Great sadness had fallen on the house in Bethany where Mary and Martha lived with their brother Lazarus, a home which Jesus had often visited, where He had enjoyed their hospitality and where they had benefited from fellowship with Him. Lazarus had taken ill and his sisters had sent a message to Jesus to let him know. They expected Him to come at once and heal their brother. But He did not. As the Son of God, He had His own purposes and was working them out to His own glory.
Clearly the sisters had sufficient faith to believe that Jesus was able to heal their brother – if He had come sooner to their home in Bethany. But they were presuming that it would have been for His glory and for their good to have done so. And they were further presuming that it would have been most for His glory and for their good to have done so at that particular time. George Hutcheson points out that, even when God’s children believe that “Christ’s power and goodwill” is such that He will act for them, “they yet limit Him to their own conceived way of working”. Martha was not expecting Him to do anything for them unless He was physically present; she said to Jesus, “Lord, if Thou hadst been here, my brother had not died” (John 11: 21).1 The clear implication was that, as He had not come before Lazarus died, it was now too late for Him to do anything for their brother.
While Martha believed in the power of Jesus to heal her brother, she clearly had much to learn about His sovereignty – in this case, His right to do what He desired, but also His right not to do exactly what she wanted, and indeed His right to heal at another time, if that was what pleased Him and would be more for His glory. She could not understand how, when Jesus had the power to heal her brother, He had left him to die. Hutcheson also points out the fault of people such as Martha, as to whether they will trust or not trust: “They make a bible of their own thoughts, apprehensions and fears, without regarding what the Scripture saith”. It is a fault to which all believers are subject. To grasp the fact of God’s absolute sovereignty in their own providence is not the work of a moment; it has to be a continuous learning process and it will last a lifetime.
How hard it is even for believers to learn that God knows better than they do! There is a tone of reproach in Martha’s statement. But the Lord Jesus was to make her see clearly what He had already told His disciples: that He, the Son of God, was to be glorified as a result of this illness. To raise Lazarus from the grave was a work of much greater power – and therefore was more glorifying to Christ – than to deliver him from his illness while the disease had not proved fatal. And to perform the miracle publicly, at the grave, rather than in the quiet of the family’s home was to ensure that this testimony to Christ’s power and glory would spread far and wide.
We all suffer from a tendency to prescribe to God how He should act. But we must learn that He always acts in a way that is most for His glory and for the good of His children. These outcomes may not be obvious at first, but time – or eternity – will demonstrate God’s wise control of events. It was far from clear to Jacob, when his sons came home with the tale that Joseph was dead, that what had happened could possibly be for his good. “All things are against me”, he exclaimed emphatically. Yet there was much about the future the Jacob could not know; indeed there was much even about the present that he did not know.
But God knew everything about his situation and, however hard it was for Jacob to believe that all things were working together for his good, it was actually God’s purpose that this particular series of events would lead on to a great deliverance for him and for all his family. Joseph, of course, was not dead. He was to experience some difficult years, first as a slave and then as a prisoner, before he became governor of Egypt – which was to give him authority to provide for his family in a way beyond what anyone could have anticipated. And the unexpected difficulties which Jacob experienced over these years were part of the training he needed to help on the process of sanctification he was undergoing to fit him for the perfection of heaven.
We may very readily say, If some particular event had not happened, or if something had turned out rather differently, our situation would have been much better. That may indeed be so, but if to speak in this way is not to reproach the God of providence, it is to ignore Him, and His infinite knowledge and wisdom and sovereignty. Even in the small matters of the daily lives of believers, God knows what is best for them and He knows what is most for His own glory. And He has the right to order everything in the way that seems best to Him.
Difficulties in life – sickness, for instance – may continue for many years without the person who is suffering being able to see that these difficulties can be of any benefit. And, in spite of earnest prayer, God does not seem to answer. Thomas Manton, when preaching on Noah’s faith in building the ark at God’s command, points out that the ark could be of no use to Noah for a long time after he started work on it. He then asks his hearers if they can wait for the time when God will fulfil His promises. He continues: “So David was anointed king a long time before he reigned. . . . So can you tarry God’s leisure for the accomplishment of His promise and, during the time of your pilgrimage, wait and be followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promise? (Heb 6:12.) Seldom any go to heaven, but they have a long time to exercise their faith and patience.”2
Again we may look back at God’s dealings with His Church and consider that, if He had acted differently, circumstances would now be much better than they are. If, for instance, the Lord had sent a minister to a particular place, or if He had sent one sooner, or if He had sent a different minister, the situation there would be much healthier than it is. Of course, those who have responsibilities in the Church do make mistakes, even sinful mistakes, and they are accountable to God for all of them.
What we are trying to consider, however, is the overruling providence of God. We must believe that He knows what He is doing in the sovereign exercise of His infinite wisdom and power. Christ has already gone out to conquer and, while we might expect Him to have achieved a complete victory over all His enemies by now, He at all times has everything under His control and the final, complete victory is sure. At each stage in the conflict He knows how far and how quickly it is best to go so that the final victory will bring the greatest possible glory to God.
In many particular battles we know too little to understand how God will be glorified by the outcome – when, for instance, persecutors slaughter the saints of God, or when atheists and scoffers seem to have control over the airwaves, or when most people, even in the Church, reject the authority of God’s Word. But the end has not come yet. This is the time for faith, and faith will ever be tried. And when the end does come, all the elect will have been gathered in and all God’s other purposes in connection with the human race will have been accomplished. Then it will be perfectly obvious that God has been ordering all the affairs of this world, and everyone will recognise that His glory, in connection with all His attributes, is exceedingly great.
In the meantime the Church of God must labour on with patience, believing that the Lord Jesus is working out His purposes stage by stage. And although He is no longer physically present here, His promise holds true: “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world” (Mt 28:20).
1Hutcheson’s remarks quoted in this article come from his comments on this verse in his volume on The Gospel of John (Banner of Truth Trust 1985 reprint).
2Thomas Manton, By Faith, Sermons on Hebrews 11, Banner of Truth, 2000, p 362.