August 19, 2007 | 12:00am
“But it is God who judges: He brings one down he exalts another”. - Psalm 75: 7
You can see the hand of God guiding, protecting and preserving, long before the world ever takes note of some individuals. Such was the situation described in Robert Lewis Taylor’s book on Winston Churchill. At twenty-three, Churchill was sent by the military to Egypt. But instead of being placed in command as he anticipated, Churchill was sent to supervise supplies, including the mess hall.
Robert Grenfell, the chap who was given the command that Churchill wanted, wrote home to his family saying, “Fancy how lucky I am. Here I have got the troop that would have been Winston’s, and we are to be the first to start.”
Writes Taylor, “A few days later, in the terrible charge at Omdurman, Grenfell was pulled off his horse and cut to pieces by a howling Dervish mob.” Had Churchill taken command of the group, which was his desire, there would have been no Winston Churchill to lead Britain and help defeat Fascism in World War II. As Taylor notes: “History is violently altered by very small decisions.”
You can argue that God is sovereign, and should Churchill have died at Omdurman instead of Robert Greenfell, He could have raised up another to do His bidding.
God is sovereign and He guides the affairs of humankind as we move towards the ultimate rule of God on Earth. The Bible clearly says, “In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will” (Ephesians 1:11).
As William Shakespeare put it, “There’s a divinity that shapes our ends, rough hew them as we will.”
