matter what happens in this world, no matter what happens in the Middle East, no matter what happens in the economy, no matter what decisions world leaders make, no matter what decisions you yourself make, Jesus Christ controls history, not you and not nations.
It is far better to ride along on His vessel through life, than to ride along on your own or with someone else.
