Trusting God’s Plans: Seeing the Bigger Picture

By: John Hintz

Why is it that we so often miss the forest for the trees?  In other words, we often miss the bigger picture because we only focus on the immediate issue, problem, trial or temporary desire.   This is not a modern-day issue, as a matter of fact, it is an issue that dates as far back as Adam and Eve in the garden.  

It’s difficult to even fathom the excellence of the garden of Eden, from its perfect temperate climates and beautiful foliage to its flawlessness, and ease of management, all encapsulated with God’s very presence.  Yet, in all this splendor, Adam and Eve still thought they lacked something and, in doing so, doubted God’s provision and single command (Genesis 2: 15-17). They did not trust that what God had commanded was in their best interest.    In their desire to have immediate results and God-like wisdom for themselves, Adam and Eve taking no consideration for God’s will, disobeyed God, forfeiting sinless perfection, and drove a wedge between God and man for all generations.  

Adam and Eve were not the only ones that lost sight of God’s plan or will.  By the time Abraham (Abram) steps into the world scene, nearly 1950 years pass from Adam, Eve and the fall.  Generations have come and gone, and God has flooded the Earth, only saving Noah and his family, because the entire world was corrupted and chasing their own evil desires.  

At the time God visits Abraham, much of the population has all but forgotten God and have fallen into pagan idolatry.  But God calls the 75-year-old Abraham and his 65- year- old wife Sarai from his country and kindred (Genesis 12: 1-3), promising to make the elderly and childless Abraham a “great nation”.   Abraham, by faith, followed God’s commands and set out to from Haran to claim God’s promised land in Canaan, a 1000-mile journey.  While Abraham’s trust in God’s plan would be put to the test several times, there is no incident more prevalent than when the elderly and childless Abraham and Sarai, wanting to fulfil a temporary desire, and impatiently doubting God, cook up a scheme to speed up God’s timing by enlisting Hagar, an Egyptian servant, to bare Abraham’s first son.  As a result of this disobedience, God causes Abraham and Sarai to wait another 25 years until He fulfils His promise, when the now 100-year-old Abraham and the 90-year-old Sarai conceive Isaac.

Still, we are reminded of others, who in seeking for their own comfort, or out of doubt and fear, attempted to circumvent God’s commands to accomplish matters in their own strength and timing.   Another such person was Jonah, a prophet whom God selected and commanded to go to the pagan, idol worshipping Nineveh, and tell them to repent and trust in God.   But, Jonah, who hated the idol worshipping Ninevites and feared the task set before him, enacted his own plan to do the opposite of what God commanded.  Instead, he chose to flee on a ship in the opposite direction of Nineveh.  Well, we all know the results of Jonah’s scheme, it landed him in a storm, nearly shipwrecked, thrown overboard right into the mouth and awaiting belly of a great fish. Where he remained for three days, only to be spewed up by the fish on Nineveh’s shoreline, the very location he was fleeing.   Jonah eventually submits to God’s will.  Following God’s command, Jonah preached an proclaimed Nineveh’s destruction, and the people of Nineveh believed and repented. 

Next, is not an example of one person, rather an entire nation- Israel.  Throughout its history, we read that the nation of Isreal and many of its kings would “do what was right in their own eyes”.   What does this mean? What is right in “their own eyes” entail?  Often, it looks like Israel turning to legalism and thinking that the law is what saved the individual, the nation, or both.  It also included thinking that they were guaranteed salvation because they were of the bloodline of Abraham.  As a result, they often relied on their own works to satisfy their immediate needs, quell their immediate trials, or solve their temporary problems.  Rather than seeing the entirety of God’s plan through an eternal perspective and trusting that His ways are higher than our own (Isaiah 55: 8-9) and forgetting we are blessed when we trust in Him (Jeremiah 17: 5-7) the ruling class in Israel began to oppress their own people with laws that could not be kept and were burdensome.  

You see, in the immediate time around the fall in the Garden, it seemed that God’s plan may have been thwarted, but in understanding God’s omniscience and sovereignty we understand that the fall only set the stage for His great and redemptive work to come.  His redemptive work that was promised in Genesis 3 and the foretelling of His offspring that would “crush the head” of the advisory (Genesis 3: 15).  

In the immediate time of Abraham’s life culminating to only having one son with his wife Sarai, Isaac, it was hard to understand that “many nations” would come from such meager beginnings.  But the nation of Israel would arise from him and thus the lineage leading to the Messiah, through whom all nations are now blessed.  From this first nation, God brings His law through Moses, and the law serves to reveal God’s standards and His will for His people and demonstrating humankind’s need for a Savior.  

The birth of Jesus Christ comes at a pivotal time in God’s greater plan (Galatians 4:4).  He came at a time when the nation of Isreal was being lorded over by Rome as a secular government and by the Sanhedrin as a sacred government and the lives of the Iraelites were controlled by burdensome laws from both sides. 

In Jesus’ becoming flesh and dwelling among us (John 1: 14) God’s foretold plan was coming into focus, however, much of the nation of Isreal was so nearsighted, blinded by their immediate desire for an earthly king with hopes to becoming the nation they once were under King David, that they could not fully grasp that the Son of God was in their midst and He imbodied God’s greater kingdom and an eternal hope, not just for Israel, but the rest of the world.    

Jesus, the second Adam, born of the flesh from the line of Abraham, came to earth in perfect obedience to God’s eternal will and plan, being born of a virgin, living a perfect and sinless life, was wrongly tried and murdered upon a cross and then buried, spending three days in a tomb, like Jonah in the belly of a fish, rose from the tomb alive and defeated sin and thereby defeated death, the wage of sin (Romans 6:23), had crushed the serpents head and has fulfilled God’s promise to Abraham in making Abraham the father of many nations. 

Today, we struggle with the same mindset; unable to see the forest for the trees and having a mentality that only addresses or focusses the present issues, needs or trials.  We can focus so deeply on what is in front of us that we can miss God’s greater plan.   Yes, we must be faithful at the immediate tasks of our faith and yes, we should be seeking to glorify God today in all that we presently do.  But our faith should be invigorated and ever increasing when we pour over God’s word and look to see, that from the beginning, He is and always will be in control.  We should find hope in the truth that God’s plan is greater than our own and He is faithful to bring all that He starts to completion (Philippians 1:6).  We should find hope and relief in the fact His ways, which include His will and His plans, are so much higher than our own (Isaiah 55: 8-9).   We are set free in the truth that God’s plans are good, and He is faithful do to all that He has promised.