“The Lord of hosts has sworn: As I have planned, so shall it be, and as I have purposed, so shall it stand.”
– Isaiah 14:24
Now this is a verse that comes in the middle of Isaiah prophesying, so God is speaking through Isaiah about judgment concerning Assyria. It’s in the middle of passages about judgment upon many different nations. The whole point, though, is that we know what Isaiah is prophesying. What God is speaking through Isaiah will happen.
So this isn’t just a guess about the future, this is a promise about the future. The reason we know it’s a promise is because God, whatever He plans and whatever He purposes, He accomplishes. God has all power, all authority. This is part of what it means for God to be sovereign. It means that He, in His providence, plans and purposes certain things, and He brings those things to pass.
Isaiah 14:24 Sees God’s Promises in His Word
God, in His providence, plans and purposes certain things, and He brings those things to pass. We can trust His promises.
“As I have planned, so shall it be, and as I have purposed, so shall it stand.” Now here’s why that is so encouraging to us today, because we look all over God’s word and we see His plans and His purposes. He purposes. We’ve seen in different parts of Isaiah God’s purpose to save people from among the nations.
We know that that’s His purpose and it will happen. We know that God plans to preserve His people to the end, to bring them into full and final redemption, into communion with Him forever in Heaven. That’s not just a “maybe this will happen in the future,” that’s a definite “this will happen in the future,” because God has planned it. He has purposed it, and it shall be. It shall stand.
Isaiah 14:24 Tells Us We Can Trust in Those Promises Because God is Sovereign
You apply that to all of God’s promises in the Bible. He promises so many different things, and we can trust in those promises because he is sovereign. What He says happens, period. What He says He will do. He will be faithful to do. So just think about His promises in your life. I think about promises that God will be with us in the midst of the struggle, that God will strengthen us, and He will help us, and He will uphold us.
We can know He will do these things. I can only imagine some of the people who are listening to this right now are walking through some difficult things right now, and maybe even uncertainty. You don’t know what’s going to happen today, or tomorrow, or next week in your life, or your family, or your workplace, or whatever it might be.
This Verse Leads Us to Find Certainty in God
I just want to encourage you, in a world that is filled with uncertainty, look up and see the God who is certain. The God who plans and purposes. You think about one of those plans, Romans 8:28, “God is working all things together for the good of those who love Him, and have been called according to His purpose.”
God has a purpose to conform us more to the image of Christ … that’s Romans 8:29–30, the verses right after Romans 8:28 … and He is going to work all things together toward that purpose for the good of those who love Him. So we pray with confidence, with a humble confidence before God. Oh, God, we trust in you. We trust that your plans and your purposes will be accomplished, and we trust that your plans and your purposes ultimately are good for us. We don’t always understand them. Lord, we don’t understand why we walk through this or that, why this or that happens to us.
This Verse Challenges Us to Find Rest in God
I think about that in people’s lives right now that I imagine there’s just some questions, “Why is this happening, God? I pray in the midst of those challenges that people are walking through, God, that they would be able to rest in your ultimate plan, in your ultimate purpose to work all these things together for the good of those who love you and have been called according to your purpose. So we embrace you for the confidence we can have.
That promise in Romans 8:28, in addition to scores of other promises in the Bible, those promises are absolutely true, absolutely dependable, that we can trust in them, that what you have promised, what you have planned, and what you have purposed will be, period. Thank you for this confidence, O God. We praise you, and we pray for trust in your sovereign plans and purposes for our lives. We pray for that in Jesus’ name. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
