…I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, 10 declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,’ [11 calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country. I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it.] —Isaiah 46:9-10 [11]
“I don’t know.” That’s hard to say isn’t it? Especially when we are talking about the things that are most important to us. It’s hard to say because we like to have plans, we like things to be settled, we like to feel as if we were in control. But that’s not always possible is it? Sometimes as much as we hate to admit it we simply don’t know. That’s where I have been living for the past six months.
In April my family and I traveled to Africa to do an adoption that was supposed to take six weeks to complete. It’s October and we are still here with our daughter waiting to be allowed to return to the US.
I don’t know when we will be able to go home. I don’t know what to tell our friends and family. I don’t know what to do to speed up the process. I don’t know why all of this has happened. I don’t know.
Maybe you have felt this way before. Maybe there are circumstances in your life that you don’t understand. Maybe you have found yourself wondering how God could possibly let certain things happen to you. Maybe you spend a lot of your time wondering “Why?” If you find yourself struggling with these types of questions I want you to listen to what God has to say in Isaiah 46:9-11. He says,
For I am God, and there is no other, I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish my purpose,’ calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country. I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed and I will do it.
I love these verses because in them God comes to us and says, “Even though you may not know how this season of your life is going to unfold, I do.” For every time that you have found yourself forced to mumble “I don’t know” God’s voice echoes back through these verses and says, “I do. I know how your story ends. I know why I am allowing this to happen. I know the good I intend in this tragedy and you can rest knowing that I will accomplish all my purpose.”
Of course sometimes when we feel like our lives are spinning out of control we can find these promises hard to believe. But that is where verse 8 comes in. In verse 8, God says, “Remember this and stand firm, recall it to mind, you transgressors, remember the former things of old.”
How can you know for certain that God has a good purpose for your suffering? How can you be sure that he will bring you through this tragedy and leave you safe on the other side? Isaiah tells us that we need to “remember the former things of old.”
For us today, that means we need to remember how our “God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Before the foundations of this world were ever laid God knew how the story of his people would end. He knew that our story would end with eternal life. Earlier in Isaiah, we read about how God knew that one day he would swallow up death forever. He knew that one day he would come and wipe every tear from our eyes and take away the reproach of all his people forever (Isaiah 25:8).
God spoke these promises in the Old Testament and then he began to bring them to pass by sending his only Son to shed his precious blood in our place. In Romans 8:32, Paul assures us that the God who did not spare his only Son but gave him up for us all is a God who will finish what he started. He has spoken to us through his Son and he will bring our final salvation to pass, he has purposed and he will do it.
Yes the middle of our story can be very difficult and there may be a lot of things that we don’t know, but never forget that our God has told us how the story ends. And it’s a good ending. It’s the kind of ending that makes the middle worth it, however difficult it might be.
For Reflection
What are some things in your life that you find yourself struggling to understand?
These verses tell us that our God knows how our story will end before it ever begins. I want you to make a list of some of the good things God tells us about how the story ends for his people. How can these truths help you persevere during the difficult parts of your story?
In verse 11 God tells us that God has purposed the salvation of his people and he will be faithful to do it. How does Jesus prove God’s faithfulness to accomplish our salvation? How can remembering what he did for us help us trust God even when we don’t understand?