God of the Unexpected

The God of the Unexpected

“So, from that day on they plotted to take his life.”

Thoughts on John 11:53

Irony, according to Daniel Webster is:


Or, to put it a bit more simply: Irony is when something happens that is opposite from what is expected.

I do understand that we are reading a book with “dual authorship.”

When we ask the question, “Did John write his book or did God write the book?”, the answer is always – yes! This is God’s book, God’s story. Every word. AND it is John’s book. John’s way of assembling the narrative. Every plot twist, every repeated theme, the stories he included. And the stories he left out - evidently there were lots of those (John 21: 25). The book is covered with John’s fingerprints.

And John is a creative writer. He writes with the clarity and cleverness that every good writer aspires to. But when you think about it, he had lots of time to – well - think about it.

Most scholars believe he wrote his gospel at around 90 A.D. All the other Gospels and Paul’s letters had already been written, copied, and in circulation for some time. Peter had been martyred, as had Paul. The temple had been destroyed. So, John has been thinking about writing this book for decades. Now, as an old man, he sits down (“carried along by the Holy Spirit”) to put it all together.

In my Sunday post HERE, my Big Idea line was this.

God always has the last word. And when people think they’re outsmarting God, they’re usually just helping Him finish the story.

That is true in John’s gospel. And he seasons the book with the “ironic” to make his point. But John’s book is not the only one that uses multiple plot devices: irony, foreshadowing, cliffhangers, arc words, Chekhov’s Gun (Google it).

The text of the Bible is filled with these things and the (A/a)uthor does it on purpose.

Think about how many things looked as if they were going one way and turned out “way different” than they way they looked at first.

Joseph’s Brothers – The Betrayal That Saved Them

• The Plan: Joseph’s brothers decide to silence the dreamer once and for all. They sell him into slavery. Curtain down, story over.
• The Result: Joseph rises in Egypt, saves the very brothers who betrayed him, and declares, “You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good” (Genesis 50:20).
• Punchline: They thought they’d closed the book; God had only just turned the page.
  
  

Pharaoh – Funding His Own Defeat

• The Plan: Pharaoh orders Hebrew boys thrown into the Nile. A ruthless strategy to strangle Israel’s future.
• The Result: One baby floats into Pharaoh’s palace, raised with Pharaoh’s food, Pharaoh’s money, and Pharaoh’s education. His name? Moses.
• Punchline: Pharaoh became the unwitting patron of his own downfall. The Author does love irony.
  
  

Balaam – Curses Turn into Blessings

• The Plan: Balaam is hired to curse Israel. A tidy business plan.
• The Result: Every time he opens his mouth, blessings spill out instead.
• Punchline: Imagine trying to insult someone and ending up writing them a love letter.
  
  

Haman – Building the Wrong Gallows

• The Plan: Haman builds gallows to hang Mordecai, convinced he’s “got this”.
• The Result: The gallows end up holding Haman instead, while Mordecai rises in honor (Esther 7).
• Punchline: The man who thought he held the pen became “the author of his own demise.”

Jonah – Running the Wrong Way

• The Plan: Jonah buys a ticket in the opposite direction; sure he’s escaped God’s call.
• The Result: Three days in a fish later, Jonah is belched back onto the stage. His reluctant sermon sparks revival in Nineveh.
•  Punchline: Jonah tried to run out of the story. God just wrote him into a bigger one (Matthew 12:39-4; 16:4,17; Luke 11:29-32)

Paul’s Chains – Prison Publishing

• The Plan: Paul’s enemies lock him up to keep him quiet. Case closed.
• The Result: From prison, he writes letters that still preach today—Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Philemon (perhaps 2 Timothy)
• Punchline: Rome chained Paul in; God used the chains as a desk for New Testament epistles.

The Cross – The Ultimate Plot Twist

•  The Plan: Religious leaders decide that killing Jesus will end His influence. Problem solved.
• The Result: The cross becomes the center of God’s salvation plan. His death is life for the world.
• Punchline: They wrote “The End.” God scribbled, “To be continued…” three days later.

Human plan: save the nation by killing Jesus.

God’s plan: save the world by letting them.

God always has the last word. And when people think they’re outsmarting God, they’re usually just helping Him finish the story.