Seeming contradictions

In the women's meeting last night, we had an interesting discussion about God's sovereignty, specifically accepting the painful providences He ordains for our lives.  Often those providences are seeming contradictions of scriptural promises or statements. If so, what do we do?  Do we still trust the Word?  Do we still trust God?

There is a temptation to "get God off the hook" by viewing the circumstance as being caused by man or Satan.  But if you take it to its logical conclusion, you end up with a God who is not completely sovereign. He wants A to take place, but B has happened, and He was unable to prevent its occurrence.  Also the gradation of "allowing" versus "ordaining" still implies, to me, a God who needs a backup because He was somehow prevented from exercising the original plan. Either way, He becomes subordinate to something else, thus making Him less than God.

I wrestled with this issue when my ex- walked out on our marriage. Scripture clearly says God hates divorce, and yet there was no divine intervention to save the marriage. I don't know how many times I asked the Lord, sometimes in great frustration, why He was allowing this seeming contradiction.  But after countless tearful prayers, I came to accept His absolute sovereignty over all things, even my divorce, through the help of these words by Jeremiah Burroughs (1599-1646).

Burroughs and his flock were also in a contradictory circumstance.  The plague was spreading through London, and yet it says in Psalm 91, "There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling."

Here is his response:

When God makes such a promise to his people, yet still it must be with this reservation, that God must have liberty for these three things.

1. That notwithstanding his promise, he will have liberty to make use of anything for your chastisement.

2. That he must have liberty, to make use of your wealth, or liberties, or lives, for the furtherance of his own ends; if it is to be a stumbling block to the wicked and ungodly men.  God must have liberty, though he has made a promise to you he will not release the propriety he has in your possessions and lives.

3. God must have sufficient liberty to make use of what you have, to show that his ways are unsearchable, and his judgments past finding out. God reserves these three things in his hand still.

And:

Whenever the plague or pestilence comes to those who are under such a promise, it is for some special and notable work, and God requires them to search and examine in a special manner, to find out his meaning; there is so much to be learned in the promise that God has made concerning the particular evil, that the people of God may come to quiet and content their hearts in this affliction.  I read in this Psalm that God has made a promise to his people, to deliver them from the plague and pestilence, and yet I find it has come.  It may be that I have not made use of my faith in this promise heretofore; and if God brings afflictions upon me; yet he will make it up some other way.  God made a promise to deliver me, or at least to deliver me from all the evil of it; now if this thing does befall me, and yet I have a promise of God, certainly the evil of it is taken away. This promise tells me that if it does befall me yet it is for some notable end, and because God has a use for my life , and intends to bring about his glory some way that I do not know of.

from The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment, Jeremiah Burroughs, Banner of Truth Trust, 2003 (originally published 1648), pgs. 71-72.