By Femi Aribisala
Amos asks a compelling question. He says: “If a trumpet is blown in a city, will not the people be afraid? If there is calamity in a city, will not the Lord have done it?” (Amos 3:6).
God is the uncaused cause of everything. Nothing ever happens that He did not orchestrate. He is the beginning of everything and the ending of everything. Therefore, we know that although diseases are not the work of God, it was God who commissioned the devil to send coronavirus into the world.
The question then is why. Why did God send death and destruction into the world? The answer is far simpler than many realise. Everything God does, good or bad, is for one reason and one reason only. God does everything for his glory. There is nothing that He does that is not for His glory.
Glory of God
God created man for His glory. He says: “Bring all who claim me as their God, for I have made them for my glory. It was I who created them.” (Isaiah 43:7). Therefore, He is committed to extracting every ounce of his own glory from our lives.
That is why He puts us in situations and circumstances that require us to pray to Him. When we do this, He is glorified in answering our prayers. Accordingly, Jesus says: “Whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.” (John 14:13-14).
God sent coronavirus to the world so that His name may be glorified. He says: “Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me.” (Psalm 50:15). That is also why we give testimonies of the goodness of God. When we do so, we glorify God.
God sent Jesus on earth for the sake of His glory. Jesus came to ensure that God is glorified on earth. He came: “To console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.” (Isaiah 61:3).
When Jesus finished His assignment, He said to God the Father: “I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do.” (John 17:4).
Glory of righteousness
God hands us over to be tempted by the devil so that His name may be glorified by our righteousness. That is why He invited the devil into Job’s affairs. This makes Job’s friends some of the most ignorant people masquerading as “believers” in the bible. They say so many ignorant things that, in the end, God requires Job to pray for them so He would not deal harshly with them.
Just listen to this nonsense. Eliphaz the Temanite asks: “Can a man be profitable to God, though he who is wise may be profitable to himself? Is it any pleasure to the Almighty that you are righteous? Or is it gain to Him that you make your ways blameless?” (Job 22:2-3).
Elihu also expresses the same ignorance. He says to Job: “If you sin, what do you accomplish against (God)? Or, if your transgressions are multiplied, what do you do to Him? If you are righteous, what do you give Him? Or what does He receive from your hand? Your wickedness affects a man such as you, and your righteousness a son of man.” (Job 35:6-8).
These foolish men do not know that every sin is against God. They don’t know that every time we sin, we grieve God profoundly. If our actions and inactions don’t affect God, Jesus would not have wept over Jerusalem; neither would He have wept at the grave of Lazarus.
Resisting temptations
Of course, a man can be profitable to God, after all, God created man for a reason. Of course, it gives pleasure to God when a man is righteous. God created man for His glory.
Therefore, God is glorified when a man is righteous. The whole reason why God handed over Job to Satan was because He wanted to be glorified in Job. The righteousness of Job glorifies God. God even boasts about it: “Then the Lord said to Satan, ‘Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?’” (Job 1:8).
I repeat: the singular reason for every action and inaction of God is that His name may be glorified. It is the sole objective of God. By the same token, the singular objective of the devil is that God should not be glorified.
Therefore, the devil answers God: “Does Job fear God for nothing? Have You not made a hedge around him, around his household, and around all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But now, stretch out Your hand and touch all that he has, and he will surely curse You to Your face!” (Job 1:9-11).
Every time we walk in righteousness, we glorify God. Every time we resist temptation, we glorify God. But every time we sin, we glorify the devil. Therefore, the devil will bring adversity and tell us to curse God and die. He will create problems and encourage us to sin and deny God.
Children of God’s glory
As children of God, we must be committed to the glory of God. We must be determined that God should be glorified. So, at every opportunity, we must give glory to God. In every situation, we must be determined that God must be glorified.
We must not talk in a way that does not glorify God. We must not act in a way that does not glorify God. We must not walk in a way that does not glorify God. We must not think in a way that does not glorify God. We must not dress in a way that does not glorify God. We must not go to places that don’t glorify God.
We must not seek our own glory. Jeremiah says to Baruch: “Do you seek great things for yourself? Do not seek them.” (Jeremiah 45:5). Once we seek our own glory, we have denied the glory of God: “To seek one’s own glory is not glory.” (Proverbs 25:27)
If we accept glory from men, we are denying the glory of God. Jesus says: “I receive not glory from men.” (John 5:41-43).
God is going to destroy every other glory except His own; ‘The Lord of hosts has purposed it, to bring to dishonor the pride of all glory, to bring into contempt all the honorable of the earth.” (Isaiah 23:9).
But let your light so shine that men may see your good works and glorify God, the Father in heaven, and not you. Jesus says: “This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.” (John 15:8).
