The Purpose That Is Purposed

“This is the purpose that is purposed with regard to the whole earth, and this is the hand that is stretched out over all the nations. For the LORD of hosts has purposed, and who will annul it? His hand is stretched out, and who will turn it back?”—Isaiah 14:26-27

This remarkable text follows on the heels of God’s promise to put an end to Assyria’s plan for world domination and is a model for all that God has determined to do on the earth. His strategies and tactics alone are purposed and perfected: “The LORD of hosts has purposed, and who will annul it?” (Vs. 27).

This is a solid fact to hold fast in the face of the current gaggle of conspiracy theories. We’re told, for example, that Facebook, Amazon and Google are an unholy trinity contriving to unite us under a one-world government. Efforts to quarantine church-goers during the Corvid-19 pandemic are attempts to isolate them from the fellowship of believers and a first step toward shuttering all places of worship. Plots and counterplots abound.

Some of these schemes could exist, I suppose, though eighty-seven years of living have taught me that no collection of flesh-governed individuals can hold their stuff together very long. Evil is inherently unstable and disruptive. The best laid plans of mortal men soon fall apart at the seams. 

So Isaiah warns us, “Do not call conspiracy everything this people regard as conspiracy. Do not fear what they fear” (Isaiah 8:12). We’re encouraged to look past our fear to God, who has the first and last word on everything that happens here on earth. History is His-story from beginning to end. 

So, we can be at peace when rumors of sedition swirl around us, for we believe and know that our Father in Heaven controls every “purpose that is purposed.” Thus his children need not fear. 

David Roper

5.15.20