What to Do When God's Plan Is Unclear

Romans 11:33-36

33 Oh the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God

How unsearchable his judgments,

and his paths beyond tracing out!

34 “Who has known the mind of the Lord?

Or who has been his counselor?”

35 “Who has ever given to God,

that God should repay them?”

36 For from him and through him and for him are all things.

To him be the glory forever! Amen.

What to Do When God’s Plan Is Unclear

A couple years ago I wanted to build a kennel for the 2 dogs I had at the time. Luckily, I have a resourceful uncle who found a free crib and parts of an old bunkbed I could repurpose. The creative juices started flowing and before long I had an idea of exactly how I wanted all those parts to fit together.

I was also blessed to have a friend with a woodworking shop in his garage. Mark is a great carpenter and was so gracious not only to let me use his shop but also to lend a hand. Bless his heart, Mark tried his level best to understand my vision for the project – the plans that I scribbled out on a piece of scrap paper – but he just couldn’t see it. Every time I would explain the kind of cut we needed or the hardware I wanted to use, he’d pause and ask, “Are you sure?”

It wasn’t until the project was all over and the kennel was finished that Mark admitted, “You know, I did not know what you were trying to do, but now that I see it, it all makes sense.”

Isn’t that how it goes? We don’t always know the purpose for something until the end. We can’t always make sense of the plan until it’s been accomplished. When we’re caught in the middle of something, it can look like a jumbled mess, but when it all comes together you can see the method behind the madness.

One great example from Scripture is Moses. Do you remember him? He was the guy God chose to lead the Israelites out of Egypt after 400 years of slavery there. Now, Moses wasn’t keen on the idea of standing in front of Pharaoh in the first place; it took a lot of convincing to get him to go at all. But then, when Moses finally went and stood before Pharaoh and demanded that he let God’s people go, do you know what happened? Pharaoh said, “No.” And not only that, Pharaoh doubled their work. He made their lives even more miserable than they had been before.

Can you imagine being Moses at a moment like that? “Why did you send me down to Egypt at all, God? You just made matters worse! I don’t understand how this can possibly be part of your plan.”

But what Moses didn’t understand at that moment was that God was using Pharaoh’s rejection as a way to demonstrate God’s power. Pharaoh represented the greatest superpower in the world. Pharaoh could say no all he wanted, he could double/triple/quadruple the Israelites’ work, he could chase them down with all the chariots in his army, but he couldn’t stop God from saving his people and for the rest of human history people would tell that story of God’s faithfulness and power.

Moses couldn’t see it at the time, but even this moment of pain and confusion was all part of God’s plan and purpose.

Do you feel like Moses sometimes? Is God’s plan and his purpose for your life obvious to you, or do you struggle to understand how the things that are happening can possibly be from God?

It’s not even just about the virus anymore. This global pandemic has pitted people against each other. We are divided, not only physically but also philosophically, e.g. grumbling about governmental decisions, whether they’re too strict or too loose; balancing a concern for the health of our loved ones with our concern for the wellbeing of our society. It’s messy and complex. It causes division and uncertainty.

Like Moses we might be tempted to cry out, “Why would you allow any of this to happen, God? It’s worse than ever before! I don’t understand how any of this can possibly be part of your plan.”

To which Paul joyfully replies: Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!

Now maybe this dates me, but honestly when I read these words, I can’t help but picture Scrooge McDuck diving into his bank vault of gold. He has so much money, it’s hard for us even to imagine how much wealth that is.

That’s the image that Paul uses to describe God’s wisdom. Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! It’s not just that God is smarter than your average bear. It’s not just that he has good ideas every once in a while. He is overflowing with wisdom and knowledge. He knows more than Wikipedia. He’s smarter than a rocket surgeon. He knows so much more than we could ever fit between our ears. And, I have to tell you, that ought to be music to our ears!

Moses had no idea what God was up to when he sent him to Egypt only to get rejected by Pharaoh. But what happened? Pharaoh and the bulk of his army ended up buried in the waters of the Red Sea, while Moses and all the Israelites walked away scot free. And for the rest of human history people would tell that story of God’s power and his love.

The Bible is full of stories like that, where it seems like God’s plan is failing, but by the end we see the point. And that’s no truer than when we talk about our own salvation.

For weeks now we’ve been talking about the Christian faith, one word at a time. We’ve discussed concepts like atonement and reconciliation and righteousness. At every turn, we’re forced to admit that this world is not worth saving, i.e. that we are not worth saving, but the irrational thing is that God loved us anyway. It’s not the “smart” thing to do. Sinners will keep sinning even after we’ve been forgiven. We battle with our sinful natures every day, but God’s judgments are unsearchable and his paths beyond tracing out. He loves sinners so much that he sent his Son to save us.

Talk about not making sense! Jesus was the perfect Son! He had never done anything wrong. He always did everything he was supposed to do. He even walked in this world, breathed this same air, struggled with the same frustrations and pains and temptations that you do, but unlike you, Jesus rose above them all. He was perfect in every way. So, what did God do out of the depth of the riches of his wisdom and knowledge? He sacrificed his Son on a cross.

