Does God do our bidding?

Commit your works to Yahweh and your thoughts will be established.

Proverbs 16:3 CSB/Hebrew Interlinear

Does God do our bidding? We’ve got this notion in American Christianity that God is just this figurative Genie from a Disney movie that is there at our beck and call for any time we need him. A Sovereign and Providential God doesn’t work like that. We exist for God, God doesn’t exist for us. We tend to get that backward.

The God-Centeredness of God is a beautiful doctrine…

The God-Centeredness of God is a beautiful doctrine. When Joshua and the Israelites were getting ready to conquer Jericho, Joshua asks this question to God before they go in. Let’s take a look at Joshua 5:13-15 CSB:

When Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua approached him and asked, “Are you for us or for our enemies?” “Neither,” he replied. “I have now come as commander of the Lord’s army.” Then Joshua bowed with his face to the ground in homage and asked him, “What does my Lord want to say to his servant?” The commander of the Lord’s army said to Joshua, “Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did that.

Now you would have thought that God would have said, “of course I’m on your side, Joshua. I’ve made promises to be with you and that we would conquer these lands! Let’s do this!” But He doesn’t. Joshua asks Him, “who’s side are you on?” God replies, “Neither.” This is so important. God is on His own side, working out His own Sovereign will (see Ephesians 1:11-12). We are a part of this and within this Will, but God will see to it that this plan takes place (click ‘here‘ to follow a link to the article on the distinction of the different ‘Wills of God’).

We can really miss the mark… 

We are typically man-centered and not God-centered. Our reality and universe revolve around our daily plans, activities, and missions, not around God’s. We want God to work for our bidding. When He doesn’t, something must be wrong: maybe we didn’t pray hard enough, work hard enough, read enough of the Bible, etc. Some Bible translations actually translate Proverbs 16:3 to be something like this:

Commit your plans to the Lord, and your plans will succeed.

That’s how we would rather think through our opening verse: if I commit myself to God He will do what I want Him to do. It’s a bartering business arrangement. Rather, a better translation would be, “Commit your works to Yahweh and your thoughts will be established.” The difference is subtle, but in this translation, if I commit myself to the Lord, my thoughts will be established. God will change my thinking, my behavior, and my actions. God will change me to who He wants me to be, not God changing to who I want Him to be. The difference is subtle but extremely important.

-Austin