The Hand of the Lord

"Blessed be the LORD, the God of our fathers, Who put such a thing as this into the heart of the king... and Who extended to me His steadfast love before the king.... I took courage, for the hand of the LORD my God was on me...."

~Ezra 7:27-28

One attribute of the Lord our God that has been a fortress of comfort for Christians throughout the centuries has surely been His sovereign omnipotence of His good will. It is that sweet, holy knowledge that our lives are not a random series of events, merely the results of our actions and being left to work out our own destinies but rather that God Almighty (who is not only perfectly good but also completely powerful and able to execute good) orders the course of human history and carefully plans out the details of our individual lives for our highest spiritual good and His glory.

And we find innumerable instances of this recorded for us in the Bible. In our reading today, we see that during Israel's captivity and exile into Babylon, the Lord so moved the hearts of the kings of Persia (Cyrus, Darius and Artaxerxes) so that they:

1) Urged the Israelites to return to Jerusalem and rebuild their temple,

2) Commanded them to teach the Law of the Lord among all the exiles,

3) And furthermore, ordered that the counsellors, princes and governors of Persia aid the Israelites in rebuilding the temple with all their expenses being funded by the king's own treasury.

Proverbs 21:1 gives us a glimpse into the mighty sovereignty of God over the kings of the earth: "The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; He turns it wherever He will." But what is the heart of a mere mortal to God? Is He not the cosmic Surveyor who marks the boundaries of the oceans and decrees that they come no further? (Job 38:10-11) Is He not the Imperial Lord of the universe who with a glance causes grand mountains to quiver like leaves? (Psalm 104:32) He sends one word and blood-thirsty lions lie down gently like lambs (Daniel 6:22). He looks and the legions of hell scream in fear and beg Him to spare them (Luke 8:28-31).

Let the Christian be at rest then in this Tower of refuge: the Lord our God. So long as we are seeking the will of the Lord as Ezra did (Ezra 7:9-10), we may depend upon it: the hand of the Lord will surely be upon us for good. But what is sweeter is that the hand that is over God's people is a nail-pierced hand; it is the loving mighty hand that has suffered for the good of His people and therefore is doubly guaranteed to govern the hearts of authorities for the good of His people.

We can be certain that whatever our leaders and rulers choose to do with us, they have been loaned their power for a season by Him Who is the King of the cosmos. He must give them permission for them to be able to do anything and He will hold them accountable at the Judgement. As for the Lord's people, His hand of favour will surely be upon us and we know that whether God softens or hardens the hearts of authorities (as He did for pharaoh), the Lord Himself will be with us and guide us safely into what He knows to be best for us and to His highest glory.

Blessed be our Lord and our Saviour Jesus Christ who Himself hardened the hearts of the rulers that they would put Him to death for our sins and at the same time grants us favour before those in authority over us.