This past year (2023) the Meadowview family worked through Daniel in our Sunday gatherings. One of the repeated take-away’s from Daniel is the truth that God is always working His plan and no one can thwart that plan. King Nebuchadnezzar delivers a summary of this point following his restoration to power.
At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him who lives forever, for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation; all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, “What have you done?”
Daniel 4:34-35
Fast forward a few hundred years to the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus is betrayed by Judas and arrested by the temple guards. Though the events in the garden and certainly the events that follow are shocking, they are no accident. We might be tempted to think that the Father was momentarily distracted and in that moment the chaos of Jesus arrest, trials, and crucifixion ensued.
The truth is all of history – even the events of Daniel – were leading to this moment in the garden. Dutch theologian Klass Shilder writes:
God has arranged all of the preceding centuries, all of the intervolutions of time, all of the events from Genesis 1:1 up to this moment – has arranged and moulded them, has had them converge in such a way that there would be a place for this hour, the hour in which His Son will be bound… He allowed neither the forces above nor the forces below to tamper with the clock of history. He directed the battles of Caesars, the conflicts of kings, the migration of peoples, the world wars, the courses of stars and sun and moon, the change of epochs, and the complex movements of all things in the world in such a way that this hour would come and had to come.
The Cross He Bore – Frederick S Leahy
The events of Jesus life, death, and resurrection happened according to God’s definite plan and foreknowledge (Acts 2:23). All the threads of the Bible meet in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Let us then give our attention Him and the record of His atoning work that culminates in “this hour”.
But let us also be reminded that just as the chaotic events of Jesus life were unfolding according to the plan of the Father, so too are the chaotic events of our lives. The Father’s plans for Jesus could not be thwarted by Satan, high-priests, betrayers, or governors. And the Father’s plans for you will not be thwarted by sickness, broken promises, shattered dreams, etc. We must trust Him as Jesus trusted Him.