Is God in Everything?

But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive. GENESIS 50:20

Hannah Whitall Smith knew that one objection brings more people to a halt in the life of trust than any other. It is easy enough, they say, to submit to what comes from God. But most of my trials come from people — from their carelessness, their ignorance, their unkindness, their sin. God cannot be the author of those things. So how can I say Thy will be done about them? And what is the use of trusting my affairs to God if any foolish or malicious person can walk in and spoil them?

She took the objection seriously. In The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life she wrote that if it could not be answered, the whole life of faith would become an impossible theory, because nearly everything in life reaches us through human hands.

No second causes

Her answer was that, for the children of God, there are no second causes. Nothing reaches them except by their Father’s permission. She piled up the Scriptures: not a sparrow falls without Him, the hairs of our head are numbered, the Lord is our keeper, He shuts the mouths of lions.

Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. MATTHEW 10:29–30

Then she drew a careful line. “Man’s sin may cause the action. So, it can’t be called God’s will. But by the time it reaches us, it is God’s will.” The sin remains sin, and those who commit it are answerable for it. But it cannot touch us without first passing through the hands of God, and if He permits it, He means to use it for our good.

Joseph is her great example. Nothing could look more like the work of wicked men than his being sold into slavery by his brothers. And yet Joseph could look back and say:

So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt. GENESIS 45:8

The presence that surrounds

She told of a woman at a meeting who had struggled with exactly this question and asked God to show her whether He was really in everything. She saw, as in a vision, a great light advancing toward her and wrapping itself round everything, and seemed to hear, this is the presence of God. Within it she saw armies, storms, wild beasts and wicked men; but every one of them was enveloped by that presence, and nothing could reach her unless the presence parted to let it through. Then she saw the small annoyances of daily life — a cross look, a sharp word — and they too were wrapped in God.

Hannah did not build doctrine on the vision; she used it as a picture of what Scripture already says. She pointed to Elisha’s servant, terrified by the Syrian army round the city, until his eyes were opened.

And he answered, Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them. And Elisha prayed, and said, LORD, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the LORD opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha. 2 KINGS 6:16–17

I never supposes

Her favourite illustration of this teaching in practice was a poor woman named Nancy, who earned an uncertain living by daily labour and was always cheerful. A gloomy acquaintance tried to sober her: suppose you fell ill, suppose your employers moved away, suppose — and Nancy stopped her. “I never supposes.” The Lord was her shepherd, and she would not want; it was the supposing, she said, that was making her friend so miserable.

Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me. HEBREWS 13:5–6

Hannah claimed two practical fruits for this way of seeing. It makes us patient with those who annoy us, because we see them as instruments in the hands of a wise and loving Father. And it puts an end to grumbling, because Christians who would never dare to murmur against God feel quite free to murmur against people — until they realise that nothing reaches them from people that God has not allowed.

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. ROMANS 8:28

Where care is needed

This teaching is strong medicine, and it must be taken rightly.

First, it does not make God the author of evil. Hannah said so plainly, and Scripture says so more plainly still.

Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: JAMES 1:13

The cross is the supreme case: wicked hands crucified the Lord, and the same event was by the determinate counsel of God. Both are true, and neither cancels the other.

Second, accepting a trial from God’s hand does not mean accepting injustice passively. Joseph was a faithful servant in Potiphar’s house and in prison, but he also asked the butler to remember him and get him out. Seeing God in a situation does not forbid us from leaving an abusive home, reporting a crime, or fighting for the oppressed. Hannah herself spent years campaigning against drink and for the rights of women. God’s sovereignty over a wrong is not His approval of it, and it does not excuse us from resisting it.

Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. ISAIAH 1:17

Held with those two cautions, her teaching is a fortress. The soul that believes nothing can touch it except through the hands of its Father can face almost anything.

The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul. The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore. PSALM 121:7–8

FOR REFLECTION AND ACTION

1. Think of a present trial that has come through another person. Say over it: this has passed through my Father’s hands.

2. Notice where you allow yourself to grumble about people that you would never grumble about God.

3. Follow Nancy’s rule for a week: when you catch yourself supposing the worst about tomorrow, stop.

4. Ask whether there is a wrong in your life you should resist or report rather than simply endure. Seeing God in it does not mean doing nothing.

5. Pray for the person who has hurt you, as an instrument in God’s hand and as someone accountable to Him.

A PRAYER

Father, open my eyes, as You opened the eyes of Elisha’s servant, to see that Your presence surrounds me.

Nothing can reach me except through Your hands. What others mean for evil, You can turn to good, and I trust You to do it.

Keep me from grumbling at people I would never dare to grumble at You, and give me patience with those who try me.

Where I should resist wrong, give me courage; where I must endure, give me peace; and in both, let me find You. Amen.