Now I want you to picture to yourselves an earthly father gathering his
children around him before he took a journey.
He told them he would only be away a month, and at the end of that time
it would be holiday time, and they could all prepare for a visit to the
seaside.
He bade them get everything packed up; and he said he had engaged a
house at a certain place, and had arranged with an experienced boatman
to be at their service all day long.
He had hired a pony carriage for their mother, and everything was all
ready when he should come home.
You can imagine how delighted the children were, and how they talked of
nothing else but "Father's plan" for the whole month.
But did all this ever happen?
No; not one of these "plans" came to pass.
The cloud of war came that summer, and darkened all the bright prospect.
That visit to the seaside never came off. Instead, their father was
detained in a foreign country for months and months; the lodgings were
shut up, for the coast was in danger; the boatmen had to join the
Navy; the holidays came, indeed, but an epidemic at the school spoilt
all plans for many months, and the children had to learn, and so had
the dear mother and father, what bitter disappointment means. And yet
nothing seemed more certain than "Father's plan."
But there is One Whose Throne is above the highest Heavens; and when
He plans, there is no mistake; no war can hinder it; no illness nor
misfortune can prevent the carrying out of what He purposes.
In chapter xlvi, of Isaiah we read what God says about this, and it is
a very solemn verse—
"Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none
else; I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the
beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done,
saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure . . . I
have purposed it, I will also do it."
When we look into our Bibles, and begin to think about the things
which God has told people beforehand, and which have come to pass,
we are amazed to find how many there are, and how wonderful are the
fulfilments.