Today’s Scripture: 1 Peter 5:6

“Humble yourselves . . . under the mighty hand of God.”

Job and Joseph are examples of those who saw God’s hand in their circumstances. In one day, Job’s oxen were stolen, his camels carried off, his servants murdered. Lightning burned up his sheep, and a mighty wind struck the house of his oldest son, killing all his children. Later Job himself was afflicted with painful sores from head to feet. He responded, “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away” (Job 1:21). With respect to his own affliction he said, “shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” (2:10).

Note that Job ascribed his sufferings to the hand of God. He saw beyond the actions of evil men and the disasters of nature to the sovereign God who controlled those events. At the close of Job’s story, we read that his relatives and friends “showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him” (Job 42:11). Though the writer had himself reported the malicious activity of Satan in Job’s life at the beginning of the narrative, he still ultimately ascribed Job’s troubles to the Lord.

Joseph, when he finally revealed his identity to his wicked brothers who had sold him into slavery, saw beyond their evil acts and said, “It was not you who sent me here, but God” (Genesis 45:8). He recognized that God in his sovereignty used even the heinous sins of his brothers to accomplish his purpose.

If you and I are to appropriate God’s grace in our times of need, we must see his sovereignty ultimately ruling in all the circumstances of our lives. And when those circumstances are difficult, disappointing, or humiliating, we must humble ourselves under his mighty hand.

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