For a moment, it had seemed like the most foolish thing. Jesus didn’t deserve to die. We’re the ones who should be punished for what we do wrong, not him. If Jesus couldn’t even survive this world, what hope do the rest of us have? For a moment it seemed like Jesus was defeated, that God’s plans had failed, and the devil had won.

But then Jesus burst from the grave on Easter Sunday and announced to the world what God had been trying to get through our thick skulls all along. Jesus’ sacrifice was necessary to pay the price for our sin. And now Jesus’ resurrection is the promise that we will live with him. Sinners forgiven. Foolish human beings brought into the grand plan of God and promised eternal life through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

Now we know what the end goal is. Now we know the completion of God’s plans for us. We know it ends in heaven.

What we don’t know – well, that list is a whole lot longer, isn’t it? We don’t know the plan or purpose of a pandemic. We don’t know why a family member might be diagnosed with cancer. We don’t understand how God can use the often foolish decisions of sinful humans to accomplish his will. But Paul reminds us:

“Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?” “Who has ever given to God, that God should repay them?”

God doesn’t need our advice to get the job done. His wisdom and his knowledge far exceed our own. Our God is so much wiser than we are, and I, for one, couldn’t be happier about it. I want a God I can’t understand, because my most brilliant plans and my most well-thought-out purpose don’t always pan out, but his do. And God’s plans for you are so much greater. His purpose is nothing short of eternal life with him forever in heaven.

That’s why he made you. That’s why he sustains you even now. That’s why you will be giving glory to his name for ever and ever. That’s the truth that Paul wants you to walk away with today. We can’t always understand our God – and that’s OK! – but we can always praise him for his goodness and love. We can trust his plan of salvation and rejoice that it includes people like you and me, and anyone who believes. Some things are beyond our grasp, but nothing is beyond God’s. For from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.

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There Is No Moral High Ground in God's Garden

Romans 11:13-15,28-32

13 I am talking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I take pride in my ministry 14 in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy and save some of them. 15 For if their rejection brought reconciliation to the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?

28 As far as the gospel is concerned, they are enemies for your sake; but as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs, 29 for God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable. 30 Just as you who were at one time disobedient to God have now received mercy as a result of their disobedience, 31 so they too have now become disobedient in order that they too may now receive mercy as a result of God’s mercy to you. 32 For God has bound everyone over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.

There Is No Moral High Ground In God’s Garden

I have a pair of sad, little lilac cuttings dying on the floor of my office right now. I brutally cut them out of the ground around the base of a beautiful lilac bush on the side of our garage. I thought I could replant them. I wanted them to grow and flourish and someday to bud and flower along the fence line. It turns out that once you cut a branch off a tree or a shoot from a root, it’s really hard to get it to grow again.

Hard, but not impossible.

Those of you with a green thumb probably know all about grafting. Basically, I could go out and cut a branch off the red maple tree we just planted by the church doors and attach it to a silver or a sugar maple and it would grow as if it had always belonged there. Usually when you cut a branch from a tree it doesn’t survive. When you sever it from its source of life, it dies. But there is a way for it to live.

And that’s what Paul wants to talk about today – not landscaping, of course, but how we have been grafted into the family of God.

We skipped over some verses in our sermon text for today. I’d like to read some of them for you now. After talking about how the Jews rejected Jesus as their Savior, Paul writes:

If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, do not consider yourself to be superior to those other branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you. You will say then, “Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted.” Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but tremble. For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either.

Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off. And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.

It’s a long metaphor, but a good one for us today.

Paul starts out by talking about branches that had been broken off. Those are the Jews who stubbornly refused to believe that Jesus was the Son of God, their Savior from sin. Those are the Jews who met the Promised Messiah, the Christ, and crucified him. When God sent messengers to share the good news that salvation had come, they ignored or rejected or even persecuted them. So, God broke them off because of their unbelief.

It’s a violent and dramatic end to what had once been a major branch in God’s family tree, but it doesn’t change the truth that we know about God. Over and over again we hear passages that remind us that God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. God wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.

The picture Paul paints for us here is not that God stands by his family tree waiting to snap branches off when they stop believing in him. It’s quite the opposite. God is relentlessly looking for ways to graft new branches in, i.e. to grow and enlarge that family tree. And that’s where the Gentiles come in.

They didn’t have the history that the Jews did. They weren’t rescued from slavery in Egypt. They weren’t promised a land flowing with milk and honey. God didn’t send his prophets to the Gentiles or build his Temple among them. They didn’t have any of the advantages that the Jews did, but they were no less loved by God.

God always wanted the Gentiles to be saved too. God sent Jesus to be their Savior as well. And in a strange twist of fate – guided by God’s all-knowing and gracious hand – it was the Jews’ rejection of Jesus that brought reconciliation to the world. It was their hatred that put Jesus on the cross, which is just where he needed to be to pay for the sins of the world. It was the Jews’ rejection of the Gospel that propelled people like Paul to leave Jerusalem and to travel to the four corners of the earth preaching a message of salvation to anyone who would listen.

