The second principle grows out of and naturally follows the first principle. God not only has a plan, but He also carries out that plan. The second principle is that God is always in total control of all things and is constantly at work in accomplishing His plan (Hab. 1:1-11; Isa. 10:5,6).

Sometimes God's plan calls for revival and there will be a day of Pentecost when thousands of souls will be swept into the Kingdom of God. There are other times that His plan calls for judgment. Isaiah calls God's judgment His "strange work," but it is nonetheless God's work. Just as there will be a day of Pentecost when thousands are saved, so there will be a day of judgment when a universal flood sweeps nearly the whole human race into everlasting damnation. We must see that God is just as much the author of one as He is the other. Whether it is Pentecost or whether it is the Flood, whether they are the events of Acts 2 or the events of Genesis 6, God is in total control and is working out His own plan. The rain and full harvest, as well as the drought and empty barns, are from the hand of the same sovereign God. We must learn to praise Him under both circumstances (Hab. 3:17-19).

The first text of Scripture we want to look at to show this truth is in the book of Habakkuk. The book of Habakkuk was written primarily to give us the Biblical perspective of history. The prophet deals with a problem very much in evidence today. He tackles the question, "How can a holy God allow wicked men to triumph over the righteous?" Wicked men do triumph, and it is usually at the expense of the righteous. We could put the question another way, "Why does God sometimes appear to be deaf to the prayers of His people when they cry to Him in time of trouble and confusion?" Let us look at the text for our answers:

"The burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see. O Lord, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear! even cry out unto thee of violence, and thou wilt not save! Why dost thou shew me iniquity, and cause me to behold grievance? for spoiling and violence are before me: and there are those that raise up strife and contention. Therefore the law is slacked, and judgment doth never go forth: for the wicked doth compass about the righteous; therefore wrong judgment proceedeth. Behold ye among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marvelously: for I will work a work in your days, which ye will not believe, though it be told you. For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, which shall march through the breadth of the land, to possess the dwelling places that are not theirs." Habakkuk 1:1-6

As you read this, notice in verse 2 that Habakkuk is praying to God and accusing Him of either not hearing or not answering his cries. Habakkuk is pleading for God to send revival, but instead of revival it appears that God does nothing and even allows things to get worse. Habakkuk looks around and sees violence, corruption, and injustice on every hand, and God doesn't seem to be doing anything about it. Habakkuk wants revival to come, but all he sees is increasing lawlessness. Verse 3 states that God forces Habakkuk to look at the awful situation. It is as if God insists that he see and acknowledge the violence on every hand. "I see injustice; I see wickedness in all areas of society; I hear men blaspheming God; and worst of all, it appears that God is doing nothing." In verse 4 Habakkuk concludes that "Therefore the law is slack." He describes the society as one controlled by lawlessness, where the wicked man, if he has enough money, can get away with anything. Habakkuk is describing a situation exactly like the lawless society of today. In the first four verses you see his accusation against God, and "accusation" is the correct word to use. Habakkuk is accusing God of either being deaf or else not powerful enough to hear and answer his prayers. God appears to be either unable or unwilling to do anything about the awful situation in society, and Habakkuk seems to be wasting his time praying.

In verse 5 God answers Habakkuk, and His answer is harder to understand than His silence. Now remember, Habakkuk is praying about God's own covenant people. He is talking about the nation of Israel. I want you to particularly notice in verse 5 where God says, "I will work a work in your days." Then in verse 6 God says, "Lo, I raise up the Chaldeans." God responds to Habakkuk and, in effect, says, "I am very much at work, and I am not deaf, blind, or helpless." Verse 5 is very amusing: God says, "When I tell you what the work is which I am doing, you will not believe me," and sure enough, when God tells Habakkuk what He was about to do, poor Habakkuk is more upset than he was before. He was first perplexed by God's apparent inactvity, but now his major problem is with God's announced activity. God's purposes seem worse than His silence. Exactly what was God about to do? At that very moment God was strengthening the Chaldean nation and moving them to invade the nation of Israel. The Chaldeans would be God's instrument of chastisement upon Israel; that is clear from the text. The Chaldeans are coming, and God Himself is responsible for sending them.

Most TV preachers would have said, "That is a lie because God is a good God and something good is going to happen to you today!" It was true that the invasion by the Chaldeans was going to be used by God for good purposes; in fact, the terrible times would be the means of bringing repentance, and thus, the answer to Habakkuk's prayers for revival. However, such a God and such methods would never fit into today's concept of God and His sovereignty. We simply must get into our minds that when the Chaldeans come, it is not "the devil sending them" to mess up our party; it is God, Himself, Who is sending them. It doesn't matter what the thing is that perplexes us today; if it happens, then God's hand is in it and over it, or it would not have happened. God sent it to accomplish something. We must seek His face and ask Him for grace to learn whatever lesson He is seeking to teach us through this particular trial, instead of blaming it on the devil.

Blaming all of our difficulties on the devil is a backhanded way of strengthening our own self-righteous conceit: "We really must be super-spiritual Christians to be attacked so strongly by the devil." Until you see the hand of God in all things, you will fight both God and the very purpose for which He sends the problem. There is nothing so tragic as listening to a sincere, but misguided, believer blame the devil for the fruits of his own stupidity; he then feels the devil did it just because he was so spiritual! It never occurs to him that he was believing and expecting something that God never promised, and at the same time was refusing to accept his circumstances as having been sent by God. His bad theology keeps him from hearing God speak to him in his trials; and worse yet, it hardens him in his false spirituality.

Do you see what the text is saying? "I (not 'the devil') will work a work," and this work is going to be a work of judgment. Notice again the emphasis in verse 6, "I (not 'the devil') raise up the Chaldeans." God is the One sending that awful nation against His chosen people. Later on in the chapter God shows that He is also going to judge the Chaldeans for what they did, but that comes up just a bit later in another principle.

Because this second principle is so important, and since it is the foundation of everything that follows, let me give you another passage that teaches the same truth. In the tenth chapter of Isaiah we have at least three of the principles we want to discuss. The second principle we have been looking at is found in verses 5 and 6:

"O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation. I will send him against an hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets." Isaiah 10:5,6

Instead of using the Chaldean, God is now using the Assyrian. In verse 5 God declares that the rod in the hand of the Assyrian is really His rod. The Assyrian may be the one who is doing the clubbing (verse 15), but behind the Assyrian is the hand and purpose of God. In verse 6 God says, "I will send him (that is, the Assyrian) against a hypocritical nation, against the people of my wrath, I give him a charge." God, not the devil, is sending the Assyrian against Israel. God says, "I am giving this charge to the Assyrian." Now I am sure you see how clearly this passage teaches the second principle that I am discussing. No matter what is going on or who is doing the acting, God is always sovereignly at work. He is in total control and He is working out His own ordained purposes. The most dangerous man to listen to in such times is the "sweet, pious soul" that says, "My God is too loving and kind to do anything like that." Unfortunately, some of these dear people are probably right. "Their God" would not act like that simply because "their God" grew out of their own emotional imagination instead of out of the words of Scripture.