Nothing helps the Christian to endure the trials of his path as the habit of seeing God in everything. There is no circumstance, be it ever so trivial or ever so commonplace, which may not be regarded as a messenger from God. The Book of Jonah illustrates this truth in a very marked way. There we learn that there is nothing ordinary to the Christian; nothing is a course of random events; everything is extraordinary. The most commonplace things — the simplest circumstances— exhibit in the history of Jonah evidences of divine interference. To see this instructive feature, it is not necessary to enter upon a detailed exposition of the Book of Jonah. We need only to notice one expression, which occurs in it again and again, namely, “The Lord prepared.“
A Great Wind
In chapter 1 the Lord sends out a great wind into the sea, and this wind had in it a solemn voice for the prophet’s ear, had he been wakeful to hear it. The poor pagan mariners, no doubt, had often encountered a storm, yet it was special and extraordinary for one individual on board, though that one was asleep in the sides of the ship. In vain did the sailors seek to counteract the storm; nothing would avail until the Lord’s message had reached the ears of him to whom it was sent.
A Great Fish
Following Jonah a little further, we perceive another instance of God in everything. He is brought into new circumstances, yet he is not beyond the reach of the messengers of God. The Christian can never find himself in a position in which his Father’s voice cannot reach his ear or his Father’s hand meet his view, for His voice can be heard, His hand seen, in everything. Thus, when Jonah had been cast forth into the sea, “the Lord had prepared a great fish.” Here, too, we see that there is nothing ordinary to the child of God. A great fish was not uncommon —there are many such in the sea. Yet the Lord prepared one for Jonah, in order that it might be the messenger of God to his soul.
A Gourd
In chapter 4, we find the prophet sitting on the east side of the city of Nineveh, in sullenness and impatience, grieved because the city had not been overthrown and entreating the Lord to take away his life. He would seem to have forgotten the lesson learned during his three days’ sojourn in the deep, and he therefore needed a fresh message from God. “The Lord God prepared a gourd.” This is very instructive. Surely there was nothing uncommon in the mere circumstance of a gourd, but Jonah’s gourd exhibited traces of the hand of God and forms a link — an important link — in the chain of circumstances through which the prophet was passing. The gourd now, like the great fish before, was the messenger of God to his soul. “So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd.” He had before longed to depart, but his longing was more the result of impatience and chagrin than of holy desire to depart and be at rest forever. It was the painfulness of the present rather than the happiness of the future that made him wish to be gone.
A Worm
This is often the case. We are frequently anxious to get away from present pressure, but if the pressure were removed, the longing would cease. If we longed for the coming of Jesus and the glory of His blessed presence, circumstances would make no difference; we should then long just as ardently to get away from pleasant circumstances as those of pressure and sorrow. Jonah, while he sat beneath the shadow of the gourd, did not think of departing, and the very fact of his being “exceeding glad of the gourd” proved how much he needed that special messenger from the Lord. It served to make manifest the true condition of his soul. Yet the gourd was but a link in the chain, for the Lord “prepared a worm,” and this worm, trifling as it was when viewed in the light of an instrument, was, nevertheless, as much the divine agent as was the “great wind” or the “great fish.” A worm, when used by God, can do wonders; it withered Jonah’s gourd and taught him, as it teaches us, a solemn lesson. True, it was only an insignificant agent, the efficacy of which depended upon its conjunction with others, but this only illustrates more strikingly the greatness of our Father’s mind. He can prepare a worm, and He can prepare a vehement east wind, and He can make them both, though so unlike, instruments of His great designs.
In the Great and the Small
In a word, the spiritual mind sees God in everything. The worm, the whale and the tempest are all instruments in His hand. The most insignificant, as well as the most splendid agents, further His ends. The east wind would not have proved effectual, though it had been ever so vehement, had not the worm first done its appointed work. How striking is all this! Great and small are terms in use only among men and cannot apply to Him “who humbleth Himself to behold the things that are in heaven,” as well as “in the earth” (Psa. 113:66Who humbleth himself to behold the things that are in heaven, and in the earth! (Psalm 113:6)). Jehovah can tell the number of the stars, and while He does so He can take knowledge of a falling sparrow. Nothing is great or small with God.
The believer, therefore, must not look upon anything as a random event, for God is in everything. True, he may have to pass through the same circumstances — to meet the same trials — as other men, but he must not meet them in the same way, nor do they convey the same report to his ear. He should hear the voice of God and heed His message in the most trifling as well as in the most momentous occurrence of the day. The disobedience of a child or the loss of an estate, the failure of a servant or the death of a friend, should all be regarded as divine messengers to his soul.
God’s Unsearchable Designs
So also, when we look around us in the world, God is in everything. The overturning of thrones, the crashing of empires, the famine, the pestilence and every event that occurs among nations exhibit traces of the hand of God and utter a voice for the ear of man. The devil will seek to rob the Christian of the real sweetness of this thought; he will tempt him to think that, at least, the commonplace circumstances of everyday life exhibit nothing extraordinary, but are only such as happen to other men. But we must not yield to him in this. We must start every morning with this truth vividly impressed on our mind — God is in everything. The sun that rolls along the heavens in splendid brilliancy and the worm that crawls along the path have both alike been prepared of God, and, moreover, could both alike cooperate in the development of His unsearchable designs.
I would observe, in conclusion, that the only one who walked in the abiding remembrance of the above precious and important truth was our blessed Master. He saw the Father’s hand and heard the Father’s voice in everything. This appears preeminently in the season of the deepest sorrow. He came forth from the garden of Gethsemane with those memorable words, “The cup which My Father hath given Me, shall I not drink it?” Thus, He recognized in the fullest manner that God is in everything.
C. H. Mackintosh, adapted