The Works of God

Greg threw in a couple of bonuses at the end of his book, Wrestling with an Angel, from two of the greats in church history:  Matthew Henry on John 9 and John Newton on suffering (Lucas, pp. 100-108).

Consider in Matthew Henry’s Commentary on John 9:1-3 how Matthew Henry shows the sovereignty of God and the mystery of God in just a few sentences, but always pointed to God’s glory and God’s free ability to do whatever God intends to do:

He was born blind that our Lord Jesus might have the honour of curing him, and might therein prove himself sent of God to be the true light to the world. Thus the fall of man was permitted, and the blindness that followed it, that the works of God might be manifest in opening the eyes of the blind. It was now a great while since this man was born blind, and yet it never appeared till now why he was so. Note, The intentions of Providence commonly do not appear till a great while after the event, perhaps many years after. The sentences in the book of providence are sometimes long, and you must read a great way before you can apprehend the sense of them.

Most of the time we do not know what God is doing.  But we can know, with absolute certainty, that God is doing it for the purpose of making his name great and for the good of those he has called.  And in that we can be anchored with hope in future grace:

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Jeremiah 29:11