The above verse in NKJV reads ‘which must shortly take place.’ There is a ‘must’ in the history of the world in that it cannot be otherwise. History has to happen this way. God guides and leads history. The Bible demonstrates this clearly, even when God’s name is not mentioned, as in the book of Esther. There is no fatalism in the Bible. Things proceed according to the secret counsel of God. There is a ‘must’ in God’s sacred plans. These things must happen. ‘So that the Scripture would be fulfilled’ is added sometimes.1 The Lord Jesus Christ had to pass through suffering in order to enter His glory.2 For centuries theologians have wrestled with the question as to how God’s plan of action relates to man’s responsibility. You are sometimes overwhelmed by the feeling: is this really necessary? Couldn’t it be otherwise? How can God allow these things to happen?
It is often only on hindsight that we may say: ‘In spite of everything, I am nevertheless glad and grateful that it happened the way it did.’ Then you see that even evil had to work together for good,3 but you should never give cheap answers to questions about why there is suffering. We can learn that from Job’s friends.4 And we can learn from Job himself. He did not accuse God of wrongdoing when his sons and daughters died because the house they were in collapsed.5 ‘Through all this Job did not sin nor did he blame God’ (Job 1:22), even though Job later lamented his lot, cursed the day he was born, and called God to account.6
In the end, Job was not given an explanation. He did receive an answer, however. He was able to see God’s inconceivable greatness: the creature in front of the Creator,7 and he was able to come to complete surrender. And in this complete surrender he found peace and blessing.8 ‘I have said too much already, I have nothing more to say’, Job 40:5 (New Living Translation, NLT).
‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts,’ says God.9 Paul says: ‘He, who did not spare His own Son.’10 World history will therefore continue to experience painful birth pangs, all the more as the birth of the new era and the breakthrough of the new Kingdom of God on earth, the regeneration, the renewal of all things comes closer.11 The Lord Jesus speaks about the beginning of birth pangs when He speaks about the signs of the times,12 and Paul says that destruction will come suddenly, like the birth pangs of a pregnant woman.13
These things have to happen, and with haste. The passage of time is speeding up. As if ‘time’ is in a pressure-cooker! But these final days will be shortened. ‘Unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.’ Jesus says in Matthew 24:22. The cries of distress by God’s children will become louder and louder. Justice will finally be done, however, and speedily, as in the story of the unjust judge and the persistent widow. ‘However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?’ (Luke 18:6–8). Will we persist in our faith? Do we have true faith?
Bible References
1.See, for example, Matthew 1:22, 2:23, 26:54, and 56; Luke 21:22, 22:37; John 19:36. 2.Luke 24:25–27 3.Romans 8:28 4.Job 42:7–9 5.Job 1:20–22 6.Job 3 and 13:17–28 7.Job 38–41 8.Job 42:5–6 and 10–17 9.Isaiah 55:8–9 10.Romans 8:32 11. Matthew 19:27–30 12.Matthew 24:8 13.1 Thessalonians 5:1–3
