The Way God Works--Part 3

Well, gentle reader, here we are again. Finally, the third and final installment in this little series of discussions. I'm sure you've all been anxiously consuming all the squashed bread you've been able to find as you've waited with baited breath for this. Swallow that last bite, then, and rest at ease, for the eagerly anticipated moment has finally arrived. As I said in the previous postings , this little series is in no way an effort to exhaust (or even really scratch the surface of) this vast topic. Nevertheless, I leave you, gentle reader, with these few words on the second of the reasons that God elects to use means in His dealings with people.

In His grace and mercy, God elects to use means in His dealings with people in order that those who are used as means might be blessed. For example, when God provides us with our daily bread, one of the means that He uses in that provision is the work of the farmer. As the farmer acts within his vocation as a farmer, God in turn uses that vocation to bless the farmer. As was said to the Israelites, "[T]he LORD your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands." (Deut. 2:7 [ESV]) And, lest we think that this statement doesn't apply to us today, that we are indeed blessed as we fulfill our vocations is made more clear in such passages as Psalm 128:1-4, in which we read, "Blessed is everyone who fears the LORD, who walks in His ways! You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands; you shall be blessed and it shall be well with you...Behold, thus shall the man be blessed who fears the LORD." (ESV) As the farmer does the work that helps provide the daily bread for our tables, he is blessed in the very performance of that work.

This is one of the greatest tragedies for those who go through life in unbelief. As I'm sure you know, many of the farmers whose work is used by God to provide the daily bread for our tables are not believers. They may curse God when it rains at an inopportune time or when drought destroys the majority of a year's work. They may be agnostic. They may be atheistic. However, God still makes use of their labors to provide the daily bread that has been promised to us. The tragedy is found in that they miss out on the blessing of being a means of God's provision. Indeed, not only do they miss out on the blessing, but in unbelief they actively reject that blessing. For the unbeliever, the fullness of God's curse upon the ground (Gen. 3:17-19) is experienced; conversely, while the believer must still eat bread by the sweat of his toil, it is done in a very real state of blessing: "Blessed are the people whose God is the LORD!" (Ps. 144:15 [ESV])

Obviously, this holds true for the believer, regardless of the specific vocation to which one is referring. Indeed, each and every person has multiple vocations with which they are engaged at any given moment. The one who has children is called to be a father, and so he is one means through which God chooses to provide and care for the children. That same one is most often also called to be a husband, and so he is one means through which God chooses to bless his wife. That same one is also the child of his parents, and so he is called to be a source of blessing to his parents. Likewise, he is called to fullfil the vocation of his work, whatever that work may be; in this, God uses him as the means to provide for and bless still others. In every one of these callings--these vocations, if you will--God also blesses the one called as that one discharges his vocation...as I'm sure any father could tell you. Ultimately, these blessings come to those who are believers, while those who continue in unbelief miss the full experience of the blessings intended by God. An unbelieving father often receives some blessing from being a father to his children; however, unbelief leads to a rejection of the full extent of that blessing, for only in Christ is the blessing of God fully realized. "Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin." (Rom. 4:7-8 [ESV])

Why does God elect to use means in His dealings with men? While there are many specific reasons, at the heart of the matter is that He does so in grace and mercy for the benefit of those who are so affected. The greatest tragedy of all lies in the fact that so many persist in unbelief and rejection of that grace and mercy, offered ultimately in the death and resurrection of His one and only Son, Jesus Christ.