AP

Acts 18:1-4  After this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth.  There he met a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had ordered all Jews to leave Rome.  Paul went to see them, and because he was a tentmaker as they were, he stayed and worked with them.  Every Sabbath he reasoned in the synagogue, trying to persuade Jews and Greeks.

I find it encouraging as I read the Scriptures to find countless little instances in the historical narrative of events where our Sovereign God is using ‘freewill’ decisions of men and women to fulfil his divine purposes.

When Aquila and Priscilla, ‘decided’ to make a living out of tentmaking, who would have thought that this would have led to their connecting up with the Apostle paul, which in turn would lead to their having a very significant impact on the maturing of Apollos’s theological understanding and usefulness in the development of the Early Church?

When the pagan Roman Emeror, Claudius, woke up one morning and ‘decided’ that having Jewish influence present in his city might be a threat to his ‘Pax Romana’ (peace of Rome), he could not have known that this ‘decision’, along with the whole Jewish Diaspora, would play a vital role in the spread of the Gospel of Christ throughout the world.

The apostle Paul’s own background as an ardent, Law-upholding Pharisee put him in the box seat for “every Sabbath reason[ing] in the synagogue, trying [and so often succeeding] to persuade Jews and Greeks”.

Each of these historical events and situations, in its own way, would have been somewhat distressing for all those personally affected by its fallout, but the overall outcome, just like everything else that happens in our (ie our Sovereign Creator’s) world is serving his ultimate eternal purposes, and he has already informed us quite clearly in his Word what these are as we wait for the glorious, victorious Return of the Lord Jesus Christ as King and Judge.

It is good and helpful for me, when I find myself struggling with God’s often strange and very perplexing Providence in my little corner of his Plan as one of his many ‘redeemed-by-his-grace-alone’ children, to be reminded by clear historical evidence that I can “know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).

“God moves in a mysterious way his wonders to perform; he plants his footsteps in the sea and rides upon the storm. … Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take – the clouds ye so much dread are big with mercy, and shall break in blessings on your head.  Judge not the Lord by feeble sense but trust him for his grace; behind a frowning providence he hides a smiling face.” (William Cowper – who suffered quite seriously from depression!)

– Bruce Christian