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Channel: @TakeUpTheCross
The Crook in the Lot, by Thomas Boston.
Consider the work of God: for who can make that straight which He has made crooked? ~ Ecclesiastes 7:13
When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; That which is crooked cannot be made straight: and that which is wanting cannot be numbered. Behold, he taketh away, who can hinder him? who will say unto him, What doest thou? If he cut off, and shut up, or gather together, then who can hinder him? Behold, he breaketh down, and it cannot be built again: he shutteth up a man, and there can be no opening. For the LORD of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? and his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back? ~ Psalm 8:3, Ecclesiastes 1:15, Job 9:12, Job 11:10, Job 12:14, Isaiah 14:27
Yea, before the day was I am he; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand: I will work, and who shall let it? 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: Calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executeth my counsel from a far country: yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it. ~ Isaiah 43:13, Isaiah 46:10-11
Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent. ~ John 6:29
And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou? ~ Daniel 4:35
Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? ~ Romans 9:19-20
"Consider the work of God: for who can make that straight which He has made crooked?"
In which words are proposed, 1. The remedy itself; 2. The suitableness of it.
The remedy itself is a wise eyeing of the hand of God in all we find to bear hard on us: "Consider the work of God," namely, in the crooked, rough, and disagreeable parts of your lot, the crosses you find in it. You see very well the cross itself. Yea, you turn it over and over in your mind and leisurely view it on all sides. You look to this and the other second cause of it, and so you are in a foam and a fret. But, would you be quieted and satisfied in the matter, lift up your eyes towards heaven, see the doing of God in it, the operation of His hand. Look at that, and consider it well; eye the first cause of the crook in your lot; behold how it is the work of God, His doing.
Such a view of the crook in our lot is very suitable to still improper risings of heart, and quiet us under them: "For who can make that straight which God has made crooked?" As to the crook in your lot, God has made it; and it must continue while He will have it so. Should you ply your utmost force to even it, or make it straight, your attempt will be vain: it will not change for all you can do. Only He who made it can mend it, or make it straight. This consideration, this view of the matter, is a proper means at once to silence and to satisfy men, and so bring them to a dutiful submission to their Maker and Governor, under the crook in their lot.
Now, we take up the purpose of the text under these three heads.
I. Whatever crook there is in our lot, it is of God's making.
II. What God sees fit to mar, no one will be able to mend in his lot.
III. The considering of the crook in the lot as the work of God, or of His making, is a proper means to bring us to a Christian deportment under it.
I. Whatever crook there is in our lot, it is of God's making.
Here, two things are to be considered, namely, the crook itself, and God's making of it.
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