7: Lessons from the Prophets — When Nations Rage and God Remains Sovereign
The prophets of the Old Testament lived through times of national unrest, foreign invasion, and moral collapse. Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Habakkuk all saw cities burn and societies unravel, yet they also saw the sovereign hand of God at work. “Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?” the psalmist asked (Psalm 2:1). The answer has never changed: the Lord sits in the heavens and holds the nations in His hand. The riots and protests of our day are not outside His control any more than the upheavals of ancient Israel or Judah were outside His control. Jeremiah warned a rebellious people that judgment was coming, yet he also offered the promise of a new covenant written on the heart (Jeremiah 31:31–34). Habakkuk cried out over the violence he saw, then learned to rejoice in the God of his salvation even when the fig tree did not blossom and there was no fruit on the vines (Habakkuk 3:17–18). These men did not pretend the chaos was insignificant, nor did they lose hope in the...