A “divine appointment” is a “divine choice” that God makes and as we will see, it can refer to the choice of individuals or nations. It can even refer to appointing certain events as we see in Acts 17:31, “Because He (God) has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man who He has ordained.” Before we list other passages that speak of “divine appointments with God” it is vital that we see that God is SOVEREIGN. His being sovereign means that He is in control of the universe He created and thus He has the right to rule the universe as He sees fit. In order to do this, He makes “divine choices” that will further His purposes and will.

Let’s look at a passage that deals with His divine choice of individuals to salvation. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He CHOSE US IN HIM BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, ACCORDING TO THE GOOD PLEASURE OF HIS WILL” (Ephesians 1:3-5). Here we see that God CHOSE or APPOINTED certain individuals to be blessed. He did this “before the foundation of the world”; in other words, before anyone had been created. It is impossible for us to understand what caused God to choose some people instead of others, but we can rest assured that His choices were made “according the good pleasure of His will,” which means they were made according to God’s perfect wisdom and love, and according to His purpose to glorify His Son. We know that this passage includes the thought of choosing individuals to salvation, for Paul writes of this in 2nd Thessalonians 2:13, “But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because GOD FROM THE BEGINNG CHOSE YOU FOR SALVATION, through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth.” It is a most precious and humbling truth to realize (after we have been saved) that we came to “belief of the truth” BECAUSE GOD CHOSE US. This is confirmed in Acts 13:48, “And as many as HAD BEEN APPOINTED TO ETERNAL LIFE BELIEVED.”

God has made other sovereign choices (appointments). Listen to what God said to the nation of Israel in Deuteronomy 7:6, “For you are a holy people to the LORD your God; the LORD your God HAS CHOSEN YOU TO BE A PEOPLE FOR HIMSELF, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth.” Again, God has every right, as the Sovereign Ruler of His universe, to make such choices. We may very well ask, “Why did God choose Israel to be ‘a people for Himself?’” The next two verses (verses 7-8a) give us the answer, “The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples; but because the LORD loves you.” Simply put, the Lord chose Israel because HE LOVED HER! His choice was NOT based on anything in them (for they were the “least of all peoples”); it was based on His love. And we can also conclude, as we did in His choice of individuals to salvation, that His choice was made “according to the pleasure of His will,” which takes into account His “perfect wisdom and love, and His purpose to glorify His Son.”

We will give one more example of God’s “divine appointments.” In Romans 13:1 we read, “Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and THE AUTHORITIES THAT EXIST ARE APPOINTED BY GOD.” We stated earlier that God is the Sovereign ruler of His universe and here we learn that every “human ruler” has been APPOINTED (i.e. chosen, ordained) BY GOD. God knows that this world needs governing authorities to prevent anarchy and chaos (see verses 2-4) and thus He chooses men to rule throughout the earth. Some may be thinking, “But what about men like Adolf Hitler or Saddam Hussein?” Our verse teaches us that ALL AUTHORITIES are appointed by God and this includes men like Adolf Hitler and Saddam Hussein. Daniel 4:17 comes to mind, “In order that the living may know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, gives it to whomsoever he will, and sets over it the lowest of men.” At the time Daniel wrote those words a wicked, immoral man named Nebuchadnezzar was ruling over his kingdom. Why would God choose him to rule? Ah, because God’s people Israel were living in sin and rebellion against God and thus God raised up Nebuchadnezzar to punish them for their wicked ways. Does this mean that God doesn’t care about the personal lives of wicked rulers? Of course He does, and as you read on in Daniel chapter 4 you will see that God eventually punished Nebuchadnezzar for his sins. You will also see that by God’s amazing grace this led to his conversion which in turn led Nebuchadnezzar to proclaim the following words to all his royal subjects: “Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, all of whose works are truth, and His ways justice. And those who walk in pride He is able to put down.” Thus, he was not only chosen by God to rule; he was also chosen by God to salvation! (324.3) (DO)