God in Everything
by C. H. Mackintosh
But as the ship was sailing along, suddenly the Lord
flung a powerful wind over the sea, causing a
violent storm that threatened to send them
to the bottom!
Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to
swallow Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and
three nights!
And the Lord God prepared a gourd to
grow there, and soon it spread its broad leaves over Jonah's head, shading
him from the sun. This eased some of his discomfort, and Jonah was very
grateful for the gourd. But God also prepared a
worm! The next morning at dawn the worm ate through the stem of
the plant, so that it soon died and withered away. And as the sun grew hot,
God sent a scorching east wind to blow on
Jonah. The sun beat down on his head until he grew faint and wished to
die. "Death is certainly better than this!" he exclaimed. Jonah 1:4,
17; 4:6-8
Nothing so much 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, if only the ear be circumcised to hear,
and the mind spiritual to understand the message. If we lose sight of this
valuable truth, life, in many instances at least, will be but a dull
monotony, presenting nothing beyond the most ordinary circumstances. On the
other hand, if we could but remember, as we start each day on our course,
that the hand of our Father can be traced in every scene—if we could
see in the smallest, as well as in the most weighty circumstances, traces of
the divine presence—how full of deep interest would each day's history be
found!
The Book of Jonah illustrates this truth in a very marked
way. There we learn, what we need so much to remember, that there is nothing
ordinary to the Christian; everything is extraordinary. The most commonplace
things, the simplest circumstances, exhibit in the history of Jonah, the
evidences of divine intervention. To see this instructive feature, it is not
needful to enter upon the detailed exposition of the Book of Jonah, we only
need to notice one expression, which occurs in it again and again, namely,
"the Lord prepared".
In chapter one the Lord sends out a
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. Jonah was the one who
needed to be taught; for him the messenger was sent forth. The poor pagan
mariners, no doubt, had often encountered a storm; to them it was nothing
new, nothing special, nothing but what fell to the common lot of seamen; 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.
Following Jonah a little further, we perceive another
instance of what we may term, 'seeing 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 prepared a great
fish." Here, too, we see that there is
nothing ordinary to the child of God. A great fish was nothing uncommon;
there are many such in the sea; yet did the Lord prepare one for Jonah, in
order that it might be the messenger of God to his soul.
Again, in chapter four, 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 sea, and he therefore needed a fresh message from
God—"And the Lord prepared a gourd."
This is very instructive. There was surely nothing uncommon in the mere
circumstance of a gourd; other men might see a thousand gourds, and,
moreover, might sit beneath their shade, and yet see nothing extraordinary
in them. 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,
according to the design of God, the prophet was passing. The gourd now, like
the great fish before, though very different in its kind, was the messenger
of God to his soul. "So Jonah was exceeding glad for 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—which made him wish to be gone.
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 would then long
as ardently to get away from those times of pressure and sorrow. Jonah while
he sat beneath the shadow of the gourd, thought not of departing, and the
very fact of his being "exceeding glad for the gourd" proved how much he
needed that special messenger from the Lord; it served to make manifest the
true condition of his soul, when he uttered the words, "Take, I beseech You,
my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live!" The Lord
can make even a gourd the instrument for developing the secrets of the human
heart. Truly the Christian can say, God is in everything. The tempest
roars, and the voice of God is heard, a gourd springs up in silence, and the
hand of God is seen. 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 the more strikingly the greatness of
our Father's mind. He can prepare a worm, and He can prepare a vehement east
wind, and make them both, though so unlike, conducive to His great designs.
In a word, the spiritual mind sees God in everything.
The worm, the whale, and the tempest, all are 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! Who would have thought that a worm and a scorching east wind could
be joint agents in doing a work of God? Yet so it was! Great and small are
only terms in use among men, and cannot apply to Him "who stoops down to
behold the things that are in heaven," as well as "the things that are on
earth." They are all alike to Him "who sits on the circle of the earth."
Jehovah can count the number of the stars, and while He does so, He can take
knowledge of a falling sparrow. He can make the whirlwind His chariot, and a
broken heart His dwelling place. Nothing is great or small with God.
The believer, therefore, must not look upon anything as
ordinary, for God is in everything. True, he may have to pass through the
same circumstances—to meet the same trials—to encounter the same reverses as
other men; but he must not meet them in the same way, nor interpret them on
the same principle; 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, or the death of a friend, should all be regarded as
divine messengers to his soul.
So also, when we look around in the world, we should see
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
every-day life exhibit nothing extraordinary, but only such as happen to
other men. But we must not yield to him in this. We must start on our course
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 has given me, shall I not drink it?" thus
recognizing in the fullest manner, that God is in everything.