God Will Do It His Way
DESPITE all the promises and complaints of men, God will do it his way. Do what? Bring in a righteous new world, a world of enduring peace, a world without worry, pain or death.
Politicians talk of doing what only God can do. Clergymen, instead of pointing out God’s way, all too often sound like politicians themselves. Declared Bishop G. Bromley Oxnam in a speech for the National Convocation of Methodist Youth in Lafayette, Indiana: “This will be called the century in which man abolished war, established economic justice and realized racial brotherhood.” But God’s Word says: “Behold the activities of Jehovah, how he has set astonishing events on the earth. He is making wars to cease to the extremity of the earth.”—Ps. 46:8, 9.
Human promises for building a peaceful new world have repeatedly failed. It is time, therefore, for lovers of righteousness to learn that God will do it his way: “I am creating new heavens and a new earth,” says Jehovah. Not concerning human promises but concerning God’s promise the apostle of Jesus Christ wrote: “There are new heavens and a new earth that we are awaiting according to his promise, and in these righteousness is to dwell.”—Isa. 65:17; 2 Pet. 3:13.
Christians need to learn that God will do it his way and in his time. Jehovah God is the great Timekeeper of the universe. When he promises something, it comes to pass unfailingly in his set time. Man cannot rush God. And yet sometimes professed Christians get to complaining at God’s time schedule. They may be suffering physically or in other ways and they long for the fulfillment of God’s promised new world wherein “death will be no more, neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be any more.” Such persons may think God slow concerning his promises. But we always need to keep in mind the words of the apostle Peter: “Jehovah is not slow respecting his promise, as some people consider slowness, but he is patient with you because he does not desire any to be destroyed but desires all to attain to repentance.”—Rev. 21:4; 2 Pet. 3:9.
Instead of counting God slow concerning his promise, benefit by his patience. Do the divine will now and help others to learn the divine will, that they may be spared through the destruction of this wicked world. Show that you are in harmony with God’s way of doing things by recognizing that we are living in the “last days,” the “time of the end” of this old world.—2 Tim. 3:1; Dan. 12:4, AV.
The Bible might be likened to a timetable, God’s timetable for carrying out his purpose. Why ignore this timetable, then? Why not pattern our lives after God’s way of doing things? Can we reverse the clock of the universe? We can deliberately ignore the physical facts and happenings that make up the great sign of the “last days,” but this does not change God’s time schedule. God has set a specific time for this set length of time called the “last days” to come to its end in the Armageddon climax. Concerning this time the Lord Jesus said: “Concerning that day and hour nobody knows, neither the angels of the heavens nor the Son, but only the Father.”—Matt. 24:36.
If we recognize that God will do it his way, we will not hope that the Bible timetable is wrong, that the “last days” will be a long period of time. Indeed, we are assured that it is only “a short period of time.” (Rev. 12:12) So how foolish it would be not to recognize and act on God’s way of doing things! Some persons seem to ignore God’s way deliberately, as a writer in The Christian Digest admitted concerning Christendom’s professed Christians: “We often say that we live in the last days, but our actions prove that we hope it isn’t so. The world has gone through many dark days. If only we could find just the right program of action we think we might push the clock back a century or so and go on with business as usual.”
“Business as usual” is a device many persons use for ignoring God’s way, that they may carry out their own desires. We should examine our motives. Are we postponing or ignoring the doing of the divine will because of “business as usual”? Because of the policy of “business as usual,” millions of persons will lose their lives. Just after commenting on the fact that Jehovah has set the “day and hour” for the Armageddon destruction of this world, the Lord Jesus Christ said: “Just as the days of Noah were, so the presence of the Son of man will be. For as people were in those days before the flood, eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark; and they took no note until the flood came and swept them all away, so the presence of the Son of man will be.”—Matt. 24:37-39.
Now is the time, then, not for “business as usual” but for living by the divine will, for “buying out the opportune time for yourselves, because the days are wicked. On this account cease becoming unreasonable, but go on perceiving what the will of Jehovah is.” (Eph. 5:16, 17) Do you buy out time for perceiving what Jehovah’s will is? Do you make time for learning Jehovah’s righteous ways? “Jehovah is righteous in all his ways and lovingly kind in all his works.” (Ps. 145:17) God’s way is not only the righteous way but the only way that will work.
That this world is not working most men will admit, but God’s new world will work. Not through human schemes, however, will this new world come about. The new world of righteousness comes at God’s hands, by means of his kingdom.
Let us work in harmony with God’s ways. Do not trust in man-made schemes; do not complain at God’s patience; do not ignore God’s ways because of “business as usual.” “Happy is everyone fearing Jehovah, who is walking in his ways.”—Ps. 128:1.