We’re returning to
George MacDonald’s trilogy for another literary lesson (see this post
for the previous one), but this time the golden nugget comes from the third
book, The Baron’s Apprenticeship. And
this time, the goodness is delivered via a character’s mouth. We’ll get right
to it and join Barbara as she is recounting a conversation she had with the
curate, Thomas Wingfold:
Mr. Wingfold said that it was not fair, when a man had made
something for a purpose, to say it was not good before we knew what his purpose
with it was. “I don’t even like my wife to look at my poems before they’re
finished,” he said. “But God can’t hide away his work till it is finished, as I
do my verses, and we ought to take care what we say about it. God wants to do
something better with people than people think” (p. 95).
The truth and accompanying
implications here, stated another way, are these: 1) God does things with a
purpose; 2) God’s purpose in a given situation is not usually apparent to us at
the outset; 3) we should avoid jumping to conclusions about our circumstances,
assuming we know His purpose, and judging Him and our circumstances according
to those assumptions. As these thoughts were simmering in my mind, I came
across several Psalms that help us look deeper into this idea.
In Psalm 105, the psalmist is
recounting the history of Israel from Abraham to the exodus from Egypt and return
to the Promised Land. In the middle of the psalm, we read, “When he [God] summoned a famine
on the land and broke all supply of bread, he had sent a man ahead of them […]”
(v. 16-17a, ESV*). Here we see God’s
preparation for His people, years before they ever knew a famine was coming.
What a beautiful, good thing!
But in the rest of verse 17, we
find an unexpected ending: “When he summoned a famine on the land and broke all supply
of bread, he had sent a man ahead of them,
Joseph who was sold as a slave.” So
wait, our good God provided a means of survival for His people, but He did it
by allowing a man to become a slave? You got it.
I think it’s safe to
say that we can all agree that slavery is bad. And being kidnapped by your
brothers and sold to foreigners isn’t something we would call “good.” Yet,
Joseph himself acknowledged that God’s hand was in his slavery. He told his
brothers, “And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and
to keep alive for you many survivors. So it was not you who sent me here, but
God,” (Genesis 45:7-8a). He later told them, “As for you, you meant evil
against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people
should be kept alive, as they are today” (Genesis 50:20). Very clearly,
Joseph understood that what seemed like a bad situation was actually a good one.
But likely, he had doubts when he was in prison in a foreign land, having been
unjustly accused after having been sold into slavery.
Joseph’s story is
probably the most common illustration for the idea that what looks like
something bad can actually be something good, but that shouldn’t make it any
less potent. And when we combine it with Thomas Wingfold’s admonition to avoid
judging things as “not good” prematurely, it becomes even more
thought-provoking. What would have happened if Joseph had insisted that God had
sent this flood of horrible circumstances upon him and therefore couldn’t be
relied upon much less worshipped? What would have happened if he had hardened
his heart to God because he judged God’s purpose to be against him instead of
for him? How often are we guilty of doing just that?
In other Psalms, we see this idea
again, that God uses bad to bring about good. Psalm 66:11-12 reads, “You brought us into the net; you laid a crushing burden on
our backs; you let men ride over our heads; we went through the fire and
through water; yet you have brought us out to a place of abundance.” Notice God is the one doing the action here. God is the
one bringing them into the net; God is the one laying a burden on them—and not
just any burden, a crushing burden; God is the one letting them be ridden over.
The verse prior to these tells us that God did these things to test and try His
people; in other words, God put them through challenging times to refine them
for their ultimate good.
Are we comfortable and
confident enough in our faith to accept that God sometimes puts us in painful,
difficult, even crushing situations? Do we believe in a God that is big enough
to redeem evil and use it for good? In these verses, God is the one inflicting
the “negative” things on His people, but He is also the one bringing them out of
those things into a peaceful place where they can flourish. His purposes were
sure all along, even though the process might have obscured them from view.
Elsewhere, the
psalmist writes, “You who have made me see many troubles and calamities will revive me
again; from the depths of the earth you will bring me up again” (Psalm
71:20). Again we see that God is the one making him experience trouble, but
that God is also the one who brings back to life what has been crushed. God can
send someone to the lowest of lows and then bring them up again.
In all of these cases,
what is important to note is that God is not cruel in allowing bad to happen to
us. In our finite existence, it can seem that sad and painful circumstances are
always and forever bad, but in God’s infinite reality in which we live, where
His ways are far above our understanding, His good purposes are always at work
and will always prevail. As the psalmist testifies, “The works of his hands are
faithful and just” (Psalm 111:7a). We must be careful, then, that we
don’t unjustly accuse our all-wise God of cruelty or callousness simply because
we cannot see the bigger picture or all of the details of His eternal plan.
Because we know who He
is from His Word, we can trust Him completely—even in the midst of crushing
burdens that weigh us down, grief that knocks our breath away, and pain that
doesn’t relent. He is in control. And He is good. I can’t think of a better way
to conclude than to revisit Thomas Wingfold’s words. May they sink into your
soul, challenging and encouraging you as they have me.
Mr. Wingfold said that it was not fair, when a man had made
something for a purpose, to say it was not good before we knew what his purpose
with it was. “I don’t even like my wife to look at my poems before they’re
finished,” he said. “But God can’t hide away his work till it is finished, as I
do my verses, and we ought to take care what we say about it. God wants to
do something better with people than people think.”
Source: MacDonald, George (Phillips, Michael, ed.) The Curate of Glaston. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1986.
*All Scripture is quoted from the English Standard Version
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