Our Unavoidable God

Walking With God by Costen J. Harrell (1928)

“The wrath of man shall praise thee.” Psalm 76: 10

God rules! Man may labor to set at naught his law, but notwithstanding, his providence orders the world. Sometimes when men sin most shamefully he turns their sin to his own glory. No crime among men can for dastardly meanness quite equal Judas’s betrayal of his Lord. Yet through the treachery of a disciple the depths of divine love were revealed on Calvary, and the fountains of grace opened wide for all mankind. God made the most dastardly crime to serve his end. We have often thought of how the goodness of man praises God, but we have not so often thought that he is so securely on his throne that he turns the wrath of man to his glory.
One of the persistent facts in the history of nations is that God is always taking control of the godless plans of men and using them to serve his purposes. The Romans built some twenty centuries ago an empire around the Mediterranean. They did it for no holy purpose. The empire was stupidly wicked. But the fact that the Western World, as it was then known, was unified under one government made it possible for the first missionaries of Christianity to reach the whole of the civilized world. Through the unity of the Roman Empire the Christian faith gained a foothold in the western World from which it has never been shaken. Down the highways, built for the swift movement of Roman legions, went the preachers of the cross proclaiming the gospel of the Nazarene. God used Caesar’s military map to spread the reign of the Prince of Peace.
The Mayflower which brought the Pilgrim Fathers to America “went on her next trip for a load of slaves.” Nevertheless, God through the iniquity of the slave-trade brought the black man under the influence of the gospel. Through his unchristian bonds the bondman learned of our liberty in Christ, and he may yet be the instrument of grace for the redemption of the Dark Continent.
The godless man suffers the consequences of his sin; he falls out of the line of God’s triumphant hosts. But our sovereign God will not let the sins of men prevent him from carrying out his purpose for mankind.
“Through the ages one increasing purpose runs,” and our wickedness cannot stop it. Alas for the man who rebels against God! His rebellion avails nothing except the loss of his soul, while the kingdom goes marching on. Nothing can dim God’s glory! Nothing can overrule his final purpose for mankind. He makes even the wrath of man to praise him. “Therefore will we not fear, though the earth be removed, and thought the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea.” And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth!”