Knowing the God of Peripety, by Mike Moore

I learned a new word this week. Peripety: A sudden or unexpected reversal of circumstances or
situations.
God is the Master of peripety. He can take a situation and turn it upside down in ways that we would
never guess or believe would ever happen. Abraham and Sarah were old and barren one day and expecting a child the next day. Joseph went to bed in an Egyptian prison one night and was the Egyptian prime minister the
next day. The Red Sea was uncrossable one minute and a pathway to freedom the next. Jesus suffered a painful, demeaning, horrible death and three days later arose to throw out all of Satan’s plans with a complete reversal of what Satan thought he had accomplished.
Peripeties. The bible is full of them. God’s plans overrode the best laid plans of man and Satan.
God was in control and is still in control. He lets some of man’s plans run out a bit of slack in the rope,
but He’s always there to pull the rope tight and change the outcome to the way He sees fit.
Do we still see peripeties today? Sure, we do. In politics, there are many schemes and proposals that
are put in place only to end up completely doing the exact opposite that was intended or predicted to
do.
Bible prophesy describes many upcoming events that will seem to be a good thing to our culture (one
world government, all religions unified, etc.) that will only bring turmoil, hardship and destruction. But
God will bring about the ultimate peripety when Christ returns and turns it all around and sets up His
kingdom on earth.
We see many situations in our own lives that appear hopeless to us.  There is no possible outcome that
we see as a positive end to the situation. But God sees the world from a different view. He truly is the
master of peripety. That is our hope. A confidence in our God that He can turn any situation on its head.
He knows what is best, and as we align ourselves with Him (not the other way around) ,we will participate
in His kingdom. Both here on earth and in future glory.