So, while the Jews may have been broken off God’s family tree because of their unbelief, God still shows his love for mankind by grafting the Gentiles in and growing his family tree despite rejection and unbelief. After all, think about where those Gentiles had come from. They had been living in unbelief and sin, many of them worshiping false gods and idols. But God didn’t choose them because they were worthy. He chose them because he loved them, and in his grace, he made room for them in his heart and in his family.

Forgive me if this all sounds academic, like a history lesson you slept through in Sunday School. It is ancient history, but it’s your story too. You are Gentiles, which is just another way to say that you are not Jewish. We have all kinds of different ethnicities and family backgrounds represented here, e.g. Ukrainians, Brazilians, Dutch, Germans, Nigerians, Norwegians, Sudanese, Danes, Metis, etc… You are Gentiles and you have found your place in God’s family in the same way that Paul talks about here – God has plucked you from your wild roots and grafted you into his family tree.

If my lilac cuttings ever work out, it won’t be because those shoots asked to be replanted. It won’t be because they are so strong. It’ll be because I did something right, e.g. cutting them off at the right time of year, giving them the correct amount of sunlight and water, fertilizing them, repotting them, etc.... Grafting is the gardener’s work, just as grace is God’s.

So, if you walk away from today’s service knowing anything, know this: your place in God’s family is purely by God’s grace.

You don’t deserve God’s love. In fact, you’ve done many things that should have caused God to disown you, but God didn’t choose you because you are worthy. He chose you because he loves you. He chose you because he wants to see you bud and flourish, and he did all the things necessary to make that happen.

He sent his Son for you, Jesus, to be your Savior, i.e. to die on a cross to pay for your sins. He commissioned apostles, like Paul, to take that good news into the world so that everyone could know God’s love for them. He sent someone into your life to share that news with you personally, e.g. your mom or dad, a friend from school, the neighbor down the street. God is relentless in his love for you. He has gone out of his way to graft you into his family. And he wants you to know that it is entirely by grace. It doesn’t depend on you, so you can depend on him.

Rejoice that in his grace God chose you to be part of his family and he did everything necessary to graft you into it. But at the same time remember that grace is God’s work, not yours.

Paul warns us repeatedly, “do not consider yourself to be superior to those other branches,” and again, “do not be arrogant, but tremble.”

Paul knows a thing or two about human nature. He knows how easy it is for our egos to get inflated, how quick we are to condescend. You just have to look around to see it.

I’ve been tracking a trend in our local paper. For at least the last month, in the editorial section, there has been a cringe-worthy back-and-forth between “maskers” and “anti-maskers.” There is no humility in those comments. There is only pride and arrogance – a sense of self-importance and superiority – only the thought that I am right and they are wrong, not only that but they are horrible people for having that opinion. They shouldn’t be allowed to have a voice or go out in public.

You turn on the news and a black man gets shot 1,000 miles from here and before an investigation can even begin the pontificating on either side is in full swing. “He must have been a horrible criminal who deserved to be shot. Anyone who says otherwise is a moron who hates cops and wants society to descend into chaos.” “How can you defend those attempted murderers and monsters who gunned down a dad in front of his kids. You must hate all black people everywhere.”

It’s so easy for us to assume the moral high ground, to think of ourselves as God’s treasured possession, after all “he cleared room in his family tree just to graft me in. I must be so important.”

No. You didn’t earn your spot in God’s family tree. At one time you were disobedient to God. You were a wild olive shoot, but God had mercy on you. He grafted you into his family purely by grace. And it’s that same grace and mercy and love that he extends to everyone, even those people who sometimes feel like our enemies.

Paul said that as far as the gospel is concerned, [the Jews] are enemies for your sake. In Paul’s day they were actively opposing the preaching of God’s Word. They were driving Paul out of town. They were threatening Christian’s lives. With respect to the gospel, they were truly the Gentiles’ enemies.

But in the same sentence Paul reminds us that as far as election is concerned, they are loved. The people who feel or act like your enemies are loved by God the same way you are. They have received the same mercy you have. Jesus is their Savior too.

And God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable. In other words, God doesn’t regret extending his grace to anyone (rioters). God doesn’t rescind his promises or revoke his gospel (from people who gun others down). He shows love and mercy to all. So, as you engage with the people of this world and the people in your life who feel like enemies, remember that God loves them and wants them to be saved, just as he has loved and saved you too.

There is no moral high ground in God’s garden. We have all been grafted purely by his grace, i.e. by the sacrifice of Christ and by the ministry of Christ’s church. So rejoice in God’s love for you, but be humble. Season your life and conversations with grace, and be like Paul, i.e. take pride in your place in God’s plan of salvation for others. You may be just the one whom God uses to turn an enemy into a friend, to graft a wild olive shoot into his family tree. It may be hard, but it’s not impossible with God. He’s done it with you; he will do it for others through, by his grace, in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.

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