we will see his story unfold, guided by the hand of a sovereign and benevolent God, whom his people can affectionately call “Father.”
Lessons to Be Learned
As we become engaged in God’s story, we will learn some poignant lessons about God. Some of those lessons will include the following:
1. God takes his time—he patiently works to build something good. We need to be patient with God’s plan because he is patient in developing it. (We often have to apply this lesson to our own lives and personal circumstances as well.)
2. God works with individuals, but in doing so, he affects the world! One person can make a difference in God’s world if God’s grace is involved in the life of that person.
3. God is sovereign over history. He is involved in the little things (including our lives) and the large things (the nations). He is sovereign over time, matter, places, and persons. The Christian and biblical worldview is not deism. Deism suggests that God created the world, then wound it up like a watch, letting it tick away. In deism, God has removed his involvement in the world and its activities. We will discover that God is very involved in both our lives and the world.
4. God uses the sin (disobedience) of man (men and women, corporately and individually) to do his will. This lesson brings us much consolation, since sin is so often the bi-product of our own lives. God can overcome our sins, failures, rebellions, and their consequences if he so chooses. That thought brings us to our next lesson.
5. God is gracious despite our sin. He can bring (or produce) something good even out of his own people’s sin. We will see that God does that often. He is a God of grace!
6. God’s people do some horrible things. Some of the actions of God’s people are inexcusable and often they know better. But God disciplines his people, though he is frequently very gracious in the process. Sometimes his discipline is unimaginable to us, but fully understandable when we begin to grasp what a truly holy and perfect God he is.
7. Nothing seems to come easy for those who are a part of God’s kingdom. God’s plan is not always clearly revealed, nor are his ways easy to fathom or follow.
8. God is goal oriented. God has a certain goal that he will reach and he has a plan to make it happen. We will look at that goal in a moment.
9. God’s plan will bring optimism to our lives as Christians. If God’s plan is good and he is ultimately going to glorify himself and fill the earth with his glory, then we can look forward with positive anticipation to what he is going to do.
10. We will be encouraged by the overall benefit of this study. We will see God’s plan in a much clearer light. We will understand our Bibles in a much greater way. And hopefully, we will have a firmer grasp of our place in God’s redemptive plan and will thus act upon it. We will be amazed by God’s plan for the world and for our lives!
I’m sure that there will be many other lessons to be learned from this study but I am confident that we will benefit from those listed above!
The Goal
As we move forward in our study of God’s redemptive plan, we will be guided by the continual thought and question of progress. We will look for and evaluate the progress of God’s plan in history. We will watch God as he moves forward and we will wait to see if the unfolding plan of God brings progress to his goal for all of the earth. We will discover that God’s ways are radically different from our ways (Isa 55:8). We will be able to find God’s stated goal for the earth in a number of passages, all contained within the Old Testament. His goal is not only mentioned more than once, but it also is expressed in a variety of literary types. We will see the stated goal pop up at least four times in the Old Testament. God’s plan for mankind and the world in which he lives is worded simply in Habakkuk 2:14, “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” Filling the earth with the glory of the Lord is quite the goal. Yet, this is what God has been doing from the beginning of time. We will observe his plan throughout this book. A goal is normally not reached right after it is immediately set, especially a goal this large. But in order for a huge goal to become accomplished, one must begin somewhere. And so God starts with a seed. Given time and the proper circumstances for growth, a seed will eventually become something very large. An acorn can become an oak tree. A fertilized egg can become a grown, fully functioning human being. God’s planted seed can grow into world-wide glory. A seed has vast potential for the future. A seed is simple but leads into the complex. There is the potential in a seed for everything which is involved in the final product.
The Seed
Some years ago, I had to make a very difficult, even painful, decision. I had to cut down an oak tree that had grown over the years just a few yards from the side of my house. Unfortunately, this oak tree, which was probably seven or eight decades old, had become hollow inside, its hollowness starting a few feet at the bottom and running up the middle of the trunk, creating a possible hazard for the safety of our house. We had already lost an older, larger oak tree due to an immense wind storm a few years earlier and I felt threatened. So, despite the beauty of the oak, the shade it provided, and the respect and love I have for trees, I paid handsomely to have it taken down. The next spring, however, something unexpected happened. A few weeks after spring arrived, around a hundred or so oak seedlings sprouted out of the ground where the shadows of that huge oak previously had stood. Maybe that is nature’s way; I don’t know. I told a group of our RTS students about what had happened with the seedlings and as a result, one of our administrators heard about it. She came up to me afterward and said, “I would like some of those seedlings to plant in my yard.” I told her I would bring some to the school soon. I went out and dug up about a two square foot piece of soil and placed it in a large cardboard box. Contained within it were around 8–10 six-inch-high oak seedlings. When I delivered it to her the next day, I amusingly stated, “Here are your oak trees!” Of course, they were only seedlings, but each sprig had the potential of becoming, in time, a huge oak tree. She was thrilled to have them. They were only seedlings, which had begun as mere seeds or acorns, but each of them contained “oak tree” potential. We shall see that God’s seed in his redemptive plan is much like those acorns, containing vast potential for growth beyond comprehension.
Similarly, in the 1970s, in Gainesville, Florida, a young male college student attending the University of Florida appeared at the Sunday morning worship service in a small Presbyterian church plant that was meeting in a private school on the west side of town. The young man’s name was Joe. The college-town church he attended that day was meager in size, consisting of less than fifty people. When Joe showed up, he was readily noticed as a college student. After that morning, someone in the church excitedly stated, “We have a college student—let’s start a college ministry!” Obviously, it is very difficult to begin a college ministry with only one student, but that is what Faith Presbyterian Church did that day when Joe from Pensacola showed up. Joe was the “seed” of what that college ministry would become. Eventually, a handful of other Florida students joined both Joe and Faith Church. In time, others attended and the group grew to around twenty. They called the college ministry “Faith Fellowship.” In time, the church decided to call a full-time assistant pastor to serve these college students. As he and his wife worked in this challenging campus environment, the group continued to grow. And although the ministry (eventually known as Reformed University Fellowship or RUF) never became numerically large, over the years it would expand around the state of Florida to its present day status of seven campus ministries on seven significant Florida college campuses. Who could have imagined seven vibrant campus ministries all over the state of Florida in those early days at Faith Presbyterian Church when just one college student showed up to the church service? As the first college student bedding down at Faith church, Joe was the seed of a work that has constantly and steadily grown, and one that, Lord willing, will continue to grow and expand
