20 Mar Walk in what I am working out
It was April, 2020, and Covid was raging across the globe, when I noticed the stunning coincidence. It was Passover. For the first time in history since the very first Passover in Egypt, when Israel had sheltered in place as families, every family across the earth was sheltering in place as the plague passed through.
Believing that coincidences are orchestrated circumstances meant to bring us a message, I asked, “Is this just a coincidence? Or does it mean something?”
Instantaneously, I heard, “Walk in what I am working out.” And then His question, “What came after the plagues?”
I thought for a moment. The answer seemed too easy. What was He looking for? “The exodus,” I answered.
“Go there,” He said.
That began a two-year study of the book of Exodus. I had no idea what God was working out in our present day circumstances, but the assurance that divine purpose was at work in the chaos was comforting.
In that ancient book penned by Moses, my eyes were opened for the first time to see what all of history is working toward. The assumptions I’d held for decades paled before the revelation of God’s longing from eternity. As I went deeper into the revelation, I was taken higher in my vantage point. From an eternal vantage point, the one thing God has always wanted is a people who belong to him. “I will be their God and they will be my people, and I will dwell in their midst forever.”
From that vantage point I saw all of creation, all of history as a landscape, where His eternal desire for a people was brought into being in time.
Chapter by chapter, I saw the incredible complexity of His execution making it possible. I recognized the precision with which he attempted to communicate the plan, so that we could respond to Him as He called His people out.
Nothing is amiss. Everything is going as planned. He is bringing forth a people who are being sifted and tried by their times, a people who are being given the opportunity to prove who they are by how they react to the challenges. Faith without works is dead. We have something that the church in Germany in the early 1940’s did not have: the recent history to show us what happens when the people remain silent.
From the eternal vantage point, I was stunned by how many times the simplicity of His eternal purpose has echoed from the narrative: again and again, from first to last, from Genesis to Revelation, Scripture coalesces into a single beam revealing His plan to bring forth a people who will uniquely truly belong to Him, and He to them. 1
“Have I not commanded you to be strong and courageous? Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.” Josh 1:9
From the eternal vantage point history became a breathtaking landscape bathed in both light and shadow, its long way sometimes imperceptible. Every magnificent inch from rocky heights to mist-laden horizon manifests His plan. What is missing from the landscape is the tragedy, the pain, the horror, the ruthless devices of evil that have plagued history. From the eternal vantage point, there is no evidence of them… not because they’ve been ignored or consciously blotted from the picture. They are not there, because they’ve been conquered. They’ve been swallowed up in victory. And overhead the narrative is being told.
The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. Without speech or language, without a sound to be heard, their voice has gone out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. Psalm 19:1-4
____________________________________
1 Genesis 17:7; Exodus 29:45;Jeremiah 11:4; Jeremiah 24:7; Jeremiah 31:33; Jeremiah 32:38; Ezekiel 11:20; Ezekiel 14:11; Ezekiel 34:24; Ezekiel 37:23,27; Zechariah 8:8; Hebrews 8:10; 2 Corinthians 6:16; Titus 2:14; Revelation 21:3