Are God’s plans ruined if we disobey?
Sometimes I wonder this. In the book of Esther we get a very clear answer in the case of God’s plans for the nations.
Mordecai, a godly Jew, gets word that there has been an edict published throughout the empire that it will be open season on all Jews in 11 months (4:1ff) – they will be all killed! He sends a message to his adopted daughter Esther who is Queen in the royal palace, asking her to plead with the king to change the edict. Queen Esther responds that the King has not called her for over a month and she has no idea when he will call her … as well she will be risking her life by entering the palace without being summoned.
Mordecai responds, ”Do not think that in the king’s place you will escape any more than all the other Jews. For if you keep silence at such a time as this, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another quarter, but you and your father’s family will perish. Who knows? Perhaps you have come to royal dignity for just such a time as this.”
Mordecai states that if Esther does not seek to save her people then God will use another person and way of delivering his people. But at the same time his final statement implies that it was God’s plan to use Esther to save her people. God knew the end result as well that Esther would be obedient and go to the king in faith. God’s universal plan for history is never thwarted by our disobedience.
In a different sense, God’s plan for our life is that we would receive salvation and if we reject him then “his plan” is “ruined” in one sense – though universally God’s plan of salvation is successful… many will be saved and God went over and above what is expected from him out of his love to bring people into his family.
God’s universal plans of protection, judgment and salvation cannot be thwarted by man or demon